It was not the way the Johnston football team wanted to begin its Division II-A season, a 55-16 loss to the West Warwick Wizards last Friday night at the newly-renovated Maznicki Field in West Warwick. It was the most points allowed by the Panthers since their 56-50 quarterfinal loss to Saint Raphael in 2010.

Both Johnston and West Warwick faced Division I teams last week, with Johnston falling to Woonsocket, 20-6, while West Warwick defeated South Kingstown, 43-42, in two overtimes in its first-ever game played under the new lights at Maznicki Field.

West Warwick scored the first time its offense touched the ball on a Brogan Guilmette to Jared Shibley 35-yard pass play on fourth-and-10 just three minutes, 22 seconds into the game. Guilmette is the son of Steve Guilmette, who played for Johnston in the mid-1980s and is a member of its Athletic Hall of Fame.

Kyle Nelson would tip Guilmette’s pass away to prevent the 2-point conversion.

The Panthers would have to punt on their first possession and Nelson would pin the Wizards at their own 2-yard line with a 60-yard punt. Elijah Burgess broke up a Guilmette pass to force a Wizards punt and give Johnston good field position at midfield, but it would have to punt again after Nelson was sacked for a big loss.

The Wizards would get Cody Stetson going on their next drive. He caught a Guilmette pass for 25 yards, ran for big yards on a reverse and capped the drive with a 4-yard touchdown run. Luis Colon gave the home team a 14-0 lead with the 2-point conversion at the 9:52 mark of the second quarter.

The Panthers needed to make something happen, and Ty Harriel did by running the ensuing kickoff to the Wizards’ 40, but they could not take advantage of it and had to punt.

Stetson would get loose for a 45-yard run that set up a Colon 20-yard touchdown run, making it 21-0. Stetson would make it 28-0 on the Wizards’ next possession on a 55-yard touchdown run to close out the first half.

”We did not practice well this week,” said Johnston head coach Joe Acciardo. “If we did not pick up the slack, something like this might happen. We had a good practice towards the end of the week, but you cannot have just one good practice in a week.”

The Wizards would increase their lead to 35-0 with a five minute, 24 second drive to open the second half, as Quindel Wilson rushed for an 11-yard score, which was aided by a Panther running-into-the-kicker penalty that prolonged that drive.

The Panthers were determined to get on the board, and they did with a Harriel 45-yard touchdown run, as he made some great moves to stay in bounds and outrun the defense. Nelson found Evan Pennacchia in the corner of the end zone for the 2-point conversion.

On the ensuing kickoff, things continued to go the Wizards’ way. Stetson looked as if he was going to run the kick all the way back, but he fumbled the ball at the Panther 10 only to have the ball bounce right into the hands of a teammate, who went the rest of the way to the end zone. West Warwick would also score on defense on an 80-yard Shibley fumble recovery to make it 49-8.

Harriel scored his second touchdown of the night from 14 yards out after a good Cesar Mendez run. Nelson hit Pennacchia in the corner of the end zone again for the 2-point conversion.

The Wizards’ Mason Pacheco would run 50 yards for a score as time ran out in the game, ending a frustrating night for the Panthers.

”We have to change our ways and our work ethic,” Acciardo said. “We have to practice harder, scout better, make better game plans and go forward from there. We have to stick together as a team. This was a big bump in the road for us and we will see how we make out. We are moving guys around on the offensive line and trying to find the right fit and, at the end of the game, we played well. We had some lightning flashes of goodness and we did some things right. We shot ourselves in the foot with some penalties that really hurt us.”

The Panthers will host Division I Cranston West on Friday night at 7 p.m. in what is a non-league game. It will be the second time in three weeks that Johnston will face a Division I team. Cranston West is coming off a 34-0 loss to Portsmouth.

“It’s football, you have to be tough and physical,” Acciardo said. “You cannot make excuses anymore. We just have to get back to basics.”