Poplar Bluff fumbled on its first play, eighth play, 12th play and 14th play.
Four turnovers in the first quarter, one returned for a touchdown, and the lot of them leading to 28 points off turnovers in the first 12 minutes of play.
Poplar Bluff ultimately committed six turnovers, two of which went for touchdowns, was minus-4 on turnovers overall and lost to Ritenour 54-13 Friday and Mules Stadium.
"Except for those last two scores we gave up, I kept looking at it and thinking, if you take away our horrendous start it is 12-7," Poplar Bluff coach David Sievers said. "But you can't. You can't take away our horrendous start. You can't take away the fact that for whatever reason, we can't hang onto the football right now. You can't take away the fact that we didn't run to the football early."
After spotting Ritenour 28 points, the Mules got a boost when Shemyron Townsend ripped the football out of Justin Conway's hands and ran it 79 yards for a touchdown late in the first quarter.
"I just took it out of his hands, saw he wasn't tucking tight enough and just took advantage of it," Townsend said.
Ritenour countered with a 65-yard touchdown drive, and then the Mules threw an interception to end five of their first six drives with a turnovers.
Quinten Bell ran down a deep pass for his team-leading third interception of the season to get possession back for the Mules, who didn't score again until the start of the fourth quarter.
"Prepared for it a lot. Energy boosted a little bit, but we have got to make more plays like that. - One play is not going to change the game. We have to have a lot of them," Bell said. "It's the little mistakes we have to fix. Once we fix those and get them under control, I think it will all pan out."
Poplar Bluff entered Friday's matchup with a gameplan of patient, sustained drives.
It finally did just that with a 10-play, 51 yard touchdown drive in the fourth quarter. It was Poplar Bluff's first drive of the season that lasted for 10 or more plays.
Poplar Bluff's next drive resulted in a Ritenour pick-6.
"I think there are some kids who earned a starting spot tonight, which means there are probably some kids who lost their starting spot tonight. That's what happens when you don't play well," Sievers said. "(Logan) Strauts came in off the bench and probably earned himself a starting spot, at least for next week, because he came in and played hard and that is what we asked him to do."
Strauts finished with four tackles in the second half.
Ritenour scored 54 points despite having the ball for less than 12 minutes and finished with 427 yards of offense to Poplar Bluff's 159.
Meechie Jackson ran for 141 yards on 19 carries for Ritenour and quarterback Corey Brooks added 100 yards on 15 carries. Brooks also went 8 for 15 passing for 105 yards and a touchdown.
Isaiah Johnson led Poplar Bluff in rushing with 59 yards on nine carries. Xzavier Bartlett had two catches for 31 yards.
Poplar Bluff educator and sports legend Tom Hoover, who died of cancer Sept. 6, was honored during a pre-game ceremony. Hoover worked for the school district across four decades until retiring in 1994. Poplar Bluff passed out commemorative stickers prior to the game and the Mules wore the same stickers on their helmets. His obituary appears on page A6 of today's paper and a story in honor of his life appeared in the Sept. 7 edition.