POST FALLS — The kids are all right at Post Falls — it just took them a little bit of time to figure it out.

The Trojans, with no returning full-time starters from last season, scored 28 points in the second quarter and rolled to a 34-7 victory over the Sandpoint Bulldogs in the nonleague season opener for both teams Saturday at Trojans Stadium.

Junior quarterback Derek Pearse, after a slow start, passed for 177 yards and two touchdowns for Post Falls. Sophomore wide receiver Tommy Hauser caught eight passes for 106 yards, and junior Eli Gondo rushed for 62 yards on 17 carries.

“When you have so many seniors, some younger guys don’t really get a chance to play that much, and show what they can do,” Post Falls coach Blaine Bennett said. “Most of these kids were on JV, so we did know, from their video on JV, and I think they’ve progressed really well.”

The game, originally scheduled for Sandpoint, was postponed from Friday night due to poor air quality. It was then moved to Post Falls on Saturday morning when air quality levels were still too high to play.

Sandpoint remained the “home” team for the game, wearing its home red uniforms.

Senior Jake Rutherford and his sophomore brother, Cole, each caught touchdown passes for Post Falls, Cole Rutherford and Carson LaMastus had interceptions, and Kaden Cripps recovered a fumble

Sandpoint averted the shutout midway through the fourth quarter when senior Hunter Elliott hauled in a 26-yard touchdown pass from junior Jaxon Pettit down the right sideline.

Senior Dylan Mitton rushed for 113 yards on 23 carries for the Bulldogs, who otherwise struggled offensively until their late scoring drive.

Sandpoint totaled just 56 yards in offense in the first half, and likely piled up more yardage than that on penalties. Most hurtful was two 15-yard penalties on the same play — an interception by Bulldog Caleb Fingel that he returned deep in Post Falls territory.

By the time the flags were marked off, Sandpoint was starting on its 22.

“How many times did the orange and white team (Post Falls) beat us, and how many times did the red team (Sandpoint) beat us,” said first-year Bulldog coach Ryan Knowles, a 1997 Sandpoint High grad who started four years at Idaho, and was an assistant coach at Colgate the past 12 seasons. “That’s all I’ve been challenging these kids to do — make them beat you. Get in that perfect spot defensively, where they have to work really hard to beat you.

“That’s the point of this game. It’s not about coaching — everyone thinks it’s exciting that I’m back. It’s not about me. It’s the kids.”

Post Falls got on the board when Cripps, a sophomore and the backup running back, powered into the end zone from 4 yards out with 8:01 left in the first half.

On the next drive, Pearse connected with Cole Rutherford on a seam route for a 38-yard score on fourth down and 11.

Jake Rutherford then outjumped a Sandpoint defender to snag a 2-yard TD pass from Pearse with 57 seconds left in the half.

On the next play, LaMastus intercepted a screen pass and ran 22 yards to the Sandpoint 5. Gondo ran it in on the next play.

Post Falls outgained Sandpoint 265-205.

Cripps and LaMastus had sacks for the Trojans.

“It was a slow start, with a bunch of new kids on both sides of the ball,” Bennett. “I was really pleased with the defense — Mike Blowers and Wade Quesnell and Mike McKeown and Mick Zeller, our defensive coaches, did a great job preparing the kids. It’s a new scheme from the past, so I was really pleased with how the defense came out and ran to the football, tackled well. And that was our big concern, being in the gym so many days, but we have a very good tackle progression and we tackled really well.”

Knowles looked at the positives.

“I think we’re going to run the ball really well this year,” he said. “We’ve got a big O-line, we’ve got a tough-ass running back (Mitton). I thought we did a good job in the second half of just being us; not panicking. We cut down the penalties in the second half.”

Sandpoint plays host to University on Friday.

Post Falls plays host to Mead on Friday.

Post Falls 0 28 0 6 — 34

Sandpoint 0 0 0 7 — 7

Second quarter

PF — Kaden Cripps 4 run (Eli Gondo run), 8:01

PF — Cole Rutherford 38 pass from Derek Pearse (pass failed), 3:56

PF — Jake Rutherford 20 pass from Pearse (Jake Mamola kick), :57

PF — Gondo 5 run (Mamola kick), :35

Fourth quarter

Spt — Hunter Elliott 26 pass from Jaxon Pettit (Dylan Peterson kick), 5:54

PF — Colton Schmitt 9 run (kick blocked), 1:38

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — PF, Gondo 17-62, Hauser 2-11, Schmitt 8-13, Horning 1-7, Cripps 3-5, C. Rutherford 1-(minus 8), Pearse 2-(minus 2). Spt, Mitton 23-113, Pettit 7-(minus 4), Plummer 4-16, Darling 1-(minus 2).

PASSING — PF, Pearse 13-28-1-177. Spt, Pettit 8-21-2-82, Plummer 0-1-0-0.

RECEIVING — PF, Hauser 8-106, C. Rutherford 1-38, J. Rutherford 2-23, Schmitt 1-4, Shields 1-6. Spt, Stockton 1-6, Elliott 6-56, Niemela 1-20.