ORANGE, Mass. -- Drury football coach Al Marceau knew his young team would face a challenge in Friday's season opener at Mahar.
He did not expect a 44-0 loss at the hands of the Senators.
But he also did not think the final score was truly representative of the performance he watched from his Blue Devils.
"Honestly, it was a lot of big plays," Marceau said. "They had three big runs. On all three of those runs, we missed two tackles in the backfield.
"You wrap up, you take them to the ground, and it's a whole different experience."
Instead, Mahar got runs of 55 yards and 84 yards from Danny Quigley and Morgan Softic, respectively, and an 85- TD pass on third-and-32 from Softic to Jayden Delgado.
Mahar also got a goalline stand in the third quarter to wipe out Drury's best offensive possession and only real chance to score on the night.
In short, the Blue Devils (0-1) will have a lot to work on during their bye week before they host Lee on Sept. 21.
Friday's game started innocuously enough, with the Blue Devils holding Mahar to a three-and-out. But a missed conversion on fourth-and-1 gave the Senators the ball at midfield.
Softic completed a 21-yard pass and then ran 37 yards to get the ball to the 1 to set up the game's first touchdown.
Softic's 43-yard punt return after Drury's second possession gave the Senators first-and-goal at the 2, and Delgado scored to make it 16-0.
On Mahar's third possession, a combination of penalties and pass break-ups by the Drury dfense pushed the Sens back to their 15, but Softic hit Delgado deep down the right side on third down, and he raced the rest of the way to make it a three-score game early in the second quarter.
Mahar tacked on two more TDs before half-time, the second the 55-yard scamper by Quigley, and Drury found itself down, 36-0, at the break.
In perhaps the most encouraging sign of the night for Drury fans, the Blue Devils dug deep.
Drury got a 30-yard kickoff return by Zayne Kaley to start the second half.
It then drove from its 40 to the Mahar 1 in a march that consumed most of the third quarter.
Caelen Briggs (68 yards) had five carries during the drive. Hudah Levy had five rushes, and QB Jameson Bayliss had a 12-yard carry to convert a third-and-12 and keep the drive alive.
But after getting first-and-goal at the 5, Drury could pick up just 4 more yards against the Sens, who preserved their shutout with 1 minute, 44 seconds left in the quarter.
Softic's 84-yard run on the first play of the fourth quarter capped the scoring.
Drury, working against Mahar's defense and a running clock, got a 35-yard return from Briggs on the ensuing kickoff and picked up a first down before seeing its night end on a fourth-down sack with time winding down.
Drury was hampered by an inability to get a preseason scrimmage before Friday's opener, which came a week ahead of any other team in the county. And it was further set back by first-half injuries.
"The end of the first half, beginning of the second half, we had guys out there who, literally, are our JV team -- ninth and 10th graders," Marceau said. "I had a 10th grader play almost the whole night, and I think he played the best of anyone on the field.
"It's growing pains. We knew it was going to be like this. When you run into an away game, first week, and you've got a young team, you've got to expect those hiccups. Most of it, we can correct.
"Some of it is, to be honest with you, I kind of put it on them. When we do conditioning, I know what it takes to play football for four quarters. But they have to make a choice to do what we're asking them to do to play football for four quarters."
