The Spartans were unable to parlay their first win of the year -—notched while on the road, against Lakeside — into a second victory last Friday, as the Bainbridge High varsity football team returned home to host Bishop Blanchet and found themselves on the wrong side of a 28-7 matchup.

Bainbridge’s overall season record fell to 1-4 after the loss, the first of three slated consecutive home games — including the highly anticipated homecoming game against O’Dea at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 7.

Against the Braves, Bainbridge fell behind 7-0 in the first quarter, but managed a last second comeback just before the half to even things up 7-all.

The excitement was short-lived, however, as the Spartans found themselves an additional 21 points behind the visitors by the fourth and unable to mount a response. They did keep things from getting worse though, as both teams were scoreless in the final quarter.

The Spartan touchdown was scored by junior Ethan Peloquin, off a 55-yard kick.

Quarterback Gannon Winker managed 206 passing yards, while senior Eric Jung led the rushing efforts (32 yards) and Peloquin was the team’s top receiver (154 yards).

Spartan Head Coach Jeff Rouser said he was disappointed that the team was unable to better capitalize on its suddenly improved standing early in the third quarter.

“I’m not in a good mood,” he said. “We blew it right at the beginning of the second half.

“Our kids were ready to go. [But] when you give them three turnovers in a row, it’s kind of hard to — that killed us. It’s deflating.”

Most of the BHS roster was out of practice all week with the flu, Rouser said, which made any gains possible for the team very minimal.

“We had two starters all week in practice,” the coach said. “It would have been pretty cool if we could have won in that situation.

“When you have nine guys that are gone — I’m not making excuses,” he added. “It is what it is. We don’t make excuses.”

At least three of the Spartans on the field Friday had never before played in a high school game.

BHS is ranked ninth in the Metro League standings. Garfield and Rainier Beach boast the top spot (5-0 overall), followed by Eastside Catholic (4-0) and Ballard (3-2).

O’Dea, Bainbridge’s next scheduled opponent, is in fifth place, with a perfect conference record of 2-0.

Facing down the Fighting Irish, Rouser said, is a tall order and everyone on the team knows it.

“We got a lot of work to do still,” he said. “We’ve had six quarterbacks so far. We’ve had an incredible amount of injuries [and] we have the tough part of our season coming up. We’ve got a lot of dudes that are going to end up coming back, I think. But it’s going to be tough.”

Focusing on the fundamentals was the new order of the day, Rouser said. That, and keeping everyone fit to play for more than a week at a time.

“We just got to get back in there,” he said. “We basically didn’t have a week of practice this week. We got to get back to basics. We got to get ball security.

“We got to keep grinding. We got to keep our heads up.”

With the ultimate goal of revitalizing the program in mind, Rouser said the season has thus far been a mixed bag of successes.

“We’re rebuilding and it takes time,” he said. “But I’m patient.”