Centralia needed seven more yards for its third straight season-opening win against Mexico.

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Rex Bryson’s pass was batted down by Charlie Fisher to keep the result at a 20-16 defeat for the Panthers. Centralia took a 16-14 lead in the third quarter but then lost the lead with four minutes left in the fourth quarter in a drive made possible from a lost fumble.

Head coach Tyler Forsee said that Week 1 game is now out of the way after the thrilling excitement of having the final play run with one second left on the game clock. Now the Panthers can build themselves up from this.

“I was proud of our kids as they didn’t give up,” Forsee said. “We didn’t play particularly well at certain times. At other times, we played awesome.”

Centralia was energized in the third quarter after needing just two plays to score a touchdown as Jesse Cabellero ran 44 yards down the sideline and then Rex Bryson ran for a 17-yard touchdown. Mexico’s 14-8 halftime was erased almost instantly.

However, Centralia’s momentum was erased just about as instantly in the fourth quarter after penalties and the Panthers’ defense forced Mexico out of scoring range. The Bulldogs punted to give Centralia the ball back, but then the Panthers fumbled the ball to set up Mexico’s winning touchdown drive from 21 yards out.

“We gave them the ball back after we got a big stop,” Forsee said. “You’re not going to win games that way.”

Forsee admitted that he has to improve on some of his offensive playcalling for the next game. Early on, Centralia was difficult to stop on a 76-yard drive that ate up seven minutes to open the game.

Bryson ran in a five-yard touchdown as part of his 95 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries. Jesse Caballero finished with 72 yards on eight carries, and Logan Rosenfelder caught two passes for 65 yards on trick plays that each earned first downs. Primarily, Centralia didn’t use a traditional quarterback system and relied on creative ways to use his backfield.

“It was instantly let’s get after it and get going and have football players instead of quarterbacks,” Forsee said. “That was my reason for it. (Bryson) took the most (attempts) because he is at that fullback position, but I’ve got a lot of guys I can get the ball to so I’m pretty fortunate.”

Centralia has rival Hallsville (0-1) for its home opener at 7 p.m. Friday following Hallsville’s 42-40 overtime loss last Friday at home against Palmyra.

“We need to work on fundamentals,” Forsee said. “We need to tackle, we need to block better and we need to run the football better. We don’t need to rescript a whole bunch of stuff.”