The Powell football team came up short on its last chance to earn a win in the 2025 season, as the Panthers fell to the visiting Evanston Red Devils 28-0 on Friday night to finish winless for the first time since 2003.

EVANSTON 28, POWELL 0

Needing a win to end on a high for the young Panthers (0-9 overall, 0-5 3A West) they came in with a shot at the Red Devils (2-7 overall, 1-4 3A West) who were also winless in conference.

On the first drive of the game Evanston drove into Powell territory, but the Panther defense stood tall and got the stop to get the ball on downs.

Disaster struck for the Panther when leading rusher Lincoln Crawford went down with an injury on the second play from scrimmage.

“That one hurt, he’s been running the ball so well,” coach Chase Kistler said. “I think mentally, it kind of messed with our guys a little bit because that’s probably the first time they’ve really seen a pretty significant injury. What I saw from our entire team was we were kind of timid the rest of the game. I don’t know if that was the reason why or not, but it was a huge loss to start the game.”

Following a Panther punt the Red Devils moved down the field and got on the board with a touchdown rush with 3:26 left in the first quarter.

Evanston added a second touchdown to start off the second quarter, as a rush near the goal line made it 14-0 after the first play from scrimmage in the frame.

Another quick series for Powell was followed by a big play through the air for Evanston to set the visitors up for another close rushing touchdown and make it 21-0 just over two minutes into the second quarter.

Evanston added a fourth rushing touchdown with just over three minutes left in the half, as a 37-yard rush capped off the scoring for the contest at 28-0.

Powell was unable to get its offense going in the game, as the Panthers finished with 19 yards on the ground and 78 through the air as a team.

Evanston finished with 225 rushing yards and 161 through the air.

“Evanston was a good running team all year. I just knew that they were going to be a little more physical up front than the last couple games that we’ve played in. But they did kind of control the line of scrimmage,” Kistler said.

Tyler Wenzel led the Panthers with 13 tackles, seven of them solo, including four tackles for loss and three sacks.

Braxton Nelson added 12 tackles including six solo, one of those for loss.

Isaiah Torres added two sacks for the Panthers.

LOOKING FORWARD

Despite finishing the season without a win the Panthers have a lot to look forward to next season, losing less than 10 seniors from the roster and bringing back a wealth of players who recorded significant playing time this season.

“They know that in the offseason it’s kind of in their hands to hit the weight room. I had a couple guys tell me that they kind of took this last year for granted and they didn’t work as hard as they should and it really opened their eyes to how fast the season goes by,” Kistler said. “The proof will be when we start lifting in the winter time and through the summer of who trains hard.”

He added there’s a lot of potential with nearly the entire team returning next year, “minus four or five spots, but even at those spots a lot of young guys played a lot of reps, so we’re going to have quite a bit of experience coming back next year. So I’m excited to see what they do with it.”

Kistler said he is excited for the depth that the Panthers bring back especially along the line, which will be another year older and bigger next season with a number of athletes competing for those spots.

He said that despite losing every game this season the Panthers learned a lot, and hopes they will return and continue to grow next season as they progress in their high school careers.

“It was frustrating in terms of wins and losses, but we saw this year coming. We knew it was going to be hard, especially in the conference that we play and the schedule that we play. There is no bye week, there is no easy week,” Kistler said. “But all in all, our guys, they got thrown into the fire all season long.”

He said the coaches told the players the game will slow down for them and be less overwhelming next year with more experience under their belts.

“It was a year of growth and they saw a lot of great competition in a conference that had a lot of seniors this year on every team,” Kistler said. “So it was just like hey, just learn every week, get better each week and one day, this team is going to be full of a bunch of seniors going against some teams that are not quite as stacked with seniors. So just be patient and trust the process.”

EVANSTON 28, POWELL 0

Total tackles then solo tackles in ()

Passing — Tanner Seifert 12-29 78 yards, 2 interceptions

Rushing — Karcher Foley 10-30, Lincoln Crawford 2-4, Trevin Morton 1 for negative 1 yard; Sean Lowe 1 for negative 1 yard; Tanner Seifert 4 for negative 13 yards

Receiving — Karcher Foley 5-40; Tyler Wenzel 3-16; Broc Frank 2-10; Breckyn Kobbe 1-7; Braxton Nelson 1-5

Tackles — Tyler Wenzel 13 (7), Braxton Nelson 12 (6), Kamea Wisniewski 7 (1), Isaiah Torres 6 (1), Weston Hull 3 (1), Broc Frank 3 (2), Jacob Christofalos 3, Karcher Foley 2 (1), Brayden Benander 2 (1), Gabe McMillan 2 (1), Connor Farwell 2, Sean Lowe 1 (1), Rowan Diaz 1, Breckyn Kobbe 1 (1), Russell Goolsbey 1 (1)

Tackles for loss — Tyler Wenzel 4, Braxton Nelson 1, Broc Frank 1

Sacks — Tyler Wenzel 3, Isaiah Torres 2

Pass breakups — Tyler Wenzel 1, Caleb Ashcraft 1