The dreary weather was not the only thing that put a damper on the Stetson Hatters' 2014 home-opener Saturday night at Spec Martin Memorial Stadium.

The visiting Florida Tech Panthers hit the field with the vengeance of a hurricane, scoring 30 points in the first 10:31 of play to completely swamp the Hatters. Things settled down after initial barrage before FIT settled for a 54-12 victory over Stetson.

“Blitzed and pummeled, we just got our butts beat, that is all that you can say,” Hatters head coach Roger Hughes said. “We couldn't stop the run and we couldn't run the ball. We executed like we hadn't practiced in five weeks. It is absolutely surprising to me that we could do so many things wrong.”

Rain began to fall while the teams were warming up for the game, but the deluge really got underway after the Hatters kicked off to start play. FIT redshirt freshman quarterback Mark Cato had the opening quarter of his life, throwing for two touchdowns and running for two more in the first minutes of his first game.

The stunning performance started on the second play of the game when Cato connected with Xavier Milton on a 69-yard TD pass just 45 seconds into the game. For the Hatters, things went downhill from there.

By the time the Gainesville native left the game at the end of the third quarter, Cato had thrown for 191 yards and four touchdowns and run for 63 yards and score more scores. About the only thing Cato did wrong was a late second quarter interception.

Cato connected on scoring throws of 69 and 33 yards to Milton and nine and 18 yards to Aaron George. His TD runs came from 10 and eight yards out. The Panthers also got field goals of 33 and 27 yards from kicker Brion Ashley.

On the other side, the Hatters quarterbacks did not fare as well. Starter Ryan Tentler, who wore jersey number 20 in the game in honor of a high school teammate who recently passed away, had his worst game as a Hatter. He completed just five of 10 throws for 25 yards and lost 11 yards on his four rushing attempts.

Overall, the three quarterbacks who played in the game for Stetson – Jonathan Jerozal and Blake Plattsmier also saw action – completed just 8-of-20 pass attempts for 57 yards. The trio also combined to run the ball 15 times for 13 yards.

“I don't think the fumbled snaps was because of the weather, I think it was a lack of concentration by the quarterback position,” Hughes said of the four Stetson fumbles, of which only one was lost. “That position, in particular, played horrendously tonight. I coach the quarterbacks, so that is on me.

“Our quarterbacks didn't make the right reads, and our offense just did not execute. I think, when we watch the film, we will see bits and pieces, and we are going to be disappointed in the fact that we didn't take advantage of some of the opportunities that we had. We had an open screen pass, but the pass was awful. We had a pass in the flat, but the pass was awful.”

The Hatters finally were able to give the home crowd of 4,042 something to cheer about in the fourth quarter when sophomore Marlin Hall scooped up a Davis Fluker fumbled and raced 77 yards for a touchdown.

Plattsmier, a junior college transfer, also found the end zone when he guided a nine-play, 75-yard drive and capped it with a five-yard TD run.

“Give Florida Tech credit,” Hughes said. “They had us well scouted and they executed very well. You can't play football when you can't stop the run and you can't run it. We had special teams break downs, we turned the ball over. We just did not play well tonight, and I don't have any excuses. All I know is we are going to get it fixed.”

The final numbers showed FIT with 531 yards of total offense to just 143 for Stetson. The Panthers ran the ball 46 times in the game, gaining 278 yards on the ground. Sophomore Trevor Sand led the way with 116 yards on just nine carries.

For the Hatters, there is no time to spend worrying about what is done. The Hatters must quickly turn their focus to next week's opponent, Mercer. The Bears are off to a 1-1 start this year after falling to Furman 25-20 in their Southern Conference debut on Saturday. Mercer handed the Hatters a 41-14 loss last November.

“We have to get past it because no one is going to feel sorry for us,” Hughes said. I don't think we are 42 points worse that those guys, but we certainly played like it tonight. The key is we can't let this game beat us twice.

“We, as coaches, have got to get these guys up and ready to go because we have Mercer coming in here next weekend and they are not going to be easy with the scholarships they have.”

Kickoff against the Bears next Saturday night is scheduled for 6 p.m.