The Pitman Pride opened their homecoming night a little unsettled, but soon found their groove and overcame visiting Oakland Tech, 62-20.

The Oakland Tech Bulldogs came ready to play, opening the game with an onside kick they nearly got, but Pitman held on. The Pride would strike back four plays later to put on the first points on the scoreboard after a 33-yard Logan Wolfley run.

The Bulldogs had major momentum by the start of the second quarter, the score read 21-14, and it looked to be a long night ahead for the Pride. The Pitman squad persevered on both sides of the ball, however, racking up 41 unanswered points and allowing a single touchdown in the closing minutes of the game. The final score read 62-20.

 “Couple things went their way in the start, penalties, onside kicks, and different things happened, but our kids persevered, they did a good job hanging in there,” Pitman’s head coach Tom Tyler said. ”It was one of those games; but we didn’t come out as sharp as last year and their kids showed a lot of fight and heart.”

By the end of the first half, Pitman had amassed over 350 total yards of offense, and the score was 35-14. This would prove enough of a lead for the Pride as the second half was a dominated game in the trenches.

The offense racked up over 300 yards on the ground, with Logan Wolfley, Drew Lewis and Mario Lewis leading the way for the Pride.

“We came out in the second half and got after it. I really like the way we played in the second half,” Tyler said. “We went to basics and worked on all the little things. Our league is a good league, if we do that we will be ok.”

All night, the defensive line took to the Bulldogs, causing them to jump offsides on numerous occasions while getting called for multiple holds, especially during the second half.

Nick Roditis and Josh Vercelli anchored the Pitman defensive line and controlled the pace of the game, distracting and causing the protection to break up. Roditis finished the game with three tackles for loss, pressuring the quarterback all game long.

A total of three interceptions came from the Pride. DeAndre Griffen was able to snag two of them after allowing the first score for the Bulldogs in the first quarter.

“I was frustrated that they scored that TD on me and I overlooked them; but I fixed it by guarding him and staying mentally focused because I had been thinking about Pleasant Grove already,” Griffen said.

Eric Bejaran and Luis Salazar came away from the game with injuries that were undisclosed.

“It is tough losing someone like Eric, but I think we might possibly have one of the deepest and most talented lines, especially in our league,” Roditis said.

Drew Lewis finished the game with 138 rushing yards on eight carries, two touchdowns on the ground and two grabs for 86 yards and a TD. Wolfley finished the game carrying the ball nine times amassing 121 yards, and catching two balls for 73 yards while scoring four touchdowns.

Coach Tyler and company are already looking into next week’s matchup against the very tough Pleasant Grove High team that is currently 4-0 and holds a 52nd state ranking, according to Maxpreps.com.

Pitman will travel to Pleasant Grove next week with game time starting at 7:15 p.m.