RANGELY I The Rangely Panthers football team won their third game of the season with a 30-6 win over the Vail Christian Saints, who were undefeated until the Panthers came marching in.
“I think our guys played their best all around game of the year,” head coach Paul Fotunato said. “Our offensive and defensive lines were the deciding factor in this game and our guys wanted it more than Vail did. Vail was 5-0 so beating them was a good confidence builder going into the last two weeks of league play.”
Neither team scored in the first quarter but senior Colton Coombs scored twice on two-yard runs after long drives in the second quarter.
“All of our drives were long drives with our line and backs working hard to continue to move the chains,” Fortunato said.
Chas Byerly added a two-point conversion on one of the touchdowns and Rangely led 14-0 at halftime.
The third quarter was also scoreless but both teams scored in the final 12 minutes of play.
Coombs scored his third touchdown of the game, this time on a 40-yard run and Tobie Gasper added the two-point conversion to go ahead 22-0 before allowing the Saints to score on a 98-yard pass after Rangely blitzed trying for a safety.
Byerly made the final touchdown for the Panthers on a 4-yard run and Coombs ran in for the two extra points.
Coombs scored three touchdowns, rushed for 124 yards and had four sacks on defense. Byerly ran for 144 and caught two passes for 17 yards. Luis Contreras had five sacks and Ethan Allred got to the quarterback three times behind the line of scrimmage.
Coach Fortunato asked the fans to support his team in the final to regular season games, both at home on Yaeger Field, starting with Soroco (4-2) this Friday.