The cancellation of a preseason scrimmage didn’t help, but neither did five turnovers in the first quarter on Friday.

The South Tahoe football team dropped its non-league opener against El Dorado 64-12 in Placerville, Calif., on Friday. Losing practice time and a preseason scrimmage due to smoky air quality the past two weeks was part of the problem, but so were fumbles and missed tackles. Now, the Vikings will go back to the drawing board before Fernley comes to town on Friday.

“We’re just going to work hard and get ready for this week,” head coach Kevin Hennessee said. “We just have to focus and go back to basics.”

Those rusty basics cost South Tahoe early on Friday. The five turnovers cut the Vikings offensive possessions down to two in the first quarter, and El Dorado ran away with a commanding 25-0 lead.

“We just weren’t ready for the tempo. Some of the younger guys weren’t ready for the physicality of it,” Hennessee said. “We’re just going to try to focus, learn from it and get better from it.”

The Vikings stepped up their game in the second quarter and held El Dorado to 15. Running back Tyler Nickerson broke free for an 80-yard touchdown run to put South Tahoe on the board. “There were some bright spots,” Hennessee said.

Wide receiver Brandon Erickson kept the momentum rolling with a touchdown pass from Corey McCarthy in the third.

But heading into the fourth El Dorado held a 53-12 lead, and the Vikings were unable to really regain their spark after that disappointing first quarter.

“Things were kind of spiraling out of control with the fumbles and no one tried to pick us up, which is something we need to learn to do,” Hennesse said. “When bad things are happening we need to learn to find our way out of those things, stop the bad and focus on the good.

“People are still figuring out their roles and figuring out they can step up and say ‘OK, I’m going to get us out of this.’ One play leads to two plays, leads to three plays, and that’s how it works.”

UP NEXT: South Tahoe is scheduled to host Fernley at 7 p.m. on Friday. Fernley beat South Tahoe 10-6 when the teams met last year.