YAKIMA -- Friday night's halftime discussion in the visitors' locker room at East Valley could be boiled down to two words: more physical.

"At halftime, we challenged our guys up front and said, 'Don't be surprised if we don't run outside the tackles the rest of the game,'" said West Valley coach Scott Ditter said after his team's dominant second-half performance in a 21-12 season-opening, non-league victory over the Red Devils.

"We basically pointed at our linemen -- you, you, you, you and you. We told those guys they needed to be more physical. And with our defense, I think Paul (defensive coordinator Paul Stephens) also challenged them. He said we're not changing anything. You just have to be more physical."

And that's exactly what the Rams did. Their defense, led by linebackers Evan Smith and Dylan Hudson, and tackle Garrett Gano, held East Valley to 38 second-half yards. East Valley fullback Jonathan Buchanan managed just nine yards after intermission, after being nearly unstoppable with 79 first-half yards.

"In the first half, it was like we weren't doing what we knew we should be doing," said Smith, who had the first hit on Buchanan on three of his second-half carries. "We weren't really hitting, we weren't running to the ball, swarming like we should. In the second half, we started having a lot more fun."

The Rams' offense, though, had to work itself out of trouble in the third quarter. After West Valley's opening drive ate up 76 yards and ended with Joe Wallace's 14-yard scoring pass to Jake Smith, the Rams' next six drives included two turnovers and three punts -- one of them a botched snap that set up East Valley's go-ahead touchdown. In fact, the only thing that kept East Valley's halftime lead from being larger than 12-7 -- the TDs coming on a Kyle Fulks run and a Jordan Cameron-to-Colby Flory pass -- were a pair of lost fumbles deep in West Valley's end of the field.

But then came the drive that saved the Rams. After East Valley's Alex Phillips downed Flory's monster 52-yard punt at the West Valley 1, the Rams drove 99 yards to take the lead.

Check that: They didn't actually drive it. Much of it was a sprint -- a 54-yard burst by Joe Fuerst, who went outside tackle on second down from the 5 and got loose for 15 yards to the sideline, where he broke at least two tackles and took off down the sideline.

"We pulled it together," said Fuerst, who capped the drive with a 1-yard scoring run and then added an 11-yarder in the fourth quarter to clinch it. "We knew we had to get downfield and score and we did it. It was all our heart -- all of our guys were working together, our line was making the blocks and when you've got your teammates behind you, it doesn't matter how many guys hit you. You just keep on going."

East Valley coach Barry Reifel knew his team missed its chances, with those two lost fumbles. "We've got to eliminate those mistakes," he said. "Their guys, once they smelled blood in the water, they did a great job of getting it done."

West Valley 7 0 7 7 -- 21

East Valley 0 12 0 0 -- 12

WV -- Jake Smith 14 pass from Joe Wallace (Weston Green kick)

EV -- Kyle Fulks 5 run (kick failed)

EV -- Colby Flory 4 pass from Jordan Cameron (run failed)

WV -- Joe Fuerst 1 run (Green kick)

WV -- Fuerst 11 run (Green kick)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- WV, Joe Fuerst 16-140, Kyle Seikawitch 12-63, Weston Green 6-48, Joe Wallace 11-29, Greg Rhine 1-16, team 1-minus 14. EV, Jonathan Buchanan 14-88, Jesse Schindler 13-70, Kyle Fulks 3-5, Jordan Cameron 8-minus 8.

PASSING -- WV, Wallace 2-6-1 21. EV, Cameron 3-12-0 17.

RECEIVING -- WV, Jake Smith 1-14, Fuerst 1-7. EV, Fulks 1-8, DeSean Garcia-Stubbs 1-5, Flory 1-4.