YOUNGSTOWN — Both East and Warren JFK made their fair share of mistakes Saturday afternoon. But unlike the Golden Bears, the Eagles were unable to overcome their errors.

Despite two takeaways and the beneficiary of numerous flags, Kennedy proved to be no match for the larger, stronger and faster East, which led by 30 points at halftime and improved to 3-1 on the season with a 46-12 win at Rayen Stadium.

“Youngstown East clearly wanted to play football and wanted to win more than we did,” Warren JFK head coach Damon Buente said. “This was our worst effort in the four weeks, and that’s nobody else’s fault but my own. I just didn’t have my team ready to play for a really big game on a Saturday afternoon. I’m just going to look in the mirror, and we’re going to do some soul-searching with our program, and we’re going to continue to fight on Monday.”

From the beginning of Saturday’s contest, the Kennedy offense struggled to get enough of a push at the line of scrimmage to establish a run game or give new starting quarterback LaMarcus Provitt ample time to survey the field. As a result, the Eagles’ first drive of the game ended with a three-and-out.

However, after the punted ball bounced off the turf, it hit the leg of the Bears’ returner, allowing Kennedy to recover the fumble and regain possession at East’s 20-yard line.

But then Kennedy’s miscues began.

Ahead of third-and-5 from the 15, the Eagles were whistled for a false start. On third down, Provitt threw an incompletion, but during the play, JFK was flagged for holding, a penalty East accepted to move the ball back even further. Following a 1-yard gain on third down, Kennedy committed another false start, and on fourth-and-24, Provitt scrambled for 10 yards, far short of a first down.

“I wasn’t heavily concerned [about the fumble] because our guys play well defensively. They know how to stick together and bounce back. We just got to fix that and the little things like that,” Golden Bears coach Mark Greene said.

East similarly bungled its first offensive possession with a penalty, putting the Bears behind the chains and ultimately forcing a punt.

Getting the ball back, Kennedy found itself back inside the East 35-yard line. Unfortunately for the Eagles, back-to-back attempted runs up the middle on third and fourth-and-short were stonewalled by the Bears’ interior.

Potentially feeding off its defensive stop, East’s offense found its groove on the subsequent drive.

With quarterback Jaden Erving and freshman running back Antwan Williams leading the way, the Bears ran and ran some more, advancing nearly 60 yards in three plays to get inside the Eagles’ 10-yard line. Williams finished off the 65-second drive with a 7-yard touchdown run, during which he broke tackles and bounced off defenders before diving across the goal line.

On its next drive, Kennedy, after a dead-ball personal foul and offside penalty by East, repaid the favor with costly holding and intentional grounding calls.

The subsequent punt also went awry, with the snap sailing too high for Lucas Mealy, whose knee touched the turf when he tried to pick up the ball, allowing East to take over just 3 yards from the end zone.

“The 0-3 problems are different than 3-0 problems,” Buente said. “We battle 0-3 problems, so when something goes wrong, doubt has a much higher percentage of winning. When you’re 0-3 and you bring out a young team … you have to understand that it’s OK when things go poorly; it’s how you react. There’s no doubt that turnovers and penalties – they’ll sink the Philadelphia Eagles if they don’t play well.”

Kennedy reacted well, as Williams, after catching a pass and being knocked backward, fumbled the ball, which JFK’s Carter DeJulia recovered at the 9-yard line.

East’s next drive, though, would be a redemptive one for Williams, who slipped and sliced his way through the middle of the field during a 33-yard rushing touchdown.

On the first play of the Eagles’ next drive, Provitt fumbled, giving the ball to East in Kennedy territory. The Bears, despite backing themselves up to midfield, eventually capitalized on the mistake, with Erving running through defenders’ arms during a 10-yard rushing touchdown.

With under three minutes to play in the first half, Williams scored his third touchdown of the game on the next possession when he took a handoff, found the corner and zipped down the Bears sideline. For the only time Saturday, East was unsuccessful on the subsequent two-point try, keeping the game at 30-0 going into halftime.

Following a failed Eagles onside kick attempt to start the second half, which featured a running clock, East added to its lead with a quick pass from Erving to Micah West, who found the edge of the defense and raced to the end zone.

Kennedy responded with its best drive of the game, which was mostly powered by the elusiveness of Provitt, who broke off a few runs to get the Eagles to East’s 7-yard line. After a few stops by the Bears’ defense near the goal line, a quarterback sneak scored Kennedy’s first touchdown.

With three minutes remaining, Tristan Pollard ran for a 7-yard touchdown, capitalizing on a JFK fumble. Moments later, Provitt, during the final play of the game, scrambled across the field and back for a 59-yard rushing touchdown.

With Saturday’s victory, the Golden Bears have won three of their first four games, including two games at Rayen Stadium by a combined score of 88-19.

“I’m happy with the fact that we played all four quarters,” Greene said. “Came out, played great in the first half – something we’ve been struggling to do in the past – was able to put together a good first half, and that carried into the second half.

“The biggest thing is being consistent. “That’s what I wanted. We have some more work to do, some things that coaches want to still see and accomplish.”

East will have a short week before it hosts Shaw on Friday.

Warren JFK (0-4) plays Saturday at Leopard Stadium in Liberty, where the Eagles will host Marlington in their first of four straight home games.