In the second half Friday, St. Aloysius football coach Bubba Nettles said he looked around and reminded his team that it didn’t have a senior on the field.

The Flashes finished that drive with a touchdown that offered a glimmer of hope for the future.

It did not, however, do anything to change the present.

Bryce Warriner threw two touchdown passes and ran for a third, and Rhett Grey scored two rushing touchdowns as Tri-County Academy defeated St. Al 40-6.

St. Al’s only touchdown came on a 19-yard pass from Carson Smith to eighth-grader Evan Mallard in the third quarter.

“We came out in the second half and executed well. We didn’t have a single senior on the field in the second half and we were able to drive down the field on them. We are building the future here,” Nettles said. “They’re the greatest kids on the planet and I’m the luckiest coach to be able to coach them every day.”

St. Al (0-4, 0-1 MAIS District 2-4A) had its losing streak extended to 13 games and also dropped its sixth district game in a row. This loss was not unexpected, with the Flashes taking a 22-man roster loaded with underclassmen on the road to play a team that has played in the last two Class 4A championship games, but it still stung.

Warriner opened the scoring with a 2-yard touchdown run, and threw touchdown passes of 27 yards to Hayden Smith and 48 yards to Evan Coleman in the second quarter.

Grey scored on runs of 46 and 4 yards, and Hayden Hunt had a 4-yard TD run as the Rebels built a 33-0 lead at halftime. Grey’s second touchdown closed out their scoring in the third quarter.

“Tri-County came out doing what Tri-County does — executing wonderfully on offense,” Nettles said. “They probably had an opening 10-play drive. We were doing what we could. They punched it in, and then they scored on pretty much every possession.”

St. Al will be back at home next Friday at 7 p.m. to play Clinton Christian for homecoming.