As far as being competitive, the Thomas Jefferson Raiders weren’t much to the visiting Tahoma Bears, who lit up the home team, 58-32, with the score 42-0 by halftime in an opening South Puget Sound League North Division football game played at Federal Way Stadium Friday night.

Anything good to say after this one with a score like that first half?

“Anything good,” said Raiders head coach, Dean Peck, repeating the words of questioning. “ Hmm. (pause). I thought we executed better in the second half.”

After that goose egg halftime total for Raiders, they did play better in the second half, from the start. TJ scored first to start the second half as 5-10 165 junior speedster Jonny Volland recovered a fumble at the 25-yard line and was a blur of maroon and gold, taking the pigskin in for a score with 11:06 left in the third quarter. That made it 42-6 after a blocked extra-point try.

That was good news there. So was TJ taking over on downs after the next Bears possession went nowhere on a four down and out drive. But a TJ fumble next, followed by a field goal for the Bears, made it 45-6, with half the 12-minute third quarter left.

The Raiders butted in for another score, showing a will to not give up after yet another Bears on the board sequence. A strike from quarterback Kama Frank, a 6-1, 185 senior Raiders captain, hitting Bobby Grady for 25 yards, moved the Raiders to midfield. From there, speedy junior state track competitor Trenton Pinson caught a short Frank pass in stride and then went 45 some yards, weaving left to right, using all the field, for a TD that made it, 45-12, with three minutes left in the third quarter. Then, a two-point conversion of Frank passing to Grady made it 45-14 Bears.

“We found some guys who can catch the football,” said Peck, which was one more of the “anything good” comments he said.

But Tahoma would score again, with 8:03 left in the fourth quarter to put this one badly out of reach, 51-14.

The Raiders would continue to fight, however, getting another score on their next possession as Frank hit senior, 6-4, 190, Wylie Johnson over the middle for an 80-yard pass play to make it 51-20. A two-point conversion, Frank to 5-10, 160 senior Jun Park made it 51-22.

Again, Tahoma scored, with a long 49-yard run into the end zone with 2:56 left in the fourth to make it 58-22, after the extra point make. Then the Raiders scored with 1:43 left as Pinson again broke free from would-be tacklers at the Raiders’ 30, after a short catch of a Frank pass, moving both powerfully and gazelle-like across midfield and all the way into the endzone for an 80-yard score.

Pinson took a short pass from Frank next for a two-point conversion for the ending of the scoring in this game. Maybe a nice note to build on for the future for Peck’s team.

But the beginning. Ah, the beginning. Unfortunately, the early portion of the game was the tough part to recover from for the Raiders, including a couple Frank interceptions and a fumble in the first and second quarters.

“We knew their coverages,” said Frank. “Just didn’t hit things in the open.”

So now what?

“We have got to hit the field Monday hard, hit the field strong,” said Frank. “We need to find the mistakes and fix them and build on the good things.”

One of the good things of this game is it was just the first game of the season for the Raiders, plus Peck is a second-year coach so he’s still being learned of his system by the players. That’s unlike Tahoma, who has a 15-year coach in Tony Davis, who fielded a 5-5 team last year but whose team won the SPSL North the three seasons in a row before that.

So this was a first game against a good team and Tahoma was a young team last year, according to Davis. That is trying to get back on track. The Raiders were run over but a little more practice and learning, taking things in of this first game, could do the Raiders a lot of good.

“That 34 (Pinson) is talented and so is number 15 (Frank),” said Davis.

Plus, the Raiders have a lot of returners, according to Peck, on both sides of the ball.

“We have eight guys on offense returning and on defense the same,” said Peck.

So why didn’t things gel better for that kind of experience?

“I think everyone was a little overexcited, first game of the year,” said Peck. Take away the Raiders’ many first half turnovers to none for Tahoma and this game may have been a good one. “We settled down in the second half.”

“We had a better second half,” said Peck. “That is what I said at halftime. Let’s wipe the slate clean and win the second half.”

And they did, outscoring Tahoma, 32-16, in the third and fourth quarters.

The biggest bad was...

“Mainly turnovers,” said Peck. “When you fall behind (three, four touchdowns), you can’t turn the ball over,” said Peck. “You just can’t get back into it.”

So this team, limiting turnovers, is maybe a better team than last year which finished 2-8 in the tough South Puget Sound League North.

Get better?

“Most definitely,” said Peck. “One thing I don’t have to worry about these guys. They’re resilient, they will keep fighting.”

TJ is on the road next game on Saturday the 13th against Kentridge before being home for a match up with Kentlake the following weekend.