One Colonel after another seemed to be leaving the field Friday night.

In Missouri Military Academy’s home opener against Paris, the Colonels lost 36-0 and 11 players to injury. The already small MMA roster was depleted, making the focus for next week getting healthy.

Head coach Robert Rosenbaum said several skill players like quarterback Gabriel Canonico and Michael Moss had to leave early, forcibly changing MMA’s offense and making survival the priority.

“The injury bug jumped up and got us last night,” Rosenbaum said. “When you’re playing freshmen and sophomores against a team that has 10 seniors on it, you’re putting children out against some grown men sometimes. I got to commend them boys for going out there and doing it because that’s part of the game and that’s part of the growing and learning process.”

Canonico sustained a helmet to his throwing arm that leaves his status for this week uncertain, but Moss will definitely be out 6-8 weeks with a torn ligament in his hand. Another player has to go through concussion protocol before he can return, making last night and the near future “a puzzle game,” Rosenbaum said.

Despite all of the negative news MMA received Friday about injuries and falling behind 36-0 at halftime, Rosenbaum said there were positive steps in the inexperienced Colonels’ development as football players.

“We took a big step forward,” Rosenbaum said. “We really played a lot more physical. The defense really had a good game as far as I was concerned because they learned to play in the scheme better.”

The Colonels’ defense was making stops on defense and forced Paris into some third-and-long situations, Rosenbaum said, but had “mental breakdowns” in the secondary that led to costly gains. Paris quarterback Leo Bounds found Walter Rucker for a 21-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter and then hit Colton Kendrick for a 26-yard score in the second quarter to ultimately allow 255 yards on defense.

Rosenbaum said MMA eventually resorted to using a double-tight offense due to the lack of skill players available – boiling down to a few possible plays – and also because of running back’s Daniel Johnson’s time at quarterback. Since the Colonels didn’t want to throw their green junior varsity quarterback in the game and risk him getting hurt too, the more built Johnson helped the team out in a big way.

“He’s played quarterback in practice a few times like that,” Rosenbaum said. “He’s one of my bigger, more physical guys. Mainly, putting him there last night was to protect my JV quarterback because he’s a freshman, he’s a little guy and it wouldn’t have gone well.

“I’m really proud of Johnson – his effort, him being a complete team player and stepping up and taking the leadership role whenever we were needing it.”

Missouri Military Academy's  Friday home game against Knob Noster has been canceled. The next scheduled game for the Colonels (0-2) is  Sept. 15  at home against Agape (0-2).