Despite four turnovers Kentlake held off another upset bid this week with a 42-33 win over Tahoma on the gridiron Friday night at French Field.

The Falcons fumbled the ball on the kickoff return to start the game but the Bears gave it right back.

Tahoma struck first with a field goal by David Stoecker at the 8:56 mark in the first quarter.

Little more than two minutes ticked off the game clock before Kentlake answered after Austin Pernell caught a bullet from Steffin Church to put the Falcons on the Tahoma 10. On the next play the Falcons put their first touchdown of the night on the score board at the 6:26 mark.

The see-saw scoring continued with 3:26 left in the first as Tahoma running back took it up the middle from 14 yards out to score, making it 10-7 Bears.

Less than a minute into the second quarter Stoecker nailed his second field goal of the night, extending the Tahoma lead to 13-7.

Kentlake drove 80 yards on the next series on four plays and took its first lead of the game in which Nu’U Vaifale had a 22 yard run and a 38 yard pass from Church to Breton Medina before Tanner Lucas punched it in from a yard out.

Tahoma answered with a 58 yard pass by Shane Nelson that set the Bears up in the red zone and then Beau Riggs, who carried the ball the most for the Bears, took it in two plays later from one yard out. After the two point conversion failed, Tahoma was up 19-14 with 7:47 left in the first half.

On the ensuing kickoff Austin Pernell may well have broken the league record with a 96 yard return for a touchdown which gave Kentlake a 21-19 lead.

But Tahoma had an answer in the form of Riggs, who ripped off another big run to the Kentlake 5, then took the ball again and scored making it 26-21 which was where things stood at half time.

“We had a (pass defense) package in place this week because last year they threw the ball effectively against us,” said head coach Chris Paulson. “So we put Austin Pernell out there on Jason Smith. We manned up Stephon on the other kid.”

But what hurt the Falcons in the first half was run defense, something Paulson said they got fixed in the second half.

It took four minutes, 29 seconds into the second half before another touchdown was posted on the board.

Kentlake covered half the field in two plays when Pernell put together a 25 yard catch followed by a 25 yard touchdown run by Church on an option play to take the lead back, 27-26.

Late in the third quarter Stephon Vaifale made a short run to put the Falcons on the Bears 7 yard line which set up Pernell who ran it in two plays later on an end around then laid out to get the touch down to extend the Kentlake lead to 35-26 with 3:40 left in the third.

Tahoma wasn’t done yet.

The Bears started the next drive on their own 36 and a few plays later, including a 25 yard reception by DeShon Williams, scored again to pull within two at 35-33 with five ticks left on the clock in the third.

Deep in Tahoma territory it looked like Kentlake might extend the lead until a fumble on the exchange at the 4 yard line gave the Bears the ball back.

But Nelson threw a pick from his one 1 yard line under pressure from Kentlake which took over at the Tahoma 30.

Lucas got the ball on three straight plays going for 14 yards, then took it to the two followed by a touchdown up the gut to make it 42-33 Kentlake.

From there the Falcons got the ball back with less than four minutes to play and went to the ground game to run out the clock.

Tahoma drops to 2-2 in South Puget Sound League North division play.

Kentlake improved to 5-0, a spot it was in last year after beating Tahoma at Maxwell Stadium, before dropping its next two games.

“We’ve got a group that’s a year more mature, that remembers how that felt,” Paulson said. “They all know what’s at stake next week. We’re going to prepare the same way we did the past two weeks.”

Heading into the game Sept. 23 against Thomas Jefferson Paulson talked to the team about finishing the game, something they had to do against the Raiders and again Friday night against the Bears.

“We told them going into the Jefferson game were going into a four game stretch against Jefferson, Tahoma, Kentwood, Auburn that would be for the league title,” Paulson said.

Kentwood beat Auburn 24-17, making the next match up at French Field on Friday, Oct. 7, another big test for Kentlake as Kentwood is in second place in the North.