The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

PILOT ROCK, Ore. - The bad news about the Cardinals' first game of the season against Pilot Rock Friday night was the number of turnovers and penalties: five lost fumbles and two big flags that cost WP two 60- yard runs.

But the good news is that the team still won convinc­ingly 36-6, that the defense looked strong, that quarter­back Owen Lanning had a solid game and that lots of new players got to work out their jitters in the non-league matchup.

"We can correct all that," head coach Jeff Bartlow said about the sloppy plays. It's nothing some handover drills and better coordination on offense can't fix before this Thursday's home game against Weston McEwen, he said.

Despite high wind warn­ings, the teams took the field on the beautiful breezeless evening. WP kicked off and allowed the hosting Rockets one first down before forc­ing them to punt, but the Cardinals fumbled almost immediately, the first of five unforced turnovers. Four of the fumbles occurred in the first half.

"There's no excuse for that," Bartlow said.

About six minutes in the first quarter, wide receiver James Thompkins took a screen pass from Lanning for the first touchdown. He caught it about five yards behind the line of scrim­mage and ran it for 25 yards into the end zone. Antonio Benito, who missed only one extra point the whole evening, booted it between the cross bars to give WP a 7-0 lead.

The Rockets made little headway against the Cardi­nals' defense, which gave up only 11 yards during the second quarter and kept Pilot Rock's quarterback going in reverse at minus 28 yards on 22 carries for the game.

"We're just tough right now on defense," Bartlow said.

The Cardinals ended up scoring in each of the four quarters with Chance Laroue getting an 8-yard TD to make it 14-0 with Benito's extra point. On the Cardi­nals' next offensive play, WP fumbled when Laroue missed a pitch from Lanning and the Rockets' defense scooped it up for a TD run to give Pilot Rock some hope at 14-6.

The Cardinals quick­ly dashed any immediate comeback illusions among the Rockets when they sacked their quarterback in the end zone for a safety, then proceeded to score a third TD when Lanning threw a pass to Devon Ace­vedo in the end zone with 1 second on the clock. WP missed the extra point, but the lead had opened to 22-6.

"During half time, I told them we were making too making errors," Bartlow said. "We would have lost against a tougher opponent."

The Rockets haven't beat the Cardinals since 2008.

Despite the pep talk, the flags kept coming in the third quarter, when spectacular runs from Thompkins and Laroue covering more than half the field were called back on offensive penalties. Of the eight flags handed out in the third quarter alone, seven went to the Cardinals.

WP ran up 11 penalties in all, costing them 150 yards in offense, Bartlow said.

But before the third quar­ter was out, Lanning con­nected with Thompkins on a 35-yard pass for WP's third touchdown and this time the extra point was good.

With half of the fourth quarter left, Cardinal Corey Brownlee blocked a Rock­ets' punt. Chad Pearson picked up the pigskin after one bounce and ran it into the end zone for touchdown number four, boosting the Cardinals' margin of victory to 36-6 before Bartlow put in the bench.

Now, the Cardinals have to work on better cues and coordination to cut down turnovers and penalties, the head coach said.

The team faces Weston- McEwen at Cardinal Field on Thursday. WP played the Pioneers once last year, beat­ing them 39-13. The team from just south of the state line had a 5-5 record in 2012, compared to WP's 11-2.