Jonah Masterson’s impressive Porters Chapel debut helped make John Weaver a winner in his.

Masterson, a freshman making his first varsity start, threw three touchdown passes and ran in another score to lead the Eagles to a 38-0 rout of Tallulah Academy in the season-opener Friday night.

Jake Boyd caught one of the touchdown passes and ran in another score, and PCA scored four touchdowns in a six-minute span in the first half to blow the game open.

“During the week Coach Weaver didn’t want us to worry about Tallulah. They had all their signs up and when we saw those he told us to smash them in the mouth. And we did,” said Masterson, who completed 11 of 20 passes for 148 yards and the three TDs.

Weaver spent the past two seasons at Tallulah before taking the job as PCA’s head coach in the spring. His former players and supporters offered plenty of reminders of the past.

The Trojans ran onto the field through a paper sign reading “Count on us,” an allusion to last year’s team slogan “Count on me,” which Weaver touted. Another sign along the fence read, “Weavin’ through PCA.”

After the game, Weaver hugged several Tallulah players and tried to downplay any bitterness between himself and the Trojan faithful.

“I told the guys all week that I didn’t want to hype this game as anything but our first game,” Weaver said. “Is it special? Yes. It’s special because it’s the first one and we’re 1-0.”

Tallulah opened the game with a promising 13-play drive that bogged down at the PCA 36. Then, very quickly, things fell apart for the Trojans.

Masterson threw an interception on PCA’s first drive that Tallulah’s Todd Harrell fumbled back to the Eagles on the return. PCA drove down the field and took the lead on Masterson’s 13-yard touchdown pass to Montana McDaniel with one second left in the first quarter.

On Tallulah’s next play from scrimmage, Stephen Purvis buried Tallulah quarterback Hunter Windham with a blindside hit in the end zone. Windham fumbled the ball, which was recovered by Peter Harris for another touchdown.

Masterson added another touchdown, a 35-yarder to Chris Marshall, with 9:37 left in the half to put PCA ahead 20-0. Three minutes later Jake Boyd scored on a 12-yard run — after he gave the Eagles the ball with an interception — for PCA’s fourth touchdown in six minutes.

“I really couldn’t tell you” what happened, Tallulah running back Cody Landrem said. “We’ve been practicing, putting it together … it was first-game jitters.”

Landrem finished with 65 rushing yards on 21 carries for Tallulah, while Windham was 7-of-13 passing for 85 yards.

Boyd caught a touchdown pass and ran for another score to go along with his interception. Chris Marshall caught three passes for 70 yards and one touchdown, while McDaniel caught four passes for 59 yards and a touchdown.