PEABODY – Altoona-Midway High School played its third consecutive road game here Thursday night, and the Jets were defeated by a young-but-talented team from Peabody-Burns 64-19. The game against the host Warriors was moved up a day to a shortage of officials being available. Altoona-Midway, now 0-6 on the season, will finally return home this Friday for the first time in nearly an entire month.
The Jet, who last played at home on Sept. 15, will host Southern Coffey County on Friday, Oct. 13. Kickoff for the game will be 7 p.m. at Frank Kennedy Field. It will also be Homecoming for AMHS. Peabody-Burns, after dropping its first two contests on the season, has now rattled off four straight wins.
The young Warriors lineup includes eight freshmen, a sophomore, and two juniors.
Altoona-Midway hung tough for the first quarter of action and trailed just 13-6. But the road-weary Jets could not maintain that level of play and the Warriors pulled away to lead 37-19 at halftime and 57-19 after three quarters. Another Peabody score in the fourth period prompted the game to be called due to the mercy rule.
“We played a decent first quarter,” said AMHS head coach Randy Almond. “Our defense did a little better against the run this week, but they picked us apart with their passing attack. They have a lot of speed.”
Almond pointed out another positive was the return of senior two-way starter Jacob Meigs, who had missed the previous two games and part of a another due to a knee injury.
“It was good to have Jacob back and healthy,” Almond said. “He had a good night on defense with 15 unassisted and three assisted tackles.” Blaine Collins, William Stackhouse and Kieran Foster were next on the defensive stat charts, as each player was in on six tackles. Joey Lamendola and Lane Poeverlein each had five tackles, with Lamendola also coming up with an interception. Kage Beck and Tyler Peyton registered four tackles apiece and Taj O’Connor had three. Peyton, a junior, is a new addition to the squad and made his debut with the Jets this week.
Offensively, Foster first two touchdown passes, 15-yard toss to Collins and a 35-yard strike to
Stackhouse. Collins also grabbed a pass from Foster for a PAT, while Stackhouse added a 40-yard TD scamper on the ground. Stackhouse racked up 103 yards rushing on eight carries, while Meigs and Foster garnered 24 and 16 yards, respectively. “We still struggle with blocking, and if you don’t block it makes it very difficult to run your offense,” Almond noted. “We will continue to work hard in practice to improve in all areas.”