Sports writer
The Peabody-Burns High School football suffered a loss Friday in the first game of the season.
Playing at home, the Warriors were defeated by Ell-Saline 48-6.
The team will travel Friday to Inman for its next competition.
Ell-Saline had the ball on offense first and scored on a 74-yard drive. The conversion play was broken up by Derek Price, but Ell-Saline took the early lead 6-0.
The first two of three first-quarter Warrior possessions ended with punts by Daniel Brassfield. The third ended on a fourth-and-18 Jacob Simmonds scramble.
The Cardinals scored again late in the first and were successful on the two-point conversion. The score at the end of the first quarter was 14-0.
The Warrior air game had some success in the first half with completions made to Brandon Pickens and Price, but the Warriors could not find the end zone.
Ell-Saline scored twice in the second quarter. The third score of the game was a two-yard pass into the end zone.
Another short pass for the conversion put the score at 22-0.
The fourth Cardinal score came with just two seconds left in the half on a 35-yard run. The conversion pass was intercepted by Simmonds but the Warriors were down 28-0 at the half.
Warrior defensive stops were made in the first half by Price, Simmonds, Henry Hammann, Elliott Spechtenhauser, Chris Brooks, Isaac Hilliard, Trevor Foth, Brassfield, Abe Eldridge, and Tyler Slater.
The next Cardinal score of the game was set up by the Warriors turning over the ball over on downs at their own six-yard line.
Ell-Saline went up 34-0 with less than six minutes left to play in the third period.
A heavy blanket of fog rolled in during the third quarter and remained until the end of the contest. The Warrior offense struggled on the ground and in the air in the second half.
The Cardinal offense however put up two more scores in the half to bring their total to 48.
The Warrior offense did mange to spoil the Cardinal shutout bid with a special teams score late in the fourth.
Caleb Hilliard blocked a Cardinal punt and grabbed the ball and ran it in for the touchdown.
Simmonds was 9-33 in the passing game for 113 yards. He also rushed seven times for 15 yards.
Storm Pickens had one rushing attempt for nine yards, and Brassfield had two for seven.
Brandon Pickens caught eight passes for 98 yards, and Caleb Hilliard had one for 21.
Brassfield had six punts for a toal of 169 yards.
On the defensive side Spechtenhauser and Simmonds had seven tackles, while Slater and Eldridge each had four.
Price and Brooks each recorded 3.5, Hamman three, Isaac Hilliard two, and Brassfield, Sean Jones, Brandon Pickens, and Spencer Moffett, 1.5.
Joe Lopez, Clint Jones, Foth, and Wingert each had one, while Caleb Hilliard and Andrew Sheffler each chipped in with .5.