EDGARD — Brandon Walters has suffered his first defeat as a head coach as the West St. John Rams fell to the Southern Lab Kittens 26-14.

The Rams (2-1) started off ahead early in the game off a long touchdown pass from quarterback Jemoine Green to wide receiver Jabari Walters. But the Kittens (2-1), the No. 1 ranked team in Class 1A, struck back with their own touchdown pass and, after missing the extra point, trailed 7-6.

Walters said the Rams controlled the ball for much of the remainder of the first half but were unable to score.

“We were in the red zone pretty much the entire first half and couldn’t score — inside the 20 and inside the 10 and didn’t make the plays when it was time to,” Walters said.

Walters said execution was a big problem for the Rams.

“We kept them on their half of the field pretty much the entire first half,” Walters said. “They couldn’t move the ball on us or anything, but when we got the ball down there in the red zone we just didn’t score.”

In the second half the Rams scored again off a pass from Green to wide receiver Malik Hutchinson to pull ahead 14-6 lead, but that is all the Rams would score for the remainder of the game.

The Kittens came back with a punt return for touchdown before scoring a rushing touchdown to bring the score to 26-14.

Walters said part of West St. John’s problem was with the running game.

“Our rushing game was not where we wanted it to be,” Walters said. “We just kept stalling and didn’t make the big plays we needed to run. We just didn’t execute well. We have some work to do up front on that offensive line.”

Overall, Walters said the Rams just did not do what needed to be done to win the game.

“There weren’t turnovers,” Walters said. “We didn’t show any picks, we didn’t fumble, we just didn’t execute when it was time to.”

In the end, Walters said the game should serve as a tough lesson to Rams players.

“I told the guys I’d rather have this type of game early in the season than in December,” Walters said. “We are going to get ready to play next week.”