Playing with just 17 players on its roster because of injuries, the Red Storm struggled to keep up with the Beekmantown Eagles, who scored five touchdowns in the first half, and suffered a 40-6 home defeat.

While the loss dropped Saranac Lake’s overall record to 1-6 this season, Red Storm head coach Eric Bennett said his team showed a tremendous amount of heart on Saturday.

“What I love is that they are the same kids week in and week out,” he said. “They show up, they battle and they never implode. They’re great character kids and I’m sorry we couldn’t get more for them out of the season.”

After giving up a 37-0 lead before halftime, Saranac Lake scored its first touchdown of the game in the third quarter when senior Owen Muncil hauled in a pass from fellow senior Evan Willett, but that was all the scoring the Red Storm could muster the rest of the way. Beekmantown tacked on the game’s final score with a 32-yard field goal from Patrick Hagadorn in the fourth quarter.

Saranac Lake’s Zack Goetz (6) riffles off a pass with Beekmantown defenders closing in on him during Saturday’s game at the Wilson-Raymond Field. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

The Eagles used a balanced attack to shut down Saranac Lake. Five players combined to carry the ball 22 times while piling up 196 rushing yards and three scores. Beekmantown’s senior quarterback Nathan Parliament completed seven of his 12 pass attempts for 145 yards and one touchdown.

Eagles head coach Scott Aguglia said when his team runs a perfectly balanced offense, things tend to go well.

“That’s what we tried to do and we were able to stick to that today and it worked out,” he said.

After Sweenor returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown, the Red Storm started the game with the ball at their own 20-yard line. While trailing by seven, Saranac Lake marched all the way to the Beekmantown 33-yard line before their promising drive was cut short on a turnover on downs.

On the Red Storm’s next possession, their punt attempt was blocked by the Eagles’ Lucas Corrado, giving his team the ball at the Saranac Lake 26. After one play, Sweenor dashed into the endzone, before Parliament extended his team’s lead to 15-0 with a two-point conversion run.

Saranac Lake’s Owen Muncil looks for an open running lane while getting a block from teammate Logan Daunais-Martelle during Saturday’s game at Wilson-Raymond Field. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

After forcing the Red Storm into another three-and-out punt, Beekmantown’s Parker Broughton took his first half of the evening 71 yards for the score.

The Eagles extended the lead in the second quarter when Parliament attempted to make a pass to Patrick Hagadorn, but the ball deflected and fell right into the hands of Peyton Viau for the score.

“The kids did a great job in executing,” Aguglia said. “Things just went our way in the first half.”

Following a Parliament run for two points, the Eagles led 30-0 and Beekmantown capped off the big first half, with a 14-yard run from Christopher Frennier. After Hagadorn converted on his third extra-point kick of the game, the Eagles led 37-0 at halftime.

While trailing big in the third quarter, Saranac Lake finally had a play go its way when the Eagles fumbled near midfield on their opening possession of the second half.

Saranac Lake’s Logan Daunais-Martelle runs with the ball during Saturday’s game against Beekmantown at the Wilson-Raymond Field. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

With the ball back in the Red Storm’s possession, junior quarterback Zack Goetz — who wound up as Saranac Lake’s leading rusher with 71 yards on 10 carries — drove his team downfield with big-time runs to keep the drive alive. Bennett said some of Goetz’s runs were designed — but others were not.

“Some were runs where a heady kid like him says, ‘Hey you know what, if I can keep it. Let me do that.’ That’s what we did and he ripped off a few of them,” he said.

After getting his team all the way to Beekmantown’s 24-yard line, a short gain followed by a loss of yards and incompletion nearly stalled Saranac Lake’s drive on fourth down.

With the ball at the Eagles’ 23 and 7 yards to go for the first down, Bennett called a timeout, before calling a play from his bag of tricks.

“To have a little fun this year, during camp this week, we put a little trick play in this week called a dazzle,” Bennett said.

On the snap, Goetz tossed the ball back to Willett, who cut toward the Red Storm’s sideline before launching a 23-yard pass to a wide-open Muncil in the back of the endzone.

“It dazzled,” Bennett said with a smile. “We were happy with that and it’s nice to get points on the board.”

The Red Storm failed to convert on the two-point conversion. While the team came away, with some defensive stops — including a sack from senior Noah Jetwtraw — to hold Beekmantown to just three points in the half, Saranac Lake was unable to score again, dropping its fifth straight game.

Despite not producing much on the scoreboard, the Red Storm had a solid performance running the ball. The team finished the game with 178 on 46 attempts.

Senior Logan Daunais-Martelle finished with 55 yards on 15 carries for Saranac Lake. Willett had 31 yards rushing on 12 attempts, while Muncil had 16 yards on six carries and Emerson Sloan ran the ball twice for 5 yards.

Following the contest, the Red Storm will face off against the Peru Nighthawks on the road Friday evening, in arguably one of the team’s toughest tasks this season. The Nighthawks are currently 6-1 this year and have outscored their opponents 241-99 this season.

“We talk all the time about how in life, you have to do hard things,” Bennett said. “This is a hard thing right now, but the character of our team is to push forward, never quit and to keep battling.”

Friday’s contest at Peru High School is slated to start at 7:30 p.m.

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Beekmantown 40, Saranac Lake 6

Eagles 22 15 0 3 — 40

Red Storm 0 0 6 0 — 6

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Scoring

First Quarter

B — Sweenor 72 Kickoff return (Hagadorn kick), 00:13

B — Sweenor 26 run (Parliament run), 6:51

B — Broughton 71 run (Hagadorn kick), 8:55

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Second Quarter

B — Viau 12 pass from Parliament (Parliament run), 3:05

B — Frennier 14 run (Hagadorn kick), 7:37

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Third Quarter

SL — Muncil 23 pass from Willett (Pass failed), 8:26

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Fourth Quarter

B — Hagadorn 32 field goal, 3:36

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Individual Statistics

RUSHING

B — Broughton 6-81, TD; Sweenor 5-35, TD; Bibeau 4-42; Parliament 4-18; Frennier 3-20, TD. Totals: 22-196, 3 TDs.

SL — Willett 12-31; Daunais-Martelle 15-55; Goetz 10-71; Muncil 6-16; Sloan 2-5; Nicholas 1-0. Totals: 46-178.

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PASSING

B — Parliament 7-12-0-145, TD; Sand 0-2-0-0. Totals: 7-14-0-145 TD.

SL — Goetz 1-9-1-8; Willett 1-1-0-23, TD. Totals: 2-10-1-31, TD.

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RECEIVING

B — Hagadorn 2-64; Sand 2-62; Viau 1-12, TD; Willette 1-4; LaPier 1-3. Totals: 7-145, TD.

SL — Muncil 1-23, TD; Willett 1-8. Totals: 2-31, TD.

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INTERCEPTIONS

B — Hagadorn.