<p>Staff photo by E.J. Harris Riverside's Marvin Calvillo (2) and Jessie Hegar tackle Irrigon's A.J. Timpy on Friday in the Pirates' game against the Knights in Boardman.</p>

BOARDMAN Irrigon football coach Marty Brown knows early season jitters can be what stand in the way of successful opening Friday night and long, quiet bus rides home.

So following his teams 31-0 victory over Riverside Friday night, the ball coach was pleased that his team had heeded his pre-game advice.

I told the team before the game that itll be the team that makes the least mistakes (that wins), Brown said, following that up by saying his hunch heading that it would be his team. Brown would be proven right, outside of one interception and two penalties, the Knights (1-0) played about as mistake-free a football game one can expect for the first week of September.

Riverside on the other hand, was not so fortunate. The Pirates (0-1) totaled nearly as many first half penalty yards (40) as those from scrimmage (55). Riverside also put the ball on the grass twice, threw an interception and turned it over when a punt collided with the heel of a Riverside player.

It didnt hurt that the Knights also had the games most explosive player: Fredy Vera. Vera a junior wide receiver, who found himself in the backfield as much as out wide, scored the first three Irrigon touchdowns.

Vera opened the scoring with a 25 yard scamper down the left sideline, breaking open the scoreless start with 4:51 remaining in the first quarter.

Vera and quarterback Nathan Venley then connected on a pair of touchdown strikes, Vera did the they heavy lifting on each, breaking a handful of Riverside arm tackles to pinball his way for receiving scores of 21 and 67 yards to make the score 19-0.

Vera has made great strides this offseason Brown says, noting that he and Venley were integral in gathering the team over the summer for team workouts.

He worked his tail end off and he was already pretty good. The maturity as an individual this year has been great, Brown said.

Vera finished with 173 total yards and three touchdowns.

And even in the runaway victory, the Knights were far from flawless. Verley, a 6-foot-2 junior, was just 7-of-20, but the pigskin hit the hands of his intended receiver on all but three of the incompletions.

We got to catch the ball if its hitting us in the hands, Brown said. We probably had eight dropped balls. Thats huge. Weve got some things to work on.

We just have to get the jitters out of the way and catch the ball.

Verley finished with three touchdowns passes, hooking up with diminutive sophomore Carlos Zacharias on a 25 yard score along with the pair to Vera.

Nate threw the ball great. He threw one pick it was a bad decision but he threw the ball very accurately, Brown said.

Backup quarterback Austin Rice found AJ Timply for the Knights final score, slipping the ball between two defenders and into the Timplys gloves.

Riverside had just one first down in the first half, a 42 yard pass from quarterback Eon Castillo to the hulking Jessie Hegar. Hegar mis-timed his jump but was fortunate that Vera deflected the ball into Hegars hands.

Minus the Hegar reception, the Pirates gained 13 yards on 26 first half plays from scrimmage.

They finished with just five first downs on the night.

The Knights have a week off before they take on Umatilla in its home opener on Sept. 19.

Riverside plays at Union next Friday at 7 p.m.