By Ryan Atkinson
Globe Sports Writer
BAXTER SPRINGS, Kan. —
The Baxter Springs Lions had the seemingly endless experience.
The Riverton Rams had defense, good timing and what seemed to be the fresher legs.
That combination worked for the Rams, who forced five turnovers and opened the season with a 20-6 win over the Lions at Fred Hughes Memorial Stadium.
“What we talked about all summer was working hard, being disciplined and being in shape,” Riverton’s Derrick Rider said after earning the win in his head coaching debut.
“I feel like, for the most part, we did those things pretty well. We could have executed a little better offensively, but that conditioning makes a big difference at the end of the game.”
The end of the game was when the Rams slammed the door.
Riverton was clinging to a 12-6 lead and Baxter Springs, starting with good field position, drove to the Rams’ 29-yard line. But on 4th-and-6, Riverton’s Damon Simmons sniffed out Ty Rowe’s pass to the flat, picked it off and rumbled 39 yards to the Lions’ 34.
A person foul pushed the ball to the 18 and, five plays later, Logan North scored from 7 yards out. Simmons’ pass from Greyson Spriggs on the conversion made it 20-6 Riverton with just 4:41 remaining.
“ I saw the quarterback looking that way, so I went with my gut,” Simmons said of the key interception.
“They that play a couple times before and I was kind of looking for it. Coach was warning us about it.”
Rowe was 17-for-26 for 141 yards up to that point, but he completed just two of his final eight passes for 16 yards and a pair of interceptions, the second of which ended any slim chance the Lions were clinging to with less than two minutes remaining.
“Penalties and turnovers. Those killed us tonight,” Baxter Springs coach Brett Hartley said.
“Riverton is an excellent football team and when you make the mistakes that we made, you’re asking to get beat. ... I think we may have gone to the well one too many times (on Simmons’ interception). They dropped the backer out into coverage, which they hadn’t been doing much throughout the game and it proved costly for us.”
The Lions were on the move on the game’s opening possession before a pair of Rams separated running back Drew Bilke from the ball. Dylan Weaver recovered at the Riverton 46 and the Rams cashed in just two plays later, when North scored on a 16-yard run.
The score remained 6-0 until the Lions forced a Simmons fumble on the first play of the second half and then marched 45 yards in eight plays, capping the drive with Bilke’s 1-yard dive to knot the game.
But Riverton got a 38-yard kickoff return from KeeShawn Walker, started its drive at the Lions’ 36 and eventually scored on Spriggs’ 2-yard run to go up 12-6.
The teams traded possessions until the Rams got a pair of key stops — a stuff of Rowe on 4th-and-2 from the Riverton 15 early in the fourth quarter and Simmons’ big pick.
“We had a couple turnovers offensively that killed our momentum, but the defense kept responding time after time,” Rider said. “It didn’t matter what position they were in. The defense just flat-out came out and played.”
