BELTON — Belton and Georgetown East View forced five turnovers each through two games when they entered Friday’s non-district clash in the Tigers’ home opener.

The visiting Patriots more than doubled that total by the time they left Tiger Field, and the bounty of Belton miscues helped East View turn an early 10-point deficit into a 24-10 victory as it knocked off the Tigers for a second straight year.

“Six turnovers ain’t going to beat anybody. Plain and simple, we have to take care of the football,” said Belton head coach Brett Sniffin, whose team led 10-0 through the game’s first 9 minutes but trailed by a touchdown at halftime then went 0-for-5 on its second-half possessions, which ended in two interceptions, two fumbles and one turnover on downs.

Though their defense yielded just two touchdowns on 10 drives, the Tigers forced no turnovers.

“When you’re coming off a big win like that, you have to watch (for) a letdown, and we came out good, but then we kind of let down, like we thought it was going to be easy or something,” continued Sniffin, whose team beat Georgetown 34-26 last week. “Well, they’re well-coached and they want to play and they want to win, too. So we have to come out and match that fire, and we didn’t. So this is a great opportunity to learn from.”

The Patriots (2-1) brought pressure all night, forcing and recovering three fumbles and intercepting Tigers quarterback Will Shepard three times after the junior had none through the first two games as they shut out Belton (2-1) for the final three quarters to win their second straight game.

Shepard finished 24-of-35 for 306 yards, and Gavin Ross had 10 catches for 138 yards to help Belton drive inside East View territory on four second-half possessions, but it couldn’t turn any into points.

Leading 17-10 at the break, East View struck on the third play of the third quarter when Sam Williams hauled in a 50-yard touchdown reception from Cormyc Guerrero to close the scoring for both teams.

Guerrero led East View with 72 yards rushing on five carries while completing 15 of 25 passes for 152 yards and two touchdowns.

Belton ran 14 more plays than East View in the first half — 41 to 27 — and quickly built a 10-0 cushion but its offense sputtered more as the half deepened, and two second-quarter miscues helped East View take a 17-10 edge into the locker room.

The Tigers promptly covered 72 yards over 10 plays to notch a touchdown on their opening drive for a second straight week after Shepard’s first three completions each tallied first downs — a 20-yarder to Ross followed by 16-yard gains to Asa Thomas and Achilles Palomares, respectively.

A 14-yard connection to Ross set up a fourth-and-goal from the 1, after which Shepard bulldozed over the goal line for a 7-0 lead with almost 4 minutes elapsed.

After forcing an East View punt, Shepard found Ross for a 57-yard gain down the middle of the field when Ross got behind the defense as Shepard bought time with his legs to set up a 25-yard field goal from Corin Ramesar to extend the led to 10-0 midway through the first frame.

The Tigers then almost forced an ensuing three-and-out though a pass interference call on third-and-20 extended the procession, and East View later capitalized by punching in its lone offensive touchdown of the half.

A 28-yard reception by Williams put the Patriots inside the red zone and they got a 10-yard TD throw from Guerrero to Caleb Hill on a slant route to cut the deficit to 10-7 two plays later.

East View then bookended the second quarter with scores to take over the lead for good. Forcing Belton to punt deep in its territory, the Patriots’ Sam Arnett scooped up a loose ball on a mishandled snap and took it 7 yards untouched across the goal line to provide a 14-10 lead 19 seconds into the stanza.

East View’s Cavan Gonzalez later knocked through a 35-yard field goal as time expired on the half to move the advantage to 17-10 after Jason Mehollin’s interception set up a short field.

“The defense played pretty well. You just can’t give them the ball over the place and give them points,” Sniffin said. “We had a lot of magic last week. Maybe we used it all up for this week, but we’ll be back.”

jbrooks@tdtnews.com