Buccaneers Set the Tone on First Play : Fighting: The Raiders’ Hoskins is knocked down on Tampa Bay’s initial snap. Teams combine for 25 penalties for 187 yards and two ejections.

It took the Tampa Bay Buccaneers only one play to show the Raiders that they came to fight Sunday at the Coliseum.

On their first snap of the game, the Buccaneers’ Curtis Buckley, a rookie defensive back who lined up as a wide receiver, sprinted into Raider safety Derrick Hoskins and knocked him to the ground 20 yards from scrimmage.

Hoskins, in true Raider form, retaliated by blasting Buckley in front of an official without drawing a penalty.

And the fight was on.

“That wasn’t a football game out there, it was more like a fight played over four quarters,” Tampa Bay Coach Sam Wyche said. “The officials started letting the game get away from them on the first play when (Hoskins) (hit) our guy and the official said that he saw it but our guy had hit him first.

“As I remember the rules, when you hit a guy during a play, it was still legal. But when you hit him after the whistle, it’s a penalty.”

The 27-20 Raider victory featured teams that combined for 25 penalties for 187 yards and two ejections.

“I knew that (Buckley) was a (defensive back) as soon as he lined up,” Hoskins said. “After he hit me, I had to get him back because I knew that the officials would have just given a warning on the first play of the game. I just told him to keep coming back, because I had more for him.”

Instead of backing down, the Buccaneers continued with their rough play because they didn’t want the Raiders to feel that they were intimidated.

“When we came in here, we expected them to be talking junk and trying to intimidate us,” Buckley said. “We weren’t intimidated, and I think that shocked them more than anything.”

It’s ironic that the two Buccaneers who had the biggest run-ins with the Raiders were running back Mazio Royster and linebacker Hardy Nickerson, two L.A. products.

Royster, who played at La Puente Bishop Amat High and USC, was hammered and tackled around the neck for a three-yard loss by tackle Nolan Harrison in the third quarter.

On the next play, Royster got his revenge when he helped out on a double-team pass block and hit Harrison in the side.

“On the play before, he roughed me up pretty good,” said Royster, a 6-foot-1, 200-pound second-year pro. “So, I got him back with a chip block.”

To show his dislike of the block, the 6-5, 285-pound Harrison ripped Royster’s helmet off and threw it half the width of the field.

“That had to be the most bizarre play that I’ve ever seen not to have a penalty called,” Wyche said. “He threw the helmet at least 30 yards and the official tells me that it wasn’t a penalty because it happened after the whistle.”

If Wyche was mystified then, he got even more confused at the start of the fourth quarter when Nickerson, a former Cal standout, was ejected from the game for pushing an official.

After an extra point by Jeff Jaeger that gave the Raiders a 27-10 lead, Nickerson got into a two-stage fight with offensive lineman Gerald Perry. After the first round, Nickerson was pushed in the back by a group of players and bumped into an official, which caused Nickerson to be ejected.

“Four or five Raiders were pushing me and I had one guy by the facemask,” said Nickerson, who saw his Verbum Dei High football jersey retired Saturday night. “Everyone was pushing each other and the next thing I knew, I was the one thrown out.

“Normally, a game is played from whistle to whistle, but today the action kept going. All I can say is that the Raiders are an extracurricular football team.”

While the Buccaneers shook their heads in disgust after the game, the Raider locker room was business as usual.

“They tried to get us in fights the whole game and we only retaliate after they come after us,” Raider safety Eddie Anderson said. “Us being the Raiders, everybody feels that we intimidate people, so they come in trying to do whatever they think it takes.”