MANKATO &8212; Albert Lea held Mankato West to just 21 points Friday night, but the Tigers&8217; offense continues to struggle to find its footing.

Albert Lea managed just 53 yards in the game as it lost 21-0 to fall to 0-3 on the season.

&8220;Offensively, we have to gel as a unit, work on pass protection and move people off the ball,&8221;

Albert Lea head coach Clay Anderson said. &8220;We have a lot of new people playing and there is a learning curve. But it is not like we are losing to bad teams. West is a very good 4AAAA team, Mayo is probably the conference favorite and Wascea is very good.&8221;

Coming off a rough game against Rochester Mayo, Albert Lea was able to stay in this game throughout, but the Tigers are still in search of their first points of the season three games in.

West opened the game by driving down the field for the score, and the Tigers would not be able to answer as all of their yards came on the ground.

&8220;We tackled poorly in that first quarter, but after that we played much better on defense,&8221; Anderson said. &8220;They just have some really nice athletes that make it tough.&8221;

Louie Grossman returned to the lineup after missing a week with injury and led the Tigers with 69 yards rushing on 11 carries. Quarterback Logan Ferrie was harassed by the Scarlet defense and was sacked on a couple of occasions leaving him with negative yardage on the night.

&8220;It was good to have Louie and (Anthony) Tippett back, and we had a big run from Logan Kortan that was called back,&8221; Anderson said.

Mankato proved to be a versatile offense rushing for 112 yards and throwing for 230 as the Scarlets ran twice as many plays in the game as Albert Lea.

Both teams had one fumble lost, but the Tigers were unable to turn it into points.

&8220;We took some positives from this game and the kids never stopped playing hard,&8221; Anderson said.

Albert Lea is back in Mankato Friday when they face East.