Staff photo / Brian Yauger. Pymatuning Valley's Jayce Fulkman tip toes down the sidelines on Friday night against Mineral Ridge.

ANDOVER — Pymatuning Valley rode a dominant second quarter to a season-opening win on Friday, finding the end zone three times during the quarter, en route to a 38-27 victory over Mineral Ridge.

Week 1 is where coaches get to see their teams at full game speed for the first time all season.

Lakers coach Neal Croston saw his experienced squad put that experience into practice.

“They’re a senior-laden team that gives good effort. They’re not going to back down,” Croston said. “We got a little bit of adversity there, guys cramping up, and (Mineral Ridge pushed back), but we came back with that big score, and the defense got stops when we needed (them). It was a good all-around game. It’s Week 1, so there’s going to be mistakes, but our effort and just getting after it was unbelievable.”

Mineral Ridge got things started, eating roughly six minutes off the clock on its initial drive, ending in a 1-yard rush by quarterback Owen Shingledecker.

The Lakers returned the favor with a 4-yard rush by their quarterback Ryan Croston. Pymatuning Valley would fail the two-point conversion, however.

Things broke out in the second frame as the teams combined for three touchdowns in the span of a minute.

A 7-6 Mineral Ridge advantage became a 22-14 Pymatuning Valley lead in the blink of an eye.

Jacye Fulkman set the tone for the quarter, breaking through on a 5-yard rush to give the Lakers their first lead of the game.

Ridge responded instantly with a 69-yard pass from Shingledecker to Jonathan Rozzi, seemingly sucking all the energy from the Lakers’ sideline.

That wasn’t the case.

On the ensuing kickoff, Fulkman reached the end zone once again, taking the kick back and extending the team’s lead once again.

Not to let the Rams have all the fun, Pymatuning Valley had a lengthy touchdown pass of its own. To close out the second quarter, Ryan Croston hit sophomore Luke Giddings on a catch-and-run that went 77 yards for a score.

The Rams came out of the locker room energized, shutting down the Laker offense in the third quarter and adding a pair of touchdowns to their end of the scoreboard.

The Shingledecker-Rozzi connection struck from deep once again, this time from 70 yards out.

Mineral Ridge then drove down the field again, ending in a Jacob Russell 10-yard touchdown.

Just as the Rams inched their way back, Pymatuning Valley laid on the gas, with senior Ty Vickery scoring on a 5-yard rush to open the final frame, reestablishing a double-figure lead to ice the game.

Mineral Ridge falls to 0-1 to start the year.

“We knew we were in for a battle tonight. That’s a veteran team over there,” Rams coach Brian Shaner said. “They only graduated one kid last year. We knew it was going to be this kind of game. It was a heavyweight bout, a super physical game. Hats off to Pymatuning Valley. They executed better than we did. They were the better team tonight, and that’s all you can say.”

Mineral Ridge aims to get into the win column when they host Orange in Week 2.

The Lakers look to keep things going next week when they take on the Cardinal Huskies in Middlefield.

“We just need to build off of this,” Neal Croston said. “Whatever mistakes, coaching-wise, player-wise, build on it. We did a lot of things and we did good, but we need to build off of that. We’ve got to be ready. We beat Cardinal last year, but that’s over with. We’ve just got to be ready (for next week).”