The Pride came out ready to play football on Friday night in the team’s home opener at Joe Debely Stadium.

Pitman, hosting Lincoln of Stockton in their second game of the year, was on fire from the onset as the offense opened the game with a march down the field after a 78-yard, four-play drive that resulted in the team’s first score.

Led by a contagious defense that played up to par, they were the centerpiece of the game, completely shutting down the doors for the Trojans offense and essentially sealing the 21-0 win. The home field victory was a much-needed confidence boost after the Pride lost their first game of the year on the road to Downey of Modesto.

“We came in and played physical and we tackled a lot better this game and we also defended a lot better this game,” said Pitman head coach Tom Tyler. “They had some electric guys and we sort of kept them from going off; I was very pleased.”

The Trojans had scored 29 points a week prior against Stagg, but this time they met their match against a Pride defense that tallied five sacks for the game and was constantly pressuring Trojans starter Colby Dickson.

Lorenzo Carrera was a force, and tallied a team-high two sacks for the game.

“We practiced a lot harder during the week this time and as a team we were more mentally prepared, we came out and really wanted this one,” said Carrera. “The team looks ready and we were playing physical; it’s all as a team. We all went hard.”

The Pride defense was on point all game long, holding the Trojans to only 110 total yards of offense in the first half, while tallying 197 of their own.

Pitman starting running backs Blake McBay and Devan Bass were huge assets all game as they accumulated 191 of the team’s 197 yards of offense in the first half alone.

“Our coach gave us a speech to keep us motivated and to try the best down the stretch and we did well,” said Bass.

Pitman’s McBay scored the first touchdown of the game with just under five minutes left in the first quarter on an 18-yard touchdown score.

McBay ended the game with 105 yards rushing on 17 carries and a score.

The Pride’s third drive of the game ended with a 30-yard strike from quarterback Jacob Perez to Bass with 4:23 left in the first half.

Bass ended the game with 93 yards rushing on nine carries and caught four passes for 82 yards and a touchdown.

“I didn’t expect to do this good… actually I did, but I tried my hardest and my teammates tried their hardest as well, everyone did a great job,” Bass added.

Pitman came out and again was stifling on the defensive side, causing one of their six turnover on downs on a fourth down in Lincoln's opening possession in the second half.

Pitman finished Friday’s game with 350 total yards of offense while Lincoln amassed 243 yards, 125 of them through the air.

“They did a heckuva job and we had to make some changes early, but I was proud on adjusting to the run. The kids played really well. We can play well now I think, a week makes a difference.”

Pitman will now prepare to host Napa, the team which eliminated them in the first round of the playoffs last year, at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

“We've got to prepare hard for Napa since we lost to them in the playoffs so that’s more motivation and we gotta come out and play,” said Carrera.