PORTAGEVILLE, Mo. - It was not the season opener Kennett football was hoping for to start the 2024 season.

The team faced off against Portageville and allowed the bulldogs to score 28 points, while only responding with 6 points of their own. Head coach Andrew Webster said this game was not reflective of the potential Kennett football has this season.

“If you start looking at this team, we only have 13 returning lettermen,” Webster said. “Anytime you look at those numbers, you realize we are going to make mistakes. To be frankly honest, that’s not acceptable for Kennett football. We’re not supposed to make those mistakes and my boys know that.”

Turnovers and penalties practically gave the game away to the Bulldogs. This week, Webster and his coaching staff worked on all the mistakes from week one to prevent a repeat against Paragould in week two.

Despite the loss, there were some highlights from last week's game.

Antonio Hollywood, a freshman running back, scored the first touchdown for the Indians. He rushed for 51 yards on only 4 attempts.

Along with Hollywood, Nick Fonda completed 45 rushing yards. Their running game stood out last week and could help them in the coming games.

Defensively, Austin Gattis and Logan Decker had a combined 23 tackles. Webster will rely on these two once more to protect their home turf against Paragould in week two.

“You can look at it in two ways,” Webster said. “I was proud of some of the stuff we did. I am hopeful we’ll fix our turnovers. We had too many turnovers and made silly mistakes. We worked so hard on that in practice this week. I’m looking forward to our guys getting out there and fixing those mistakes we had last week.”

Paragould High School, out of Paragould, Ar., will be an out-of-state competitor for Kennett, however it will be their first home game of the season.

The Rams are coming off a 28-7 win over Manila from their first week. After only winning two games in 2023, Paragould is off to a hot start and looks to start a winning streak against Kennett.

Webster has a strategy to face Paragould, and it comes down to preventing turnovers and playing hard football.

“They have some giant guys and they are a big school,” Webster said. “When you play a team that runs their style of offense, you have to be willing to be incredibly nasty. You got to be willing to put your body on the line, you got to be willing to do those things to have any type of success. I think our boys are, and we pushed them to do that. I think they realize the level of competitiveness that goes with football is going to be magnified this week with the style of play [Paragould] has.”

The Indians home opener will be at Kennett High School with kick off at 7 p.m.

There will also be a ceremony at halftime to recognize Kennett Sports Hall of Fame inductees.