The Wareham Vikings couldn’t have asked for a better start to their season.

Despite a shaky first half, Wareham won against the Fairhaven Blue Devils, their division rival, 19-6 on the first game of the season tonight.

Fairhaven scored early in the game. The first half of the game was a relentless back and forth where both sides gave as good as they got.

By the third quarter, Wareham began pushing past the stalemate.

Wareham’s defense hammered Fairhaven until the turnover that changed the tide for the rest of the game. After two successful first downs, Wareham scored its first touchdown late in the third quarter thanks to running back Josh Onujiogu, leaving the score tied at 6-6.

Starting the final quarter tied, Wareham controlled the rest of the game.

A breakaway run by Legend Fernandes led to another touchdown on the next down, scored by quarterback Isaac Nascimento and bringing the score to 12-6. The momentum didn’t falter as the ball turned over back to Wareham’s Ryan Bonfiglio, who scored the team's final touchdown.

“You guys cranked four quarters,” Coach Dan Nault said to the team in the post-game huddle.

The Vikings still have some kinks to work out, but the many penalties against Fairhaven played to their advantage, Nault said.

“They had some serious jitters earlier. They’re a very young team. But they got over them," Nault said. "They didn’t have those same jitters in the middle of the game.”

This game was everything a team could hope for on opening night. Not only did Wareham walk away with a hard-won victory, it had a packed home game to rally behind it.

Wareham’s next game will be away against Bishop Stang High School on Friday, Sept. 18 at 7 p.m.