As the crowd gathered in Burtonsville on a chilly Friday night, the Paint Branch Panthers got ready to face off against the 3-6 Gaithersburg Trojans. While the Panthers are having a season almost identical to their strong 2013 campaign, the Trojans are struggling.

However, despite their struggles on the year, the Trojans played strong on this night and took down the Panthers 29-28.

The visiting Trojans kicked off to start the game, and senior Ryan Stango took it back to the 50-yard line. The Panther offense took the field, hoping to set the tone for a dominant game, but three plays into the drive, senior quarterback Danon Davis-Cray threw a tipped pass interception that the Trojans took all the way back to the PB 2-yard line. The rough start for the Panthers culminated with a Trojan touchdown, making the score 7-0 only six minutes into the game.

The Panthers didn’t wait long to strike back and tie the score. Davis Cray shook off his interception, drove the Panthers down the field, and finished the drive by connecting with sophomore JD Guerrero to make the score 7-7. The teams traded possessions before Stango added a touchdown for the Panthers to make it 14-7 after one quarter.

In the second quarter, Davis-Cray continued to be haunted by interceptions, one of which the Trojans capitalized on to score on a 7-yard rush to tie the game 14-14. Fighting to gain a lead before the half, the Panthers willed themselves to score a touchdown, and Davis Cray connected with Guerrero. Though the Panthers struggled a bit in the first half, they hoped to come out of the locker room strong after the half and add to their lead.

In the second half, though, the Trojans struck first, scoring a touchdown about 5 minutes into the third quarter. This was not how the Panthers wanted to come out and play in the third quarter. However, they were able to take the lead again with yet another connection between Guerrero and Davis-Cray. The third quarter wrapped up with the score of 28-21, PB.

Hoping to keep the Trojans from scoring and tying the game once again, the Panthers fought hard on defense but were unable to keep the Trojans from getting into the end zone. With a quick score at the beginning of the 4th quarter, the Trojans decided to go big. Despite the fact that 11 minutes remained in the game, they decided to go for the lead with a 2-point conversion. The Trojans, unfortunately for the Panthers, converted the try and took the lead 29-28.

With the Trojans on top and plenty of time left, the Panthers looked to put some points on the board. Unfortunately, Davis-Cray suffered an injury, so the team turned to junior Armani Ceballos. Despite their best efforts, the Panthers could not overtake the Trojans.

The Panthers loss was not the way they hoped to finish the regular season, but they will look to bounce back this week in the first round of the state playoffs against #2 seed Mergenthaler Vocational Tech School in Baltimore on Friday, November 14th at 7 p.m.