Minutes after finishing a dominant second half that saw the Hazen football team outscore Highline 31-0, Highlander coach Drew Oliver couldn’t quite shake what happened before the half.

“Our focus just wasn’t there,” he said. “That was our sloppiest half of football all year.”

Even with the early struggles, Hazen still beat the Pirates easily 44-7 in the Highlanders’ homecoming game Oct. 7.

Hazen (4-2 overall, 2-2 Seamount) got on the board in its first drive when Isaiah Talley ran in for a touchdown from eight yards out. Hazen quarterback Travis Johnson saved the drive when he completed a 27-yard pass to Julian Li on fourth down.

Highline came back to tie the game with a short touchdown run early in the second quarter. The Pirates converted two fourth-down conversions on the drive.

Hazen took the lead again with just over a minute left in the half when Johnson found D.J. Perry for a 30-yard score.

The Highlanders came out in the second half looking to put the game away. Hazen’s Keith Carlson ran in for a 52-yard score on the third play of Hazen’s opening drive.

Perry recovered the ensuing onside kick and Daymontray Brown scored on a seven-yard rush three plays later to put Hazen up 25-7.

Hazen scored three more times in the fourth quarter on rushing scores, to cap off the dominant performance. A performance that did have some nagging errors.

A few of Highline’s drives were lengthened by costly Hazen penalties and the Highlanders missed five extra point attempts.

“Those things are big,” Oliver said. “As we continue to move forward the margin for error gets smaller. Things like being able to get one point after a touchdown, those are going to be big points down the road.”

Offensively Hazen gained 266 yards on 35 rushes. Johnson completed four of five passes for 99 yards a touchdown. He rushed for two more scores.

Cody Taylor, Talley, Carlson and Brown all had rushing touchdowns. Carlson led the team in yardage with 101 yards on 11 carries.

Taylor and Talley each intercepted passes. Talley totaled 8.5 tackles, 2.5 of which were for loss. Eric Jacobs had 8.5 tackles, Jordan Bumgarner had 7.5 and Cody Moorhead picked up a sack.

“There are a lot of things we have to tighten up,” Oliver said. “We haven’t played that perfect game of football yet, that’s for sure.”

Hazen takes on Foster (5-1, 3-1) at Foster Friday at 7 p.m.