The Fellowes Falcons struggled back Friday from a disastrous opening quarter when they gave up three touchdowns, to hold their own against the Renfrew Raiders for the rest of their home game.

Despite coming out on the wrong end of a 42-12 score, the Falcons did keep the Raiders to a single touchdown for the last three quarters of the game, while scoring two of their own.

Offensive coach Greg Meighen said he and the rest of the coaching staff are pleased with how the offense rose to the occasion and faced adversity after their shaky start.

“We’re very proud of our offense today,” he said. “They came back after that terrible first quarter, and we got some points on them.”

The defence played half decent, Meighen said, and shook off the early setbacks to hold back Renfrew.

“Things can only get better, and they will,” he said.

RCI took advantage of a series of Fellowes errors and turn overs, including three fumbles and a blocked kick, to leap ahead 28-0 in the first quarter.

Matt Murdock ran 20 yards to score the first touchdown, with quarterback Cooper Brown getting the convert; Brown would also score a touchdown on a two-yard quarterback sneak and boost the score with a second convert.

Conner Jamieson scored two back-to-back touchdowns after receiving a 20-yard pass from Brown, who would then follow up with converts.

The Falcons rose to the challenge in the second quarter, as Ryan Siegal ran across the goal line after receiving a 10-yard pass from Bradley Lapierre, making it 28-6 after the convert attempt failed.

Murdock responded for Renfrew with a 20 yard run for the touchdown, with Brown scoring another convert to bring the score to 35-6.

The third quarter was ‘credit to the defence’ as neither side was able to score.

An exciting 65-yard touchdown run by Falcon Tyler Thorne marked the fourth quarter, narrowing the score to 35-12.

Renfrew’s Adam Martin moved the ball one yard to earn the last touchdown of the game, as Brown delivered his sixth convert to round out the final score to 42-12.

Stephen Uhler is a Daily Observer multimedia journalist

stephen.uhler@sunmedia.ca