POST FALLS — The first few drives of Friday’s nonleague game were exactly how Post Falls wants to play its offense.

Fast, moving the ball down the field in a flash.

Finishing, that’s still a work in progress.

Junior quarterback Derek Pearse threw for 269 yards and two touchdowns, but the Trojans could not fight back from four interceptions — all in the first quarter — of a 50-21 loss to the Mead Panthers of the Greater Spokane League at Trojan Stadium.

“Those first three or four drives in the first quarter, we were making good decisions and making plays on the perimeter,” Post Falls coach Blaine Bennett said. “We were keeping them off balance a little bit, and got their defense a little tired, and that’s what we needed to do. Mead is a very good football team. They’ve got some big defensive linemen over there, and they were just the better team tonight.”

Post Falls beat Mead 54-40 in last year’s game at Eastern Washington University.

“We kind of got after them last year, and they got after us this year,” Bennett said. “We just need to clean up the turnovers. Our defense played really well in that first half. We had some great team unity. Our guys really stuck together and played really hard through all that adversity.”

Junior tailback Eli Gondo finished with 142 yards rushing for Post Falls (1-1), which hosts University next Friday..

“We’ve got a lot of juniors and sophomores playing a lot of football for us,” Bennett said. “It’s going to be a learning process on both sides of the ball. We’re committed to playing 11 starters on each side of the ball, playing up-tempo and that’s the way we’re going to play football.”

Mead cornerbacks Jonathan Baird and Jadon Melendez returned interceptions for touchdowns to spark the Panthers’ defense in the first quarter.

“It was a little out of control,” Mead coach Benji Sonnichsen said. “Hats off to Blaine Bennett and his staff, they were super fast on offense. They were snapping the ball fast after three seconds of getting the ball stopped.”

Mead extended its lead to 29-15 just before halftime on a 4-yard touchdown run by Cameron Crawford.

“We felt confident we could stop the run and just had to make some adjustments,” Sonnichsen said. “We were kind of waiting for a call and made a play at the right time.”

Mead (1-0) faces Coeur d’Alene next Friday at Eastern Washington University.

Mead 14 15 7 14 — 50

Post Falls 8 7 0 6 — 21

First quarter

Mead — Jonathan Baird 92 interception return (Eli Eldridge kick), 8:46

PF — Tommy Hauser 55 pass from Derek Pearse (Pearse run), 7:52

Mead — Jadon Melendez 85 interception return (Eldridge kick), 6:16

Second quarter

Mead — Ryan Chan 2 run (Eldridge kick), 9:06

PF — Hauser 6 pass from Pearse (Josh Brisendine kick), 3:33

Mead — Cameron Crawford 4 run (Isaiah Saldana run), 1:22

Third quarter

Mead — Keli’l Zalopany 8 pass from Ryan Blair (Eldridge kick), 6:16

Fourth quarter

Mead — Campbell 2 run (Eldridge kick), 10:29

PF — Josiah Shields 11 pass from Pearse (kick failed), 8:14

Mead — Baird 5 pass from Blair (Eldridge kick), 3:42

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Mead, Chan 10-18, Saldana 5-33, Campbell 7-18, Shawen 6-29, Workman 1-2, Crawford 2-6, Baird 2-6, Hill 6-25. PF, Gondo 38-142, Pearse 1-(-1), J. Rutherford 1-(-3).

PASSING — Mead, Chan, 8-16-0-182, Blair, 3-5-0-12. PF, Pearse, 24-41-4-269.

RECEIVING — Mead, Workman 4-114, Baird 2-19, Dolezal 1-7, Zalopany 1-8, Saldana 1-(-3), Hill 1-15, Shawen 1-45. PF, C. Rutherford 3-20, Gondo 1-9, Hauser 11-146, Young 5-48, J. Rutherford 1-8, Shields 3-34, Horning 1-4.