PRAIRIE DU SAC - Portage's football team got the breaks it needed to stay close in the first half, but it's luck ran out after halftime.

Sauk Prairie twice lost fumbles inside the red zone and took only a 7-0 lead into halftime but the Eagles held onto the ball in the second half and ran through Portage's defense en route to a 28-0 win Friday in both teams' Northern Badger Conference opener.

Sauk Prairie's Tyler Halverson ran for a game-high 94 yards on 22 carries with a pair of touchdowns as the Eagles rushed for 223 yards in the game.

"Up front, including myself, we just didn't dominate the line of scrimmage, that was our goal was to dominate the line of scrimmage," Portage senior captain Jake Hohlstein said. "Including me up front, we just didn't do our jobs. All we can do is get better as the weeks go on."

Halverson lost a fumble inside Portage's 10-yard line on the Eagles' first drive of the game and Jon Goeres lost another at Portage's 12-yard line in the second quarter as the Warriors avoided disaster with the takeaways and ended half trailing by one score.

Sauk Prairie, however, started the third quarter with a 13-play, 70-yard drive that lasted 6 minutes, 40 seconds and resulted in a Halverson 1-yard touchdown run.

Two drives later, Sauk Prairie's Zach Buelow returned a punt 40 yards to the Warriors 16-yard line and Halverson plunged into the end zone from 2-yards out four plays later and ran in the two-point conversion as the Eagles took a commanding 21-0 lead.

Buelow tacked on a 4-yard TD run late in the fourth quarter to cap scoring.

"The biggest thing we did was hold on to the ball," Sauk Prairie coach Scott Schutt said. "We told the kids at halftime by all rights it should be 21-0, not 7-0. Take care of the ball, don't make this a nail biter and they did a nice job."

Portage's offense found no rhythm in the game as the Warriors gained just 151 yards of total offense, punted five times and turned the ball over on downs three times.

Portage's best field position of the game came at the end of the second quarter when the Warriors trailed 7-0 and had 1st-and 10 at the Eagles 17-yard line.

After a sack and pair of pair of runs resulted in a 4th-and-5 situation at the 12-yard line, Portage quarterback Greg Koch rolled to his left and threw an incomplete pass into the end zone.

The Eagles sacked Koch five times in the game, including 2.5 from Zach Lenerz.

"Just had some phenomenal play with the front six bringing pressure," said Schutt of stopping Portage's offense. "You know, fourth quarter they just couldn't get anything going because we had some kids making plays."

Portage's offense did not cross into Eagles territory in the second half.

"I don't know, I'd have to watch the film but they just dominated the line of scrimmage tonight," Portage coach Dave Schmitz said. "They dominated the line of scrimmage and then we were fortunate not to get behind by three touchdowns early."

Both teams entered the game winless, having lost each of the first two weeks.

The Eagles lost to Stoughton in overtime last week after missing an extra point.

"We stepped it up in practice, we came out hard in the game and we were ready for them this week," Halverson said. "Last week's game, 14-13,that made us kind of mad. We wanted to come out hard this week."

An 0-3 start is not what the Warriors expected in their bid to return to the playoffs for the second straight season.

"It's disappointing. But when you sit down and see what's going on and evaluate everything; you know I could sit here and make up excuses, but we're just young, we're learning how to battle," Schmitz said. "We haven't gotten to the part of learning how to win yet obviously, so it's just a process. You can't get there overnight and it's tough to go through but you've got to go through growing pains and it will pay off in the future."

"We're a young team and we all have confidence in each other," Hohlstein said. "We're trying to play as a team, play with our hearts and represent our jersey color. But we have a young team, I mean all we can do is just coming out week-by-week and try to be successful."

Portage 0 0 0 0 - 0

Sauk Prairie 7 0 6 15 - 28

Sauk Prairie - Z. Fiene 12 run (Pings kick)

Sauk Prairie - Halverson 1 run (kick failed)

Sauk Prairie - Halverson 2 run (Halverson run)

Sauk Prairie - Buelow 4 run (Pings kick)

TEAM STATISTICS

First downs - P 7, SP 16. Rushes-yards - P 28-102, SP 52-223. Passing yards - P 49, SP 44. Passes (Comp-Att-Int) - P 4-13-1, SP 4-5-1. Penalties-yards - P 4-25, SP 3-20. Fumbles-lost - P 0-0, SP 3-2.

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

RUSHING: P - Mueller 13-85, Biba 6-32; SP - Halverson 22-94, Buelow 14-50, Z. Fiene 11-50. PASSING: P - Koch 4-12-0, 49; SP - Z. Fiene 5-6-1, 44. RECEIVING: P - Paul 1-34. SP - Herbrand 2-17.