Byram Hills Suffers First Loss of Season Against Pelham

ARMONK, N.Y. – Byram Hills had only allowed eight points to opponents all season and came into Sunday's matchup against Pelham with momentum after a shutout win over Westlake last week. The Pelicans rushing assault proved to be too much for the Bobcats Sunday afternoon.

Pelham (3-1) made the most of senior running back Ke'Shaun Stallworth's three touchdowns to defeat Byram Hills, 27-13. The Bobcats (3-1) suffered a bit of a setback with regard to playoff positioning, but head coach John Naughton said the team can only worry about itself.

"We take things one day at a time here," Naughton said. "The only thing we can control is what we do, so we're going to go out and try to win on Thursday,” in the upcoming game against Lakeland. “To try to think about everything else at this point would be crazy."

Pelham erased a 10-0 deficit in the second quarter thanks to a relentless rushing attack. Aakiel Anthony made several cutbacks, burst through the defense and ran more than 60 yards to the end zone late in the second quarter to pull Pelham within three.

From there, Stallworth took control. The senior scored on a one yard run with 51 seconds left in the second quarter to give Pelham a 14-10 lead that the Pelicans would never relinquish. He scored again with 5:51 remaining in the third.

But Stallworth's most highlight-worthy play came with 2:50 remaining in the third quarter. He got the ball on a pitch to the right and after at least one defender got a hand on him in the backfield, Stallworth reversed field and burst up the left side of the field for a 53-yard touchdown.

Byram Hills tried to mount a comeback late in the fourth quarter but turned the ball over inside the red zone with 1:12 remaining.

Despite the loss, Naughton said his team is aware of the tough road ahead.

"The more we go into the season, the schedule gets harder," Naughton said. "We're going to focus on getting better and correcting mistakes that happened today and work on breaking through next week."

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Contact Andrew Meola at ameola@mainstreetconnect.us.

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