The effects of the Covid pandemic still taking a toll on the Panthers, who improved to 2-0 with a 26-0 win over August Martin on Sept. 22

Dave Olah has been the architect of the Petrides football program, having been at the helm for all of its 18 years of existence. But this season has arguably been the toughest of his career.

The calendar is deep into September and the Panthers finally took the field against an opponent for the first time Friday, registering a 26-0 shutout over August Martin in Sunnyside. It was technically the Falcons’ home game, but they don’t have a field.

An already late start became even later when a season-opening league game against Evander Childs on Sept. 14 resulted from a forfeit by the Tigers. It was one of three such outcomes last weekend in the PSAL A division.

But in the league’s haves-versus-have-nots district, Olah admits even his Panthers are “struggling” to find enough bodies. When it comes to annual roster size, Petrides has never been confused with Tottenville, but the Panthers’ numbers as of recently were only at “about 26. In a good year, it’s about 30,” the coach noted.

While four kids may not seem like that big of a deal, when that means a 13-14 percent decline in roster size, it is. Olah points his finger at the Covid pandemic as the culprit.

“Covid really hurt us numbers-wise,” said Olah, who doubles as the school’s highly successful wrestling coach. “We have a consistent population in the school, but that’s only about 125 per grade. We only have six seniors.”

When Covid hit with a fury in 2020, it forced students throughout New York City schools to remain home.

“Those freshmen didn’t get involved with a lot of school stuff. We lost a year of athletes because we didn’t have that in-person contact,” Olah said. “Other schools had that same problem, but they have 500 kids [per grade] in the school.

“Those kids found other things to get involved with [aside from athletics], and that’s fine.”

“The numbers of players are a big issue,” admitted senior quarterback/linebacker Jaedin Rivera. “I think we have a good number of athletes. We have a low number, but we have athletes.”

“Susan Wagner, Curtis and Tottenville have at least 2,000 kids in the school; we’re a small K-through-12,” added senior two-way lineman Josiah Maye. “And I definitely agree with Coach … you have a lot of kids playing video games, they’re not exercising.”

Aside from the pandemic, there’s an internal issue working against the Panthers.

“We don’t have legacies (families that send children to the same school) because of our lottery system [for admission to Petrides],” said Olah, whose squad improved to 2-0 in the PSAL A by surging past Martin after a scoreless first half on Friday.

“We had a first-and-goal late in the second quarter but couldn’t cash in,” Olah said. “But the kids showed what they were made of in the second half. We had seen some good things and made some adjustments. [The Falcons] were blitzing seven guys at a time, so it was a problem to run against that, but then we got our passing game going. We had a sustained number of drives after the break.”

Rivera ran for one touchdown and threw another to Justin Alvarez, who added an interception defensively. Ryan Alexander also had a TD run, while Mike Giordano tacked on a pick-6 and Jahshea McKinney also picked off a pass for the Petrides defense.

“We had a balanced attack offensively, and our defensive line played extremely well up front,” said Olah, whose Panthers also made two fumble recoveries. “And we didn’t have any turnovers.”

Next up for Petrides is another home contest against Jamaica on Friday afternoon, Sept. 29.