Another difficult start led to a loss for the Powell Panther football team in Lander on Friday night, falling to the Tigers 48-7 to move to 0-3 on the season.

LANDER 48, POWELL 7

Hoping to carry some momentum from a better second half the week prior, the Panthers (0-3) matched up with the Tigers (2-0) on the road.

Disaster struck immediately on the first drive, as a fumbled snap on the second play of the game gave the ball to the Tigers at the Panther 15-yard line, creating another poor start for the Panthers.

“I think it’s like a duck on a pond. They might look like they’re slow and sluggish, but I think underneath they’re paddling to save their lives,” coach Chase Kistler said, adding, "They’ve got to have confidence that they can get the job done … It’ll eventually get there, but until then they do panic a lot at the beginning of games."

Lander capitalized on the mistake immediately, throwing a touchdown pass on the first play from scrimmage to make it 7-0.

The Tigers carried that momentum and built a large lead in the first quarter, leading 29-0 after the first.

“Offensively we shot ourselves in the foot so many times,” Kistler said. “We were picking up first downs and moving the ball, but then we would shoot ourselves in the foot with either a fumble, a turnover or a botched play where we air balled everything.”

Lander added another pair of scores in the second quarter, making it 38-0 going into the break.

The Tigers added another score in the third quarter to make it a running clock at 45-0, before another field goal eventually made it 48-0.

Powell got its lone score of the game with 1:13 remaining as Karcher Foley capped off a strong drive by the Panthers with a 1-yard quarterback sneak.

Kistler said they've talked about getting through the highs and lows of a game, of making a mistake and moving on.

"Sometimes after our lows we stay low for about two series, and then we have a couple highs, then something happens and we’re back into the lows for a couple series," he said. "I definitely see that on the defensive side when we give up a big play and we’re dwelling on that one and then they hit us for another big play. That just comes with experience.”

The Panthers finished with over 100 yards of rushing, led by Lincoln Crawford who had 20 carries for 94 yards.

“We were running the ball pretty well,” Kistler said. “People were open. It was always something different, either people were open and we threw a bad pass, or people were open and we threw a great pass and dropped it or we fumbled the snap.”

Broc Frank led the Panther defense with nine tackles, five of those solo and one for a loss while also blocking a kick.

HOMECOMING FRIDAY

The Panthers return home for their final nonconference game of the season, welcoming in the Douglas Bearcats (1-1) at 6 p.m. Friday for Panther’s homecoming game.

“They’re a very athletic team. They’ve got a lot of speed,” Kistler said. “They just have got a solid team. I do believe that they’re probably a little bit more athletic than what Lander was … We’ve got to get better at tackling. We’re not going to win very many games giving up 45 points … We’ve also just got to be more consistent on offense and give our defense a chance.”

LANDER 48, POWELL 7

Total tackles then solo tackles in ()

Passing — Tanner Seifert 4-14, 41 yards, 1 interception; Karcher Foley 1-1, 7 yards; Rowan Diaz 0-1

Rushing — Lincoln Crawford 20-94; Karcher Foley 3-22, 1 touchdown; Rowan Diaz 1-3; Tanner Seifert 1 for negative 1 yards; Breckyn Kobbe 1 for negative 17 yards

Receiving — Rowan Diaz 2-26, Broc Frank 1-11, Tyler Wenzel 1-7, Breckyn Kobbe 1-4

Tackles — Broc Frank 9 (5), Braxton Nelson 6 (3), Lincoln Crawford 6 (3), Rowan Diaz 5 (3), Caleb Ashcraft 4 (2), Breckyn Kobbe 4 (3), Tyler Wenzel 4 (2), Weston Hull 2, Karcher Foley 2, Jacob Christofalos 1

Tackles for loss — Broc Frank 1, Lincoln Crawford 1, Rowan Diaz 1

Blocked kick — Broc Frank 1