The Vista del Lago Eagles clawed their way to a third straight league win Friday, drilling Ponderosa on their home field in Shingle Springs on homecoming night, 35-13.

The Eagles broke open a 14-7 game at halftime in the third quarter and finished the Bruins off in the fourth, as the team sits atop the Sierra Valley Conference standings with a 3-0 record.

While the offense put up the points, the defense played their best game of the season, holding the Bruins to only 13 points, six coming on the game’s final play on a long touchdown run.

“The best thing was I loved the way the defense played and I loved the way we tackled,” Vista coach Chris Jones said. “It’s awesome when your kicker (Scott Fukui) kicks the ball in the end zone every time and your defense plays their tails off. It was our best defensive game of the season.”

Vista led a tight game 14-7 at halftime, but got the ball for its second possession at the Ponderosa 27-yard line after the defense pinned the Bruins down on their own 10-yard line. On the first play from scrimmage, Trey Hairabedian scored on a 27-yard touchdown run and Fukui’s extra point made it 21-7.

Vista moved the ball down to the Ponderosa 1-yard line on its next drive, only to fail on a pass play on fourth down. On Ponderosa’s first play from scrimmage, Vista’s Nick Grunsky intercepted the ball at the 25-yard line. Five plays later, Hairabedian took it in from three-yard line and Fukui’s extra point made it 28-7.

On the first play of Ponderosa’s next drive, Vista forced a fumble which Tyler Weber recovered at the 5-yard line. Hairabedian scored on the ensuing play and Fukui’s extra point finished Vista’s scoring at 35.

Hairabedian also scored once in the first quarter on a 3-yard run, while quarterback Tyler Mull threw a 30-yard touchdown to Grunsky on a fourth-and-six play in the second quarter for Vista’s other score.

Vista struggled a bit offensively in the first half, but battled its way through it.

“That’s still part of the immaturity issue, but the best thing is we worked our way through it,” Jones said. “It’s nothing we had to scream at them about at halftime. I just told them that we’re better than that.”

Things didn’t go so well for the Vista junior varsity team, which lost 36-0.