While things did get a bit better for the youthful Lumberjacks, it wasn’t enough to contain the Nighhawks, who scored five touchdowns en route to a 38-6 victory.

With the loss, Tupper Lake drops to 0-2 overall this season. But Friday’s result was a vast improvement from its 65-14 season opener loss to Cooperstown on Sept. 6. Lumberjacks head coach Dennis Klossner said he was happy with how his team battled on Friday.

“I mean, the opening kickoff hurt us, and we had some big plays go by us, but other than that, we improved a lot from last week,” he said. “We’re getting better day by day. We’re a young, inexperienced team and I’m real happy with them. We lost 12 seniors (from) last year, and a lot of the guys had minimal planning time from last year.”

That youth and inexperience showed early as the Nighthawks jumped out to a 22-0 lead in the second quarter. Tupper Lake ultimately scored its first touchdown of the game when Gauge LaValley hauled in a 23-yard pass from Knaullyn Durfee.

Tupper Lake’s Knaullyn Durfee gets ready to throw during Friday’s home opener against West Canada Valley. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

While the Lumberjacks reached the redzone — inside their opponents’ 20-yard line — three times throughout the contest, the lonre score was all they could muster up. Tupper Lake also had a bunch of long drives and picked up numerous first downs, but often came up short of scoring.

“When we were picking up the first downs, it felt good,” Klossner said. “The kids were excited about that. But we haven’t been in that kind of situation a whole lot. So the kids get a little nervous. We’d get a little nervous, then we would have like a holding call or something that would push us back.”

Liam McClain led the Lumberjacks’ offense with 130 rushing yards on 27 attempts. Cooper McDonald also churned about 31 yards on four carries as the team combined for 178 yards on the ground.

“We’ve got a lot of kids playing well, but we’re young. Most of the kids have come off modified, so no special teams experience. I think we’ve got five kids returned from last year,” Klossner said. “We’ve just got to take care of mistakes, holding penalties, miscues. We’ve got to take care of our mistakes that we’re making.”

Durfee completed five of nine passes for 80 yards, while also throwing a touchdown and an interception. His lone turnover came on Tupper Lake’s opening drive, while trailing 8-0.

With the ball back near midfield, the Nighthawks used just four plays before reaching paydirt on a 15-yard run from Valasek. The senior finished the game with 82 yards on four carries and three total touchdowns.

While trailing 16-0, the Lumberjacks took a 16-play drive deep into West Canada Valley territory, but penalties pushed them back, and ultimately forced a turnover on downs.

On the next play, Valasek took a handoff 69 yards, but was tackled on a 1-yard line just short of the endzone. The Nighthawks’ quarterback Sam Stewart pushed through for the score on the next play.

“The defense is (going to get) better,” Klossner said. “We’ve just got some missed tackles that we have to take care of. We’ve got kids in position, but we’ve got to take care of the missed tackles.”

West Canada Valley’s Tyler Dibble made it 30-6 with a 37-yard touchdown reception pass from Stewart before halftime. The Nighthawks closed out the day with a 3-yard run from Valasek in the fourth quarter.

West Canada Valley had four athletes combined for 217 rushing yards and three touchdowns as Dibble paced his team with 93 yards on nine attempts.

Up next, the Lumberjacks will host the Frankfort-Schuyler Maroon Knights at 6 p.m. on Friday.

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West Canada Valley 38, Tupper Lake 6

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Lumberjacks 0 6 0 0 — 6

Nighthawks 16 14 0 8 — 38

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SCORING

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First Quarter

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WCV — Valasek 74 kickoff return (Valasek run), 11:40

WCV — Valasek 15 run (Valasek run), 7:41

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Second Quarter

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WCV — Stewart 1 run (Run failed), 9:11

TL — LaValley 23 pass from Durfee (Run failed), 4:40

WCV — Dibble 37 pass from Stewart (Dibble run), 2:07

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Fourth Quarter

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WCV — Valasek 3 run (Stewart run), 6:36

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INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

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Rushing

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WCV — Dibble 9-93; Valasek 4-82, 2TDs; Stewart 3-0, TD; C. Baslow 1-42. Totals: 17-217, 3TDs.

TL — McClain 27-130; McDonald 4-31; Durfee 2-3; Jones 4-14; Fleishman 1-0. Totals: 38-178.

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Passing

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WCV — Stewart 2-5-0-48, TD.

TL — Durfee 5-9-1-80, TD; Fleishman 1-3-0-9. Totals: 6-12-1-89, TD.

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Receiving

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WCV — Dibble 1-37, TD; O. Baslow 1-11. Totals 2-48, TD.

TL — LaValley 3-59, TD; Gerstenberger 2-29; McDonald 1-1. Totals: 6-89, TD.

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Interceptions

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WCV — O. Baslow.