Continuing to battle through the season the young Powell Panther football team showed some growth offensively against the visiting Green River Wolves, outgaining the visitors despite winding up on the wrong end of a 44-14 scoreline Friday night.

GREEN RIVER 44, POWELL 14

Still seeking their first win of the season the Panthers (0-7 overall, 0-3 3A West) welcomed in the Wolves (3-4 overall, 2-1 3A West).

After a punt on the first Panther possession, the Wolves turned around and got a quick touchdown on a 25-yard pass to make it 7-0 with 9:20 left in the first quarter.

Powell then ran over seven minutes off the clock, driving deep into Green River territory before a field goal attempt was no good from 37 yards and the Panthers trailed 7-0 following the first.

“We drove down, ended up going for the field goal and the hold was bad,” coach Chase Kistler said. “It was still an opportunity for us to get points, which we didn’t see very much of in the first five games.”

Green River added to its lead in the second quarter, scoring on touchdown passes of 19 and 30 yards with 7:02 and 5:44 left to extend the lead to 21-0.

“We have all brand new players, there’s not one returning (starting) player on defense including our secondary,” Kistler said. “We’re pretty thin in the secondary, but it’s something that is just like our offense. We’re just trying to get better each week.”

He said Green River’s offense took to the air against a secondary filled mostly with sophomores.

“I thought our defense did pretty good at stopping the run, which that’s two games in a row that our defense has done pretty good against the run, but the big plays over the top, we’ve just got to keep on getting better at staying with our man,” Kistler said.

Powell continued to battle, but a fumble on a scramble trying to gain extra yards was returned to the end zone with 3:15 left and the Wolves took a 28-0 advantage into the locker room.

A trick play to their left tackle in the red zone earned the Wolves another touchdown early in the third quarter, before a 42-yard run, the biggest of the game for the Wolves, garnered another touchdown to make it 42-0 with 7:52 left in the third.

Green River’s final points of the game came late in the third quarter on a safety, making it 44-0 heading into the fourth quarter.

Powell got one touchdown with 4:38 remaining on a 5-yard touchdown pass from Karcher Foley to Broc Frank, while Rowan Diaz added another touchdown run with just over a minute remaining from 5 yards out to make it a 44-14 final scoreline.

For the first time this season the Panthers outgained an opponent in a contest, finishing with 287 total yards compared to 237 for Green River, as Powell had 237 as a team on the ground.

“Offensively I thought we played a lot better than we have in the past,” Kistler said. “We actually moved the ball well, we still had mistakes. We had nine penalties, four or five of them were holding, and those are just back breakers … We ran up front, we blocked a lot better than we have in the past. But we still made those big mistakes that cost us either drives or points.”

A majority of that rushing came from Lincoln Crawford, who carried the ball 34 times for 180 yards.

The Panthers were led defensively by Braxton Nelson who had six tackles, five of them solo. Kamea Wisniewski and Rowan Diaz were credited with a sack while Frank and Gabe McMillan were each credited with tackles for loss.

Nelson grabbed an interception and forced a fumble which was recovered by Caleb Ashcraft.

“We were really hoping to get a win, but at the end of the day, when you make the mistakes we did as a whole team, we just didn’t earn the right to win,” Kistler said. “I was impressed at how much we got better and the offense kept chugging along, still picking up yards and I feel like we left some points out on the board too.”

JACKSON ROAD TRIP

Powell now heads back on the road for the final time in the regular season, heading to Jackson at 5 p.m. on Friday to take on the Broncs (5-2 overall, 2-1 3A West).

“Jackson doesn’t run a whole lot, but they’ll run here and there just to keep you honest,” Kistler said. “This week, it’s going to be drawing up defenses that maybe confuse the quarterback, try to get pressure on him … As a defense as a whole we just have got to get better at covering the pass and the screens and continue to hold up the front line.”

Barreling towards the end of the season, Kistler is hopeful the Panthers can continue to build on the rushing success while hopefully adding Tanner Seifert back into the mix at quarterback after two weeks on the sideline due to injury.

“Karcher’s done a good job. He’s done exactly what we’ve asked of him … Karcher and Tanner both have gotten a lot of reps this year at QB, which is good, but with Tanner coming back we’ll see now if we can just build our run game and add some more pass stuff in to kind of tailor to what Tanner does best,” Kistler said. “But as a whole, just continue to get better as an entire offense, not just one thing or the other, because we can get better at all the spots on offense this year.”

GREEN RIVER 44, POWELL 14

Total tackles then solo tackles in ()

Passing — Karcher Foley 3-10, 50 yards, 1 touchdown, 1 interception

Rushing — Lincoln Crawford 34-180; Rowan Diaz 8-37, 1 touchdown; Karcher Foley 9-22; Sean Lowe 1-17; Breckyn Kobbe 1 for negative 19 yards

Receiving — Rowan Diaz 2-45; Broc Frank 1-5, 1 touchdown

Tackles — Braxton Nelson 6 (5), Pratt Wambeke 4 (3), Rowan Diaz 4, Broc Frank 4 (3), Dominik Bieber 3 (2), Tyler Wenzel 3 (1), Kamea Wisniewski 3, Gabe McMillan 2 (1), Caleb Ashcraft 1 (1), Karcher Foley 1 (1), Brayden Benander 1

Tackles for loss — Broc Frank 1, Gabe McMillan 1

Sacks — Kamea Wisniewski 1, Rowan Diaz 1

Pass breakups — Brayden Benander 1

Forced fumbles — Braxton Nelson 1

Fumble recoveries — Caleb Ashcraft 1

Interceptions — Braxton Nelson 1