An 0-2 league start isn’t what Gig Harbor football had in mind this year. Where do the Tides go from here?

Starting 0-2 in the Class 3A South Sound Conference isn’t what the Gig Harbor High School football team had in mind this season, with an improved roster and a second-year head coach in George Fairhart.

The way the losses have come has been tough, also: A 14-7 loss to defending SSC 3A champion Timberline in week three, and a 16-13 loss to Yelm last week at Roy Anderson Field.

Two losses by a combined 10 points.

“We’re just going to keep at it,” Fairhart said. “The games we lost have been really close. We could’ve easily won those games. We just have to correct mistakes and get better.”

For the second consecutive week, Gig Harbor had trouble containing a dual-threat quarterback in the second half. In week three, it was Timberline QB Hunter Campau, and last week, Yelm QB Kyle Robinson.

“Coming into the game, we thought it might come down to which team had a better run game,” said Yelm coach Jason Ronquillo. “We knew the elements would probably play a role. A lot of their skill players are in the secondary for them on defense. When it came down to it, some of the matchups on the edge of their defensive line, we thought we could probably win those matchups. It kind of went into our mindset going into those final drives.”

Yelm’s go-ahead score came early in the fourth quarter, when running back Carson Amendt ran it in from 3 yards out, putting the Tornados up 16-13. The defense did the rest, holding the lead.

But Gig Harbor’s defense, for the most part, has done its part. The offense has been more problematic. Gig Harbor is able to move the ball throughout the game, but for whatever reason — be it holding penalties that stall drives, turnovers, etc. — the Tides have struggled to find the end zone.

“We’re making too many mistakes, missing assignments,” Fairhart said. “We need to do a better job getting our kids to do what they need to do. We should be able to punch it in.”

The good news? Gig Harbor has two of the league’s better opponents out of the way early. The bad news? It’s an uphill climb for the Tides now, and it doesn’t figure to get too much easier, with the likely exception of this week’s matchup against North Thurston and an Oct. 12 matchup against 0-4 Shelton.

The rest of the schedule? 4-0 Capital, 3-1 Peninsula, 3-1 Central Kitsap. It’s the deepest the league has been since it formed in 2016.

“There’s no question we can bounce back,” Fairhart said. “Teams are going to beat each other, we just need to take care of ourselves. Win or lose, we still to try to improve every week. That’s really all we can do, get better and focus on the next game.”

This story was originally published September 26, 2018 at 9:17 AM.