King’s Fork experienced loss for the first time this season, and host Western Branch dealt it out in crushing fashion, 56-14 on their Friday night homecoming game.

“I thought we prepared well and were ready to go,” Bulldogs head coach Joe Jones said, “and they have a heck of a football team and they kicked our butt.”

Early on, it looked like King’s Fork might be able to be competitive against a Bruins team that routed Lakeland last week 50-0.

The score was 7-7 when the Bulldogs fumbled the ball away at their own 35-yard line. Western Branch scored later off that turnover.

The Bulldogs came right back and drove inside the Bruins’ 10-yard line off a 55-yard run from freshman running back Deshaun Wethington. They were in position to tie the game, but then, junior quarterback Uriah Adams turned the ball over on the next play.

“He had the ball and coughed it up after he’d gained some yards,” Bulldogs assistant coach Vincent Pisani said. “So, that was a promising drive that ended with a fumble.”

“We got some yards,” Jones said, “we just (had) too many turnovers.”

King’s Fork had a total of six turnovers. The Bruins profited immediately off two — one off a 10-yard interception return and the other off a fumble recovery in the end zone. Adams had a total of four fumbles lost and Wethington had one.

The yardage gained was the lone bright spot for the Bulldogs as Wethington piled up 182 yards on 12 carries. The team produced 254 yards of total offense, with only seven of them coming through the air.

The scores for King’s Fork came at each end of the game. Adams ran in a touchdown from two yards out in the first quarter on their first drive of the game and senior quarterback BoManley Lawrence had a five-yard scoring run in the fourth quarter on their last drive of the game.

“We kind of found out early it was going to have to be a track meet and we’d have to keep up with them scoring and we weren’t able to do that,” Jones said. “There’s not much else left to say. We come in Monday and we watch video and we go through our routine and we suck it up and get ready for a big game this week.”

King’s Fork (4-1, 3-1) will host Lakeland (3-2, 2-2) next Friday night.