Heading on the road for the first time this season the Powell High School football team overcame a slow start to defeat Rawlins 21-12 on Friday night.

POWELL 21, RAWLINS 12

Mistakes from the jump led to the Panthers (2-1) falling behind early against the Outlaws (1-2).

A snap over the quarterback’s head on the first drive just 1:30 into the game gave the Outlaws the ball at the Panther 16-yard line.

Rawlins didn’t take long to score, as a pass on the first play found its way into the end zone to make it 6-0 early after a missed extra point.

Powell’s next drive ended in a punt, but the Panther defense answered and forced a punt from the Outlaws to get the ball back with just under five minutes remaining in the first quarter.

Unfortunately for the Panthers, on second down the ball once again went over the head of the quarterback, and was picked up by the Outlaws and raced to the 1-yard line.

Rawlins scored two plays later on the run, and made it 12-0 with 3:25 remaining in the first quarter, following a failed two-point conversion.

“It was a miscue up front, but once we shuffled up our line a little bit and started getting our snaps down (we were fine). The crazy thing is, even if you watch it on film, the snap is over our head but we’re blocking it for a 15-yard gain in front of it,” coach Chase Kistler said. “We knew as soon as we got the snap down, we were good.”

Powell found its offense in the second, as Lincoln Crawford punched it in from 1-yard out on an extended drive to make it 12-7 with 7:22 left in the half.

“I was proud of the boys for buckling down and being like ‘all right, let’s get things rolling here’ and turning it around,” Kistler said.

The Panthers quickly got the ball back a minute later on a fumble recovery by Isaiah Torres, and Crawford again finished off the ensuing drive with a touchdown 1:30 later to make it 14-12 Panthers.

Braxton Nelson appeared to extend the lead on a punt return touchdown late in the third, but a penalty negated it with 1:47 remaining.

Powell did extend its lead on the next drive, as Karcher Foley hauled in a pass and found space on the sideline to race into the end zone on a 34-yard touchdown reception — making it 21-12 with 45 seconds left in the third.

“We’ve got a lot of threats on the offensive side of the ball. Guys with just flat out speed,” Kistler said. “We’ve got a lot of threats all over the place.”

The Panthers did not allow Rawlins to find another point, as Powell earned its second straight win 21-12.

“I’d much rather have pulled away, but the entire second half when we kept on giving them second chances, I just felt like our guys knew we were capable of winning,” Kistler said. “I just never really felt uncomfortable. Nervous yes, but our defense was playing so well … It was nice to just have to grind one out, our offense had to grind the ball out at the end just to run the clock out. That was good, and our defense had to stand up a few times in the third and fourth.”

Tanner Seifert went 10-10 through the air for 94 yards, throwing one touchdown and one interception.

Crawford ran for 66 yards on 23 carries for two touchdowns, and Foley hauled in four catches for 80 yards and a touchdown.

Russell Goolsbey led with 10 tackles, three different Panthers had tackles for loss and four recorded sacks. Broc Frank forced a fumble and Torres recovered one as Nelson added a pass breakup.

FINAL NONCONFERENCE GAME

Powell heads back on the road this week, making the trip to take on Buffalo (0-2) at 6 p.m. on Friday.

“The biggest thing is we want to come out of our nonconference games healthy, which we are right now,” Kistler said. “We’ve got a couple guys that are coming back this week, and the biggest thing for us is keeping guys rotating in so that we can stay healthy for the season … Rawlins was a tough road trip. Now we’re going to Buffalo, it’s just good to get that practice of going on the road and trying to get another win on the road.”