TRENTON — The Trenton Tigers were exactly what the Branford Buccaneers thought they were.

The Buccaneers faced a physical foe with athletes Friday night at Tiger Stadium. And when combined with penalties and early turnovers, that combination proved too much for Branford in a 45-15 setback.

“We made a bunch of mistakes early,” Branford coach Tim Clark said after the Bucs fell to 2-2. “That got us out of what we wanted to do. It forced us into throwing it more than we wanted to, we were wanting to be pretty balanced on offense.”

Digging an early hole against Trenton (2-2), Branford indeed relied on its passing attack in an effort to come back.

Junior quarterback Seth Heiderman completed 16 of 29 passes for 179 yards and one touchdown to Colton Leibold. The senior receiver had five receptions for 83 yards with Kyson Johnson, Clay Williams, Bodhi White and Junior Cress all catching multiple passes as well.

While Branford wasn’t able to rely on its running attack — the Bucs ran for just 55 yards on 12 attempts — with the early deficit, the Bucs weren’t able to slow down Trenton’s. Clark said the Tigers were able to control the line of scrimmage and the game.

“We couldn’t keep them off the field,” Clark said. “They had several fourth down conversions and when we did get them in a third-and-long or something, we’d have a penalty and give them another chance.

“We shot ourselves in the foot a lot.”