RIMERSBURG — There was no moment of silence, no flag at half staff, no black arm bands and nary a mention of the unexpected death last week of Union High School football coach Al Pryor.

At the Golden Knights' home game against Saegertown Friday, the only outward display commemorating Pryor, who took his own life in the early morning of Sept. 4, was shaved into the hair of freshman lineman Tom Criner: "RIP Pryor."

"It was out of my control," said Union coach Dave Louder, who was a close friend of Pryor and served as his assistant coach. "Also, we wanted to focus on the game, not the rough couple of weeks we've had. We all loved the man as a father figure and a mentor, but there's nothing we can do about the situation.

"I tried to express to these kids that it had nothing to do with them," Louder added. "You've got to move on. Life is full of tragedies."

With the practice schedule truncated and the players' thoughts elsewhere for much of the week, Union started poorly and Saegertown took full advantage, building a 21-0 lead in the first quarter on the way to a 44-16 win.

The final score mattered little, though. The act of playing a game was a catharsis for the Golden Knights, said senior quarterback Trent Corle.

"We wanted to play. That was the main thing," Corle said. "Once we got settled down, we wanted to play the game."

Corle hosted many of his teammates for a spaghetti dinner Thursday night. The idea was to get the team to turn the page.

But doing that proved easier said than done as the bigger and faster Panthers rolled to a 38-0 halftime lead.

Saegertown averaged 13 yards per play in the first half.

"They were much faster than they seemed on film," Louder said. "That's the drawback when you play a team you don't know very well: You have no idea."

Louder wanted to put in a new five-man defensive front this week, but the shocking death of Pryor prevented it.

Saegertown coach David McDonald was happy with his team's effort, but subdued because of the situation his opponent faced.

"It's very bittersweet," McDonald said. "When I was shaking those (Union) kids' hands, I was telling them that they have to stick together and keep playing hard. Those kids deserve to have some success. It was obvious their tanks were a little bit emptied."

Saegertown was supposed to receive the kickoff to start the second half, but McDonald deferred to Union.

The Golden Knights marched 70 yards in 11 plays, culminated by a 10-yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback Taylor Smith to Brody Pollock. The two hooked up again for the two-point conversion to cut the lead to 38-8.

It was more symbolic than anything, and a welcome positive.

"I just wanted the first team to score a touchdown," Louder said. "Coach McDonald is a class act. He didn't have to defer."

McDonald said he thought it was just the right thing to do.

Union scored again at the end of the third quarter on a 31-yard touchdown pass from Brody Shick to Tyler Swaboda to cut the Saegertown lead to 38-16.

It was a positive to build on in the weeks ahead, when Louder and his players hope to return to normalcy.

"That's our aim. That's our goal," Louder said. "We expect to put this behind us and become the team we know we can be."

"This season is for (Coach Pryor)," Corle added. "All offseason he said to us we can go 7-3. Well, we're 0-2 and we have some work to do."