MIKE MARSEE

Contributing Writer

MOUNT WASHINGTON — It’s time for Danville to turn the page to the next phase of its season, and the Admirals are ready to do just that.

The Admirals have had their ups and downs in six pre-district games, but the downs are starting to stack up.

Danville will take a four-game losing streak into district play after losing to Bullitt East 50-7 on Friday night, but Coach Mark Peach doesn’t want the Admirals to take much from this loss with them.

“This game’s behind us,” Peach said. “We’ve got to get ready for district play, and everybody’s zero-and-zero.”

Every team Danville (2-4) has played this season has come from a larger school, culminating in a difficult assignment against Bullitt East (5-1), the No. 9-ranked team in Class 6A, the state’s largest class.

“We knew coming in how outstanding they were, and they lived up to those expectations,” Peach said. “I was proud of our guys, just how we hung in there.”

The Admirals answered Bullitt East’s first score but had no more answers for the Chargers, who scored on their first six possessions and seven of eight overall.

Travis Egan passed for three touchdowns and Mason Gauthier rushed for two for Bullitt East, which led 21-7 after one quarter and 35-7 at halftime.

Demauriah Brown, making his first start at quarterback for Danville, scored the Admirals’ only touchdown and accounted for almost all of their 157 yards.

“I thought ‘Mari’ did some great things for us at quarterback,” Peach said.

Peach said the Admirals are ready to put this game and all six games so far this season behind them and turn their focus to the three District 2A-4 games that will determine their playoff seeding.

However, the Admirals could be shorthanded this week for their district opener against Somerset.

Running back-linebacker Jalen Dunn was injured and not in uniform Friday, and linebacker Elijah Kinley left the field on a cart after suffering an apparent leg injury on the final play of the game.

That play also led to a skirmish that resulted in the ejection of three players from Danville and two players from Bullitt East.

Brown became Danville’s third starting quarterback of the season. He had taken snaps in wildcat plays in previous games, but he was the only one who took snaps for the Admirals in this game.

The Admirals were coming off a bye week, and Peach said it was the right time to try Brown at quarterback.

“We thought that was the best chance to try and get better,” Peach said. “With the extra week, we thought we’d go ahead and work him there, and I was really pleased with it.”

Brown completed 10 of 13 passes for 86 yards, and he ran the ball 14 times for 62 yards.

“For his first start, going against a top-10 team in 6A, that is outstanding. I thought he did a lot of good things,” Peach said.

Brown directed a six-play, 64-yard scoring drive on Danville’s first series, and he finished that drive with a 33-yard touchdown run that tied the game at 7-all.

Bullitt East had many more weapons, however. The Chargers ran for 244 yards and threw for 144 and had a whopping 22 first downs.

“We definitely have some weapons in different spots,” said Bullitt East Coach Keegan Kendrick, a 2013 Boyle County graduate. “It makes my job much easier as a (play) caller to think of things to be able to run and them be able to pick it up pretty quickly and execute it.”

Kendrick also said Bullitt East was able to adjust on defense after Danville scored on its first series.

“They were able to go to the sideline and figure out exactly what went wrong. It was a mistake that we made in practice that week, and we reemphasized it and got it fixed and corrected,” he said.

Danville had two long drives from which it came away empty-handed. The Admirals held the ball for more than six minutes and got as far as the Bullitt East 14-yard line late in the second quarter, and they got to the 21 on a five-minute-plus drive at the start of the second half, but they turned the ball over on downs on both occasions.

“If we could have gotten another score or two there, that certainly would’ve helped,” Peach said.

The Admirals did cut down on the turnovers that cost them a win two weeks earlier against Atherton. They lost the ball only once Friday, although Bullitt East turned that turnover into a touchdown.

“We’ve been working on it for two weeks now since our last game, and I thought we did do some better things with ball-handling,” Peach said.

Cwintin Anderson had a game-high four receptions for 24 yards for Danville, and Braidin Baughman and Josh Bixler caught three passes each.

Scoring summary

D 7 0 0 0 — 7

BE 21 14 8 7 — 50

First Quarter

BE — Camron Brogan 30 pass from Travis Egan (Ethan Davis kick), 10:39

D — Demauriah Brown 33 run (Kaleb Wilcher kick), 8:05

BE — Brogan 30 pass from Egan (Davis kick), 6:06

BE — Egan 1 run (Davis kick), 3:33

Second Quarter

BE — Nolan Davenport 20 pass from Egan (kick failed), 11:29

BE — Mason Gauthier 4 run (pass failed), :21

Third Quarter

BE — Gauthier 3 run (Egan run), 4:01

Fourth Quarter

BE — Jacob Clancy 10 run (Davis kick), 5:15