Missouri Military Academy skipped the first week of the football season before playing its first varsity game on Friday.

The Colonels lost 66-0 to Fayette (1-1) at home and eventually let its inexperience show, according to head coach Robert Rosenbaum. He said many cadets played their first snaps in a football game on Friday so there will be some growing pains.

“We played a little bit better than I was anticipating for a quarter or so,” Rosenbaum said. “The youth showed up and the inexperience showed up. Once Fayette got rolling, they kept the pressure on.”

Rosenbaum said MMA struggled at the basic rules of football by not tackling and blocking well.

“They had a lot of open-field long runs on us,” Rosenbaum said. “When they got the edge on us, my kids couldn’t put a body on a body and (they) were running through us.”

The offense was shut out, but MMA didn’t have any turnovers. The Colonels didn’t lose any fumbles as Levi Foster had a solid start as the quarterback.

Before playing at Veritas Christian Academy (0-1) at 7 p.m. today, Rosenbaum said MMA has to work through the tough moments.

“We’ve talked about mental toughness,” Rosenbaum said. “Physically, they can withstand some stuff. Mentally, they’ve got to learn to bear down and stay focused and play through adversity.”

John Farley was lost late in the game because of a knee injury after showing some good promise and size as a sophomore.

“The boys seemed to have a good attitude when we were leaving,” Rosenbaum said. “It was an eye-opening experience for them because a lot of them never ever played a down of football let alone high school football.”