The Knoxville Football Squad hung with Atlantic for a while, but in the end, the Panthers could not keep up with the run heavy and bigger Trojans and fell 56-21 on Friday in high school football heard live on 95.3 KNIA. The Panthers quickly got down 14-0 in the first five minutes of play when Atlantic drove the field and scored. But the Panthers forced a turnover and Jackson Clarke returned a fumble 60 yards to the Trojan ten, when Eli Fuller on the very next play caught a ten yard pass from Brenden Woolsey to pull within seven. But the Panthers were unable to get any closer the rest of the way at Atlantic kept Knoxville at arm’s length most of the game. Coach Matt Dunkin told KNIA/KRLS Sports another slow start by his team cost them at the beginning, but he was happy to see their way through early game adversity.

Dunkin: “Just starting slow again. A couple of big plays and we did a good job of working through that when they faced adversity. We’ll watch film and it’ll come down to too many big plays.”

Big plays were the order of the night as Atlantic scored on an 87 yard run in the first half, a 66 yard run to set up another touchdown and broke the game open on two 61 yard scores in the 3rd quarter. Knoxville’s offense never got on track, consistently gaining 217 yards to Atlantic’s 570. Knoxville is now 3-2 on the season and starts Class 3A District six 0-1. After two weeks on the road, the Panthers return home for homecoming next week and see #9 Nevada.