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The Franklin County Rebels lost to the South Pittsburg Pirates 28-14 at home Friday for their second loss of the season.

The Pirates scored the first 21 points of the contest with the Rebels not being able to make up much ground the rest of the way before taking a loss.

Franklin County head football coach Tracy Hayworth said that it was a poor performance overall for his team.

“We didn’t execute. We didn’t play very well on either side of the ball,” he said. “There’s a lot to work on. Right now, there’s too many to name. We’ve just got to get focused, go back to the drawing board and try to get this team back together.”

The Rebels punted the ball on their opening possession with the Pirates then putting together a 70-yard touchdown drive to take a 7-0 lead with 4:36 left in the first quarter.

Following another punt from the Rebels, the Pirates added another touchdown to their early lead as a long scoring pass made it a 14-0 game with about two minutes remaining in the opening period.

The teams traded a few punts back and forth before another touchdown drive by the Pirates brought the deficit up to 21-0 with 4:29 left in the first half.

The Rebels then put together their first sustained drive as quarterback CJ Seals found a wide-open Eric Jones in the corner of the end zone to conclude a 70-yard possession with a touchdown. The ensuing point-after kick by Loui Arellano put the score at 21-7 with only nine seconds left in the half.

Franklin County trailed 21-7 at halftime.

The Pirates picked up where they left off in the third quarter as they added one more touchdown to their advantage with nine minutes left in the period.

The remainder of the third quarter saw the teams punting the ball back and forth before the Pirates turned the ball over on downs at midfield with 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.

Consecutive unsportsmanlike-conduct penalties by South Pittsburg after the change in possession gave the Rebels the ball inside of the Pirates’ 20-yard line, but they were pushed backward before ultimately failing to convert on fourth down.

After forcing a South Pittsburg punt and then being put back in a punting situation of their own, the Rebels gained some momentum when the returner for the Pirates muffed the kick with Xavier Elliott recovering the ball for Franklin County.

The Rebels then followed up with a 62-yard drive which ended with Kai Baker beating two defenders to haul in a touchdown pass from Seals with 1:44 remaining.

The Rebels went for an onside kick from there, but the Pirates recovered the ball and were able to kneel out the rest of the clock.

With the loss, the Rebels moved to 0-2 on the season.

They will next play Friday at East Hamilton High School. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Eastern.