It wasn’t always pretty Friday night during the home opener of the Pioneer High School varstiy football team’s season, but a win is a win.

Two touchdowns from senior Haiden Aletto, one receiving and one via a kickoff return to jump-start the second half, led the way for the Patriots as they withstood the lingering heat, game-one rust and a barrage of flags and penalties to defeat a feisty River Valley 22-6 and begin the season 1-0.

After a third-place finish in the Golden Empire League last season behind Dixon and Casa Roble, the Patriots know they will need to bank all the wins they can before the games get really tough. They also know they’ll have to play much smoother on offense and cut out the penalties they committed to give themselves a shot.

“It was a decent start, but it was pretty sluggish on both sides, a lot of flags,” Patriots head coach Matt Bryson said. “It felt like we were out here all night. This game was a step up from our scrimmage, and I thought we competed very well and did a lot of good things.”

River Valley began the game in a promising fashion. With the sun still illuminating the stadium but slowly setting, the Falcons received the opening kickoff. On their first drive of the night, they faced a tough fourth down but opted to go for it instead of punting.

The Falcon’s 6’2 quarterback Jackson Mcpeak dropped back to pass but was immediately under pressure from the Patriot’s Francisco Romero. While backpedaling, he launched a very optimistic pass down the field that Alex Sanchez-Ortega miraculously caught for a critical first down.

That play would be erased from the crowd’s minds a few plays later when the Falcons got careless with the ball and fumbled the ball into the hands of Pioneer’s Bubba Webb.

Duirng the Patriot’s first possession, they’d drive down a few yards with great field position and get into their formation for a 32-yard field goal which was good. With a few minutes in the books, Pioneer had a slim 3-0 lead.

On the first play of the Falcon’s next drive, the carelessness with the ball took a new level as they’d fumble again, right into the hands of Patriots junior Emilio Casas.

From there, with excellent field position once again, junior quarterback Martin Bartz would drop back to pass and find Haiden Aletto with a back shoulder pass for a nice touchdown, extending their lead to 10-0 after a successful point after attempt.

Bartz, a junior, took over from the departing senior Carson King at the helm of the Patriot’s offense and played well in his first start.

“I was interested in seeing how (Martin) he was going to take to the varsity level,” Bryson said. “I thought he did fine and handled the huddle well. I was happy with his play.”

On the Patriot’s next possession, a personal foul would place them inside the Falcon’s 20-yard line. However, a block in the back knocked them back to the 27-yard line and set up a long 42-yard field goal that was nailed by Tiburcio Silva, giving Pioneer a 13-0 lead.

The Pats would get one more shot at a score before halftime, but with time running down, Bartz threw an interception, ending their chance at a score and the half.

While the Patriots enjoyed a two-score lead, they undoubtedly wanted some insurance points. Aletto, fresh out of the halftime break, gave them those points when he returned the opening half kickoff 80 yards to the house for six points and a 19-0 lead. The score remained at 19-0 following an unsuccessful point after attempt.

The Falcons cut the score back down to 13, attempting to make it a game again thanks to a Mcpeak rollout and jump ball that tight end Jayden Noyan brought down. After a failed two-point conversion, the score was 19-6.After a few stalled possessions from both teams in the fourth quarter, the Patriots added a 27-yard field goal to take a 22-6 lead.

While the Patriot’s offense didn’t score another touchdown, the defense also didn’t allow another point, evening out the workload on the night and giving the home side their first win of the 2023 season.

“I thought defensively we played pretty well,” Bryson said. “We have to go look at the film tho. I felt like we had a lot of missed tackles that we need to clean up. Overall, we have four sophomores starting and a lot of new guys at the varsity level, so I’m pretty happy.”

The Patriots will look to dig in for another beneficial week of practice and really work out all the rust and kinks before they get on a bus to Lincoln to take on a tough Twelve Bridges team that began the season with an impressive 41-20 win over Nevada Union Friday night. That game is set for next Friday night at 7:15 p.m.

“Twelve bridges are loaded,” Byrson said. “They will be one of the best teams around here, along with Casa Roble. We will find out next week where we are. We need to continue to try to bring some physicality and play our style of football.”