A new era for the Pioneer High School varsity football team kicked off with a rude welcome and semi-expected speed bump as area powerhouse Vacaville High School raced out to an early lead they never relinquished, leaving the stadium with a 36-0 win Friday night.

After years in the Golden Empire League, the Patriots (3-2, 0-1 MEL) made their football debut in the Monticello Empire League Friday night at home as they welcomed a seasoned Vacaville (3-2, 1-0 MEL) squad that has finished as league champion in six out of the past seven seasons.

“You always have to find some positives in the losses,” said Patriots assistant coach Jason Whitfield. “You never want to lose because that’s not the outcome you want, but you need to find some positives so you can build on it. I liked the way we fought and how we stayed together as a team. We didn’t get down on each other and kept fighting to the end. Thats a damn good team and program over there at Vacaville, so hats off to them.”

The Bulldogs came into the matchup after a 31-14 win over Patterson the previous week. Their only other win had been a close, 23-21 win at home over Escalon in the season’s opening week.

The Patriots came into the game in a weird place, falling 34-0 against same-side-of-town rivals Woodland Christian last week but defeating crosstown rivals Woodland High School 28-6 a week before that. They enjoyed huge wins over Dixon and River Valley by the scores of 35-0 and 42-20 in the season’s opening weeks.

Pioneer enjoyed a promising start early in the game as the Bulldogs uncharacteristically fumbled their first possession into the endzone, allowing the Patriots to recover the ball and take over at their 20-yard line. Unfortunately, that was the last of the fortunate plays for the home side as Vacaville went on to rip off 15 straight points to end the first quarter.

The Bulldogs then began the second quarter with another score to go up 22-0.

After receiving a Patriots punt, the next Bulldogs drive appeared to have stalled out as Pioneer forced a fourth down. However, the visitors opted to go for it and converted the fourth down play with a 33-yard pass to get them down to the nine-yard line.

From there, a simple 3-yard pass from the Vacaville quarterback to Jaden Beamon-Santos made it 28-0.

With about three minutes left in the half, Pioneer came out with nothing to lose and enjoyed one of their best drives of the night as running back Julian Barajas made the most of his carries.

“That was a good drive,” Whitfield recalled. “I love it when we are moving the ball. It shows where we are going and where we can be. We are still getting better so I’m excited to build on what we have so far.”

That drive, however, ended up stalling out as both teams went into the halftime break, with the outcome of the game pretty much set.

The final touchdown of the game came during the first play of the fourth quarter as Vacaville scored a close-range run to go up by the eventual final scoreline of 35-0.

The Patriots will now look to regroup after a week of practice before hitting the road for a short trip to Sacramento High School next week, where they will take on the 4-0 Dragons. The kick-off is set for Friday, Sept. 27 at 7:30 p.m.

“We are going to deal with being a new league in all our league games,” Whitfield said. These are all new opponents. But I’m excited for the challenge of seeing some new faces. It’s a different ball game from the GEL. I want to see how we respond to the new challenge and see what we can do. I think everything we want is still out in front of us. We still have the path to be where we want to be. We just need to keep grinding and take positives where we can.”