Wareham High School launched its 2010 season at home against the Whalers of New Bedford High School, the first-ever meeting of both teams.  On a nearly perfect fall afternoon for football, the Whalers proved themselves to be ungracious guests by pounding the Vikings in the first half, recovering six Viking turnovers for the game, and earning a hard fought 33-6 victory over their hosts.

New Bedford took advantage of early Viking miscues.  After taking the opening kickoff, New Bedford completed seven plays before senior running back Phito Gondre scored on a short run for a 7-0 lead.  The Whalers and Vikings traded short possessions, and then New Bedford senior Myles Medeiros forced a Wareham fumble and returned it with 1:28 remaining in the first period to make the score 13-0.

Wareham struggled most of the first half to move the ball out of its side of the field. New Bedford used is superior size and strength to bottle up the Viking running game.  Wareham was able to defend better as the game wore on, but they were frustrated by their own turnovers all afternoon long.

Wareham's brightest offensive moment came with New Bedford holding a 26-0 lead.  Viking senior running back Matt Pimental burst through the Whaler defense and sprinted around his left side for 58 yards to the Whaler 2-yard line.  Two plays later he was able to power his way into the end zone for the Viking's only score of the day.

Wareham coach Dan Nault said after the game that his team needed to learn from the game.  "We could have picked a smaller school to play, but we want to compete with better teams," Nault said. "Playing better teams exposes everything...we need to work on everything next week," he added.

The Vikings' next game will be against Fairhaven on Thursday, September 16, at Fairhaven.