Fairbanks came up with a host of big plays against host Riverside on Friday and the end result was a 48-21 win for the Panthers in the first week of Northwest Central Conference football action.

“Fairbanks ran all over us tonight,” said RHS head coach Tim Doty. “We started slow and were down at halftime and that hurt us. We gave them the short field and lost the turnover battle.

“We would get a little momentum and then we’d give up the big play. They just made the big plays against us all night.”

It was a bittersweet feeling for Riverside, which did put up some big numbers on offense.

“We threw the ball well,” said Doty. “Bryce (Hodge) had 300 yards and we had 400 yards of total offense. Those were some bright spots for us, but we gave up just as many yards.”
Fairbanks recorded two touchdowns in the first quarter. Tyler Smith ran in from six yards out to put the Panthers up 7-0. Nick Gibson then ran in the next score on a 13-yard run. A missed extra-point attempt left Fairbanks ahead 13-0 at the end of the first quarter.

The Panthers got back on the scoreboard in the second quarter with a 12-yard TD run to take a 20-0 advantage with 1:22 left until halftime.

Riverside’s offense stalled on its next drive and the Panthers were able to capitalize with a 29-yard TD pass with 10.8 seconds left until the break. That score gave Fairbanks a 27-0 lead at halftime.

Riverside was able to find the end zone twice in the third quarter. Hodge threw a 21-yard touchdown pass to Gunner Whitaker and Hodge tossed an eight-yard TD pass to Trevor Helmlinger.

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