For all of the chances that Pallotti had missed against MIAA B Conference rival John Carroll Oct. 7 at Fairland Community Recreation Center, the Panthers still had a chance to win the game in front of their homecoming crowd all the way up until the fourth quarter.

But in the end, too many opportunities came and went, and the Panthers fell, 21-7.

"You've got to take care of the opportunities that are given to you, you've got to capitalize on them and we certainly didn't do that," coach Ben Thompson (Class of '93) said. "It's homecoming week. It's full of distractions and we definitely did not do a good job of putting those distractions aside and focusing on football out in practice. Today was representative of how we practiced (all week)."

Pallotti still may have had the best team at Fairland on Friday night, but it didn't take the field until halftime. That's when the 1989 Panthers — a team that finished 10-0 and won its fifth straight tri-county championship — was honored at the 50-yard line.

The 2011 Panthers (0-2, 2-4), on the other hand, struggled to find their rhythm.

John Carroll (1-2, 3-2) scored on its opening drive on a 17-yard run by Raphael Oduok five minutes into the first quarter, but the Panthers battled back to tie the game on a three-yard pass from left-handed QB Rafi Correa to junior Allen Hall (four catches for 28 yards) three minutes into the second quarter.

The Patriots answered with an 82-yard, nearly seven-minute drive — capped by a 12-yard scramble by quarterback Brandon Lewis — to take a 14-7 haltime lead.

Pallotti's first drive of the second half went nowhere, but the Panthers got the ball back on an interception by Correa inside their own 30-yard line. That drive didn't yield much yardage either, but after the Panthers' defense forced a three-and-out on the ensuing possession, prompting John Carroll to punt from midfield, Pallotti got a golden opportunity.

Travis Harrison blocked John Carroll's punt attempt, and senior defensive end Michael Ezerike collected the ball and rumbled all the away to the John Carroll 15-yard line. But three-plays later, Pallotti had only gained one yard. Harrison's 31-yard field goal attempt came up short, and the Panthers came away empty handed.

"We just didn't execute, that was it," Correa said. "It was all around disappointing really. It was a bad week of practice, and practice was like how we played.

"We know we have a good team, we just have to want it a little more. That's it, it's all heart."

If that missed scoring opportunity didn't clinch the loss for the Panthers, the seven-yard touchdown run by John Carroll junior Montell Martin with 3:34 left in the game certainly did.

"We have a very young team but tonight they played and fought through the adversity and persevered and came out with a win," John Carroll coach Rich Stichel said. "Our team is in very good shape and I think we wore them down in the second half … we do a lot of conditioning and we don't have many guys but they all play and they're well conditioned gentlemen, I think that was the difference."

In the first half, Pallotti's leading rusher, senior A.J. Bright, had accounted for almost all of his team's offense, gaining 51 yards on seven rushes and catching a ten-yard pass from Correa (6/14, 24 yards, TD).

But in the second half, John Carroll keyed in on Bright, and the Panthers didn't have a Plan B. Bright netted -9 yards on four carries, and the Panthers lost 10 more yards on a pair of botched handoffs between Correa and Bright.

"They adjusted to the overload on the heavy set and took away A.J. It opened up the passing game and we threw the ball a little bit, it's just that we've got to get better protection up front," Thompson said.

Julian Mealy, who had a 16-yard run and caught a 15-yard pass in the second half, was one of the few bright spots for the Panthers over the final 24 minutes.

Pallotti, which is scheduled to play at St. Marys next Friday at 7 p.m., was coming off of a 27-20 loss to Archbishop Curley, one of the favorites in the 'B' Conference.

"Thats part of why this is disheartening is that Curley and (Annapolis Area Christian School) are probably the two best teams we're going to face, and last Friday we gave Curley all they could handle here on our home field. So we felt pretty good about coming out here against John Carroll for homecoming, and we'd be ready to go, but for a homecoming game I've never seen a team as flat as this," Thompson said. "The potential is there, just trying to keep it together seems to be difficult."

JC (1-2, 3-2) 7 7 0 7 — 21

Pa (0-2, 2-4) 0 7 0 0 — 7

First quarter

JC: Oduok 17 run (Gambrell kick), 6:43.

Second quarter

Pa: Hall 3 pass from Correa (Harrison kick), 8:59.

JC: Lewis 12 run (Gambrell kick), 2:04.

Fourth quarter

JC: Martin 7 run (Gambrell kick), 3:34.