It was a first game that looked like a first game: lots of penalties, lots of mistakes, lots of lessons to learn.

In the end, the Puyallup Vikings managed to get a victory along with their lessons, taking a season-opening 33-19 home win over the Todd Beamer Titans at Sparks Stadium.

“We knew that we were a young team going in,” Puyallup coach Gary Jeffers said. “We really didn’t know what to expect. I really felt what really got in our way in the first half and a little bit in the second half was ourselves: a lot of stupid penalties that I guess you would expect to see out of young team. So I think that we can go back and clean up on those.”

Puyallup’s troublesome first half allowed Beamer to jump to a 16-7 halftime lead. However, the Vikings took over with a 26-0 blitz in the second half, when they mostly stopped getting out of their own way.

“There’s no doubt that it was nice to have a lead, and the kids were excited about that, but we’re going to learn a lot from this film,” first-year Beamer coach Darren McKay said. “We’ll learn you have to play four quarters.”