Craig Spence’s welcome as the new head coach of the Auburn Mountainview football program was less than cordial on Thursday night, with the Lions losing to Sumner 42-3 in their 2010 non-league opener at Auburn Memorial Stadium.

“Sumner’s a good physical, veteran team,” Spence said. “We just had way too many first game jitters. Our first and second quarters, it was a good game.”

The Spartans shot out to a quick lead in the first quarter, with Spartan senior Cody Haavik rushing for a 6-yard touchdown to post the first points of the game.

Auburn Mountainview answered with a 27-yard field goal by Helton Cramer in the second quarter, bringing the score to 6-3.

Then things got out of hand.

Haavik scored again in the second quarter, this time from 16 yards out.

Sumner junior running back Tyler Salisbury added a 65-yard touchdown just before the half to put the Spartans up 21-3 at the intermission.

The second half was all Sumner.

“Right before the half that touchdown just took the wind right out of us,” Spence said. “And the second half they just wore us down.”

Salisbury scored again in the third quarter on a 10-yard run and Haavik added his third rushing touchdown of the game in the frame to put Sumner up 35-3 after three quarters.

Sophomore Mychel Hooser scored the final touchdown of the game – a 17-yard run – for Sumner in the third quarter to put the Spartans up 42-3.

“We’ve got to avoid all the silly penalties and we’ve got to get some guys healthy,” Spence said. “That’s a big part of it, but that’s not an excuse. They played well and our guys are young. Too many penalties in the second half and too many mistakes in alignment to make against a good team. But we’ll be better, we’re working real hard to get better.”

The game was sophomore quarterback Domenic Rocky’s first start of his high school career.

“Rock got his first game out of the way,” Spence said. “He threw one bad pick, he was under a lot of pressure. The wideouts were really struggling tonight. But to get that out of the way, he’s going to get better he has a really bright future. Ray Hardaway, a freshman, is going to be real talented, we’re going to have to find a way to play him more often. And C.J. Valliant showed that he can run hard at times. Those are the positives right there.”

Auburn Mountainview will travel to Eatonville for a 7 p.m. contest next Friday.