Panthers put up 18 points, but still fall

RANGELY I When you’re 0-4, you look for the positive wherever you can find it.
Like scoring 18 points, which represented a season high.
The Panthers scored more points than they have in any previous game this season, but they still gave up 49 in a home loss Saturday to the Grand Junction High School junior varsity.
“We moved the ball on them,” said Rangely coach Tim Galloway. “We didn’t have much of a ground game, but we had some pretty big pass plays.”
Like a 69-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Kody Denny to Chas Byerly in the third quarter. Denny followed that up with a 55-yarder for a TD to receiver Tobie Gasper, also in the third quarter.
“Chas had a big game for us,” Galloway said of the sophomore receiver/defensive back. “He had six catches for 103 yards and he had some outstanding plays on defense as well. He’s got real good speed and real good hands. He’s a smart football player. He probably had the best game of any of our kids.”
The Panthers first touchdown of the game came on a 4-yard Cole Barlow run in the second quarter. He finished the game with 45 yards on 19 carries.
Rangely trailed at halftime 21-6.
“We just didn’t show up to play,” Galloway said. “We hurt ourselves with bad snaps or penalties or things like that. We just didn’t finish like we could have.”
Denny threw for nearly 200 yards on 11-of-18 passing, two touchdowns and one intereception.
“He was under a lot of pressure a lot of the time,” Galloway said. “The line didn’t give him a lot of time, but he was able to make some throws.”
Inconsistency plagued the Panthers against Grand Junction, which has been a team trait all season, the Rangely coach said.
“For whatever reasons, we’ll play well in spurts. We’ll have four or five good plays in a row, but we can’t put together any consistency,” Galloway said. “We have yet to be able to put a full game together. That’s what’s killing us now.”
It doesn’t get any easier this week. The Panthers travel to Hotchkiss for a league game Friday night. The Bulldogs are 3-1.
“They are one of the best (Class) 1A teams on the Western Slope, probably,” Galloway said. “I think we can still get a win. We just have to play mistake-free football and come to play. Whether we do that or not, we’ll see Friday night. You hear that cliche that on any given night anything can happen. It can. Maybe we can surprise somebody.”