Dealing with some early cramping and limited practice time, Plano East fell to #6 ranked Allen 49-26 in their season opener.

East could not overcome a scoring explosion by the Eagles in the second quarter including big plays by Allen, a 54-yard passing touchdown along with an 80-yard screen pass touchdown at the end of the first half.

QB Dylan Hayden stood out with the Panthers first rushing touchdown of the season along with RB Ismail Mahdi adding a long TD catch of his own.

The Panthers offense also held itself back with penalties that killed big plays and moving drives.

“We got to clean up some of the penalties on offense,” said head coach Joey McCullough. “We got to get a little bit better on tackling. We had some guys that were out for a couple of weeks extended, we got to get them in shape.”

McCullough adds that he was proud of his team for battling in a game against such a strong oppenent.

Looking at the stat sheet the game seemed pretty similar with Allen only having 271 total yards of offense to the Panthers 241.

East out rushed the Eagles 120 to 69 and even had one more first downs then Allen, 9 to 10. The biggest take away is Allen getting almost 19 yards per on passing attempts to the Panthers 6.

East will have a chance to get back on the right track 10/2 against the Wildcats of Lake Highlands.

For the game story, stats and photos, as well as a preview of the Panthers next game, get this week’s edition of the Murphy Monitor.

By Derdrick White. •  [email protected]