CHESHIRE — This time the Fairland Dragons made sure the gun wasn’t loaded.

Plagued by turnovers and penalties all season, the Dragons erased their mistakes at the start of the game and jumped out to a big first half lead en route to a 39-6 win over the River Valley Raiders Friday.

The win was the first of the season for the Dragons (1-7, 1-2) while River Valley fell to 1-7 and 0-3.

“We got off to a good start. Most of the year we’ve shot ourselves in the foot and got in a hole,” Fairland coach Brent Wilcoxon said.

Fairland took a 21-0 lead in the first quarter on a pair of touchdown passes from Cole Hatfield to Jake Lucas covering 27 and 4 yards.

Jordan Kersey had a 2-yard touchdown run just before the end of the quarter.

“They blitzed us early and we backed them off with screens. Once they backed off we were able to run the ball. And we had the game under control,” Wilcoxon said.

Hatfield was 12 of 17 for 139 yards while the running game produced 183 yards. Kersey had 95 yards on 10 attempts and Michael Meachem ran six times for 53 yards.

River Valley finished with one net yard rushing while throwing for 173.

“Our defense played better. We tackled better,” Wilcoxon said.

The Dragons opened up a 33-0 halftime lead after a 25-yard scoring run by Meachem and a 37-yard scamper by Kersey in the second quarter.

Kersey’s 11-yard TD run with 7:55 left in the third quarter capped the Fairland scoring.

River Valley avoided the shutout when backup quarterback Clayton Curnutte hit Zak Deel with a 9-yard pass at the 5:56 mark.

Fairland211260=39

River Valley0060=6

First Quarter

Fa - Jake Lucas 27 pass from Cole Hatfield (Ayo kick) 8:00

Fa - Jake Lucas 4 pass from Cole Hatfield (Ayo

kick) 4:40

Fa - Jordan Kersey 2 run (Ayo kick) 2:22

Second Quarter

Fa - Michael Meachem 25 run (kick blocked) 8:50

Fa - Jordan Kersey 37 run (kick failed) 6:26

Third Quarter

Fa - Jordan Kersey 11 run (kick blocked) 7:55

RV - Zak Deel 9 pass from Clayton Curnutte (pass failed) 5:56

——

FaRV

First downs158

Rushes-yards36-18333-1

Passing yards139173

Total yards322174

Com-Att-Int12-17-16-15-2

Fumbles-lost-24-2

Penalties-yards2-106-44

——

Individual Leaders

RUSHING-Fairland: Cole Hatfield 6-5, Jordan Kersey 10-95, Michael Meachem 6-53, Matt Bloomfield 1-minus 1, Justin Moore 5-17, Garreett Wireman 4-14, Tyler Thackston 1-4, Kyle Riley 1-1, Ron Wooen 1-1, Nathan Casey 1-minus 5; River Valley: Cody McAvena 5-minus 1, Bryan Morrow 12-minus 36, Tyler Canaday 1-1, Clayton Curnutte 4-minus 16, Zach Baird 7-20, Travis Roush 4-33.

PASSNG-Fairland: Cole Hatfield 12-16-0 139; River Valley: Bry‘n Morrow 2-9-1 63, Clayton Curnutte 4-6-1 110.

RECEIVING-Fairland: Jordan Kersey 3-17, Jake Lucas 5-65, Michael Lamb 3-43, Matt Bloomfield 1-14; River Valley: Travis Roush 2-63, Bryan Morrow 1-72, Zak Deel 3-38.