Waterford — Waterford was coming off a bye week and anxious to get started Friday night.

The Lancers won the toss, chose to receive and scored on the second play from scrimmage, just 30 seconds of elapsed time after the national anthem, on a 72-yard keeper down the left side by quarterback Peter Turello.

A big play right away.

But soon enough, as is prone to happen with such a young team as Waterford has, the little mistakes began to pile up.

Waterford turned the ball over eight times, six in the second half, two on fumbled punts, in falling to Bacon Academy 35-19 in an Eastern Connecticut Conference Division II matchup.

"We have a young, young team, a lot of sophomores and a lot of juniors that haven't played before," said Waterford coach John Strecker, whose team dropped to 0-3 overall, 0-1 in the division and has another bye week, a non-contact week as mandated by the CIAC, coming up this week.

"They haven't been on the field on Friday nights. There's more energy to it, more emotion to it."

The Lancers had more than one big play in the first quarter. Seconds after going down 7-6 on a 19-yard interception return by Bacon's Connor Brown, Waterford's Marquis Smith returned the ensuing kickoff 82 yards for a touchdown and a 13-7 lead with 35.7 seconds remaining in the quarter.

But Bacon capitalized on a Waterford fumble on its next possession to score a 6-yard touchdown by Quame Piper, making it 14-13, and the Bobcats (2-2, 1-1) scored two touchdowns in the final 4 minutes, 39 seconds of the half to give themselves a 20-13 cushion headed into the break. Brown, the Bacon quarterback, leaned in from the 1-yard line with 47.4 seconds left for the second score.

Coming back out, Waterford turned the ball over three times in the third quarter, the final time on the first of the Lancers' fumbled punts at their own 10-yard line. Bacon's Jon-Mike Murray ran it in from the 10 and Brown threw a two-point conversion pass to Shawn Soja to make it 28-13.

Waterford scored in three plays less than a minute later, as Turello hit Marcus Elliot for a 27-yard completion, followed by a 32-yard touchdown run, the second of the night for the senior quarterback that brought it within 28-19 with 52.6 seconds still left in the third quarter.

Receiving the ball for their next series, however, after forcing Bacon into a three-and-out, Waterford fumbled again, unable to sustain any sort of momentum.

Bacon's Brown finished with three interceptions, one for a touchdown, a rushing touchdown, a conversion pass and had a punt return for a touchdown called by back penalty. Also for the Bobcats, long snapper Scott Fries sprinted down the field to recover both Waterford's fumbled punts.

Murray scored for Bacon on a 13-yard run with 1:56 to play for the final margin.

Still, Strecker was encouraged by what he called some "good stuff" from this team, a team which lost its entire offensive line and six ECC Division II all-stars in all to graduation, headed into the Lancers' second bye week. Waterford doesn't play again until Oct. 13 at Windham.

"You can show them on film, 'You are here. You've got to make the play,'" Strecker said. "The kid drops the football. My father told me a long time ago — he used to coach us in baseball — physical errors happen. Physical errors happen, but the guy that's out on the field is still the best man for the job.

"... Everybody wants to get back out there. Even 0-3, you're ready to get back at it."

v.fulkerson@theday.com