Yellow flags flew all over the field Friday night at Jim Baker Stadium but they didn’t stop Arcadia from big plays in a 55-39 victory over Saint Mary’s.

“Big plays are huge,” Arcadia coach Kerry Taylor said. “Big plays are what gets the team going. It’s what builds momentum. I thought we did a good job of that tonight.”

Arcadia’s big plays overshadowed a 12-penalty game - a statistic Taylor was not overly concerned about.

“I’m not worried about any of the penalties,” Taylor said. “I thought our guys played hard. I thought the refs made some bad calls. They’ll see the film, and they’ll learn from it over the weekend. As long as my guys are playing hard, I’ll live with it.”

The Titans opened with a 2-yard touchdown run by quarterback Kadin Beler set up by running back Paxton Earl's 25-yard run. The big plays continued when Beler connected with Earl later in the first quarter on a 62-yard touchdown that put the Titans up 14-0.

Beier followed that with a 36-yard bomb to wide receiver Crew Edwards with 42 seconds left in the first for a 21-0 lead.

After the Knights dented the lead in the second quarter with a couple of big plays of their own, the Titans answered right back with another long 36-yard Beler to Earl connection to make the score 33-14.

The big plays did not stop in the second half. The Titans pulled away with a huge 3-yard touchdown run by Beler with 5:53 left in the game for a 55-33 lead.

Taylor was mostly happy with his team’s overall performance.

“Offensively, I think it was a record-breaking night,” Taylor said. “We moved the ball consistently. Defensively, we had a few new schemes in this week. We’ve got to do a better job of tackling all the way through the play. Overall, I thought it was a good team win.”

Beler echoed Taylor.

“I thought we did pretty well,” Beler said. “There’s obviously little things the defense has to work on, but I thought offensively we executed very well.”

Beler had five touchdowns passing, two of which were to Earl. He also ran for three scores.

“Those are our two workhorses on offense,” Taylor said. “Whether Paxton (Earl) is running the ball, catching the ball, blocking, he does it all. Kadin (Beler) is doing an amazing job reading the field, being incredibly accurate and running the ball. They’re both guys that are big time division one players, and I won’t be surprised when college scouts start lining up to see these two play.”

Arcadia improved to 4-0 after going winless last year.

“It gives us a lot of confidence knowing that we are 4-0,” Earl said. “We also have a lot more confidence knowing that we have so much more to improve on and have yet to play the best game we have.”

The Knights fell to 1-2. However, Knights coach Tom Brittain was proud of his team’s effort.

“I thought it was a particularly good effort in the first half,” Brittain said. “We gave up big plays in the first half, but they were contested. Overall for a young team I think it was a step in the right direction for us.”

The Titans go on the road to face Shadow Mountain next Friday at 7 p.m. before heading to Saguaro to face their toughest opponent this season on Sept. 21 to open conference play.