Big plays helped the Powell High School football team in its week zero contest, but too many mistakes saw the visiting Riverton Wolverines pull away in the final 17 minutes of the contest as the Panthers fell 31-14 to start the season.

RIVERTON 31, POWELL 14

Starting with a familiar opening opponent, the Panthers (0-1) welcomed in the Wolverines (1-0) on Friday night.

Powell’s offense got into Riverton territory on its first drive, before two holding penalties stalled the drive and forced the Panthers to punt.

“Penalties, they’ll hurt you anytime no matter what,” coach Chase Kistler said. “But I think we found out what kind of shape we have to get into because we do want to play that up tempo stuff.”

The Panther defense forced a punt by the visitors, but Riverton got on the board first.

A deflection on a third down pass with a juggling catch was intercepted by the Wolverine defense and returned to the end zone from 31 yards out to give Riverton a 7-0 lead with 4:03 left in the first quarter.

Powell didn’t need to wait long to answer.

The first pass on the next drive on a swing from quarterback Tanner Seifert to running back Lincoln Crawford ran out of room up the right sideline.

Crawford worked his way back across the field and found himself in open space, running up the sideline for the 80-yard touchdown to tie the game 7-7.

Riverton put together a strong drive in the second quarter, but Pratt Wambeke’s interception stopped the Wolverines with 1:59 left in the half.

Unfortunately for the Panthers, another interception followed, and a good Riverton return set them up in Powell territory with 1:08 left in the half.

Riverton quickly capitalized, and a touchdown run from 8 yards out with 49 seconds left made it a 14-7 game at the break.

After an initial stop to start the second half, the Panther offense put together another drive into Wolverine territory.

Penalties again plagued the Panthers, but a fourth down conversion from Seifert to Breckyn Kobbe set the Panthers up inside the 15-yard line.

On second down, Seifert found Braxton Nelson at the pylon just inside the end zone from 14 yards out to tie the game 14-14 with 5:15 left in the quarter.

Riverton found its offense on the ground, went down the field and finished with a touchdown run with 46 seconds left in the quarter to make it 21-14.

The Wolverines got the ball back early in the fourth quarter, and drove down to the 1-yard line, where the Panthers held them for three straight plays before a fourth down conversion found the end zone to make it 28-14 with 6:03 left.

A late Riverton field goal made the final score 31-14.

“I was proud of our guys. They played amazing on offense and defense. Did we make mistakes? Yes. Did we know they were going to make mistakes? Yes,” Kistler said. “That’s zero week. We’ve got a lot of football left in this season. I’m just happy that we came out of this healthy. We didn’t lose anyone, and it showed us what we’re capable of doing this season … We had a couple unlucky breaks tonight, but outside of that I was pleased with the way they played.”

Seifert led the Panthers through the air going 12-23 for 174, two touchdowns and three interceptions.

Crawford led on the ground and with receiving yards, recording 79 yards on 18 carries and had two catches for 82 yards.

Russell Goolsbey led with 11 tackles, five of them solo, as Trevin Morton and Jacob Christofalos each had a sack.

Penalties were an issue for both teams, as Powell had 12 penalties for 96 yards and Riverton had nine penalties for 85 yards.

“There’s some that you can’t avoid. The false starts and even the holding — I’m always like, you can call a holding on every play. So you’ve just got to keep working your technique and hand placement, that’s on us coaches,” Kistler said. “We’ll keep repping them, and we’re gonna keep getting in better shape.”

LOOKING AHEAD

Playing well in their first game against what is expected to be one of the top teams in the 3A East this season, Kistler said the Panthers will continue to get in shape early in the season.

“We’re gonna keep getting in better shape. We had four days of lightning delays the last two weeks that we’ve had to cut practice short and whatnot,” Kistler said. “So we didn’t quite get all the stuff we wanted to put in, and we didn’t get all of the conditioning that we need to be at the tempo we want to be.”

He said that practices have been good early in the year and the team continues to leave it out on the field every time they get out for a game.

“They have every notion of wanting to get back to the playoffs. Their motto is all out, and I think last year they did play all out, but this year, they don’t want to leave anything out there,” Kistler said. “They just want to give everything they’ve got, and practices have been awesome. They’ve been working hard, and like I keep telling them ‘hey, just keep doing the right thing, and good things will happen to you.’”

“We’re much better for it because we got four quarters of real football against the No. 3 ranked team (in 3A). A lot of schools are just doing jamborees so I’m happy with what we got,” Kistler said. “We’ve just got to keep getting better. Don’t take plays off and keep getting in better and better shape. We know it’s there.”

Heading into week one the Panthers welcome in the Worland Warriors (0-1), who returned to the 3A level this season and fell to 2A Thermopolis 38-0 in week zero.

RIVERTON 31, POWELL 14

Total tackles then solo tackles in ()

Passing — Tanner Seifert 12-23, 174 yards, 2 touchdowns, 3 interceptions

Rushing — Lincoln Crawford 18-79; Karcher Foley 3 for negative 5 yards; Tanner Seifert 2 for negative 19 yards

Receiving — Lincoln Crawford 2-82, 1 touchdown; Braxton Nelson 5-51, 1 touchdown; Broc Frank 3-20; Breckyn Kobbe 1-16; Pratt Wambeke 1-5

Tackles — Russell Goolsbey 11 (5), Broc Frank 9 (6), Trevin Morton 7 (1), Jacob Christofalos 6, Forest Kleinfeldt 6, Braxton Nelson 4 (4), Gabe McMillin 3 (1), Brayden Benander 3 (2), Isaiah Torres 3 (1), Levi Cox 2 (2), Weston Hull 2 (1), Karcher Foley 1 (1), Pratt Wambeke 1, Connor Farwell 1

Tackles for loss — Trevin Morton 1, Jacob Christofalos 1

Sacks — Trevin Morton 1, Jacob Christofalos 1

Pass breakups — Karcher Foley 1

Interceptions — Pratt Wambeke 1