By ALEX SPONSELLER The Pilgrim football team traveled to Barrington last Friday night and was topped 41-12 to drop to 0-2 this season.

The young Pats struggled to stop the Eagle rushing attack throughout the contest which exploded on the ground for scores in all four quarters. After falling behind 7-0 in the first, Pilgrim would respond when quarterback Connor Widmer connected with Smith for a touchdown to make it 7-6.

The momentum was short lived, though, as the Eagles cruised the rest of the way. Danny Halliwell would add a rushing touchdown in the fourth for Pilgrim.

“We tried a new defense this week, mainly just trying to keep fewer linemen on the field since we’re low depth-wise. We thought it would be a good idea to use two lineman and an end so that way we wouldn’t get our offense tired, but the size difference between the schools and players is ultimately what helped them and hurt us,” said Pilgrim Head Coach Blake Simpson.

The offense struggled throughout the contest as well with only two scores and multiple turnovers, including an interception that was returned deep into its own territory that set up an eventual Barrington touchdown.

“We’ve just got to do the little things right. We’re not adding anything new into our offense right now, we’re just trying to hammer home our basics and our core game packages. We’re so young, so we’re just looking to build toward the fall right now with only one senior starter on offense,” said Simpson, who was happy with the team’s compete despite the defeat. “I’m not upset at the way we played, every kid left it out there tonight. The field position, we try to eliminate big returns and they caught us off guard and things went their way. It just wasn’t our night tonight.”

With such a young roster, the Pats have faced an uphill battle in the early going, especially after making the jump up to Division II. Simpson is looking for the team to respond down the stretch and gain some experience prior to next fall, which will likely be similar to the standard season.

“Every game this spring is huge for our development, especially for our young guys. For some of those kids that have been around the program the last two years, they’ve been so used to winning so this has been hard for them to take,” said Simpson. “They’re used to the winning mentality and the easy wins on Friday nights. Now, we’re in Division II, we're not big depth-wise at any position. We’re taking our licks and just have to get better every week.”