Fort Worth Country Day opened conference play Friday, losing its second consecutive game to Houston’s Kinkaid School, 34-14.

“There wasn’t a moment we were panicking,” FWCD coach Frank Gendusa said. “We knew what was coming after us. We gave it our best shot, we played hard and we just got beat by a better football team.”

The visiting Falcons came out fighting. Kinkaid scored in the first three minutes and went on to score two more times in the first half.

The FWCD defense put a stop to Kinkaid several times but it wasn’t enough. The 109’s Falcons trailed 20-0 at the end of the half.

“We’re not a good enough football team to turnover to a good team and expect to win,” Gendusa said. “If we didn’t make a couple of mistakes, we would have had a little bit closer score.”

Senior Morgan Pergande and sophomore Mixson Staffel took turns leading the FWCD offense at quarterback. When Staffel was in the game, Pergande played defensive back for the Falcons.

Gendusa said he wants Staffel to have some playing time in case Pergande needs to help the defense or gets injured. He said it was also a test to see how Staffel handles pressure.

Pergande said he learned the team needed to work on its passing game because when FWCD started throwing the ball, it became more effective against Kinkaid.
FWCD knew Kinkaid was going to be good but the quarterback and wide receivers were the toughest challenge, he said.

“It’s not like we underestimated them but we didn’t realize how good they were going to be, unfortunately,” Pergande said.

FWCD entered the second half scoreless, but senior running back A.J. Ximenes scored in the third quarter and freshman Brandon Evans scored in the last few minutes of the game.

“The team stuck with it until the end,” Pergande said. “We didn’t give up and kept playing.”

Kinkaid improves to a 3-1 record while FWCD drops to 2-2. Next week, FWCD travels to Houston to face St. John’s for another conference matchup. The Mavericks are undefeated and hold first place in the conference.