Gloucester dropped its Peninsula District football record to 0-2 and its overall record to 0-3 with a 42-0 loss to host Heritage on Friday.

“The offense was completely out of rhythm, somebody was always not where they were supposed to be,” said Gloucester coach Sonny Merchant of his team’s second district shutout loss.

“Our guys didn’t communicate and had a lack of consistency,” Merchant continued. “They’d have a couple of flashes, a couple of good plays and then fall back into the same traps. Some guys are consistently making the same mistakes.” He also said his special teams did not execute well.

As a whole, Merchant said, the Gloucester defensive line played “pretty well” and he saw good performances from some of his players, including defenders Jarrell Bennett and Steve Zavatski, special teams’ player Alex Langelotti and quarterback James Scott. Scott completed five of 10 passes for 78 yards and rushed for another 24 yards. Three of his throws went to sophomore Devon Pullen for 55 yards.

On defense, Bennett tallied four tackles and a sack, Rickey Hayes and Amir Harris each had four tackles and an assist and Zavatski had three tackles. Merchant said despite the good defensive efforts, the Heritage speed up front and speed of their linebackers made it tough to hold them back.

Heritage quarterback Richard Outlaw orchestrated 19 first downs for the Hurricanes and completed four passes for 83 yards. Senior running back Khalid Abdullah contributed 19 carries for 129 Heritage yards. The Dukes face Menchville on the road at 6 o’clock tonight.