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PINEDALE — It is not how you start, it’s how you finish.

That was certainly the case for the Worland High School football team Friday night in Pinedale. What could be described as a trap game, the Warriors did not find their rhythm until the fourth quarter to grab their fourth win of the season.

“I think we had the mindset of looking ahead to the Torrington game. We were trying to do some different things with personnel and play-calling, with the bigger goal of getting better and improving going into the next week’s game against Torrington. It was more important for us to get better and learn some things, than just putting up a lot of points because we could,” said WHS football coach Ryan Utterback.

Even with the Warriors building a 14-0 lead by the second quarter, scoring first on an Andrew Edholm rushing touchdown in the first, then a 27-yard passing TD from Edholm to receiver Luke Mortimer in the second, the team could not get things clicking 100 percent.

It was not until the fourth quarter that the Warriors emphatically closed out the game. With Worland leading 14-7, the Wranglers were knocking on the door of tying things up. The Warriors put up a defensive stand and forced a turnover on downs, to which the Warrior offense marched down the field to score, with senior back Carson Lyman running in for a touchdown.

Holding a 20-7 lead, the Warrior defense forced a turnover when defensive back Jaime Luna picking off a pass, bringing the ball into Wrangler territory. With excellent starting field position, Worland’s offense capitalized with another Lyman rushing touchdown, pushing the lead to 27-7.

“A good positive was toward the end, we rolled our sleeves up and got done what we needed to get done. We did put ourselves in some challenging positions, some by accident and some on purpose. We would have liked to execute better, but at the end of the day we were able to overcome that,” said Utterback.

Having laid out challenges before the game, Utterback and his staff believed the team did a much better job of meeting those in the fourth quarter, rather than in the previous three.

“We felt better about them toward the end. It was a bit frustrating that we weren’t dialed in mentally earlier in the game. But overall, with how we played down the stretch, I thought we did ok with those challenges we set. It just shows that if we play like we did in the fourth we can hang with anyone, but if we play like we did in the first three quarters we can be beaten,” said Utterback.

Next week Worland beings their march toward a 3A state championship with a quarterfinal matchup against the No. 2-ranked Torrington Trailblazers. And the mindset for next week’s practice is simple, keep it rolling.

“Like we were telling them after the game tonight, it was like when we were talking about making the playoffs and achieving that goal. We can go to the next game and that’s an incredible goal for us to do next. Getting to the playoffs was great but we can keep going, it’s not about being happy to be here. We didn’t come this far just to get here, we can keep going. They’ve put too much work in to be like ‘OK, we’re done’, so let’s keep going,” said Utterback.

The Warriors kickoff against the Trailblazers at 7 p.m.