Riley County 21, Holton 20 

It was a tough start to their home opening on Friday night as Riley County battled Holton for the first time in school history and knew going in they would be without third-year starting quarterback Eli Harmison, who was injured in a week one win at Jeff West. The Falcons committed three turnovers on their first three possessions in week two and gave Holton three short fields of 22, 11 and 20 yards. The Wildcats scored three quick touchdowns and added a pair of PATs to lead 20-0 after the first play of the second quarter.

However, Riley County never blinked or let down and would put together a pair of 11-play, 65 yard drives to pull within 20-14 at halftime. The Falcons kept momentum by forcing a three-and-out and putting together another 11-play, 67-yard-drive on their first possession of the third quarter and took a 21-20 led with 5:12 left in the third period. The Falcons rode senior runningback Sam Allen who ran the football 41 times for 166 yards and scored the final two touchdowns of the night. New sophomore Kadrick Woodard was 7-12 passing for another 111 yards including a 16-yard TD pass to Jace Woodard for the first Riley County score. The Falcons also had some huge conversions on their trio of 11-play long scoring drives including three conversions on fourth down (one was a 4th and 11) as well as six conversions on third down (three of those covering more than seven yards and one a 3rd and 15). 

Similar to their 7-6 week one loss against Sabetha, Holton certainly had opportunities despite not running more than four plays on their first five drives of the night. A long kickoff return by Bodie Dillon gave the Wildcats the ball at the Riley County 35-yard-line, but the Cats had a couple costly penalties that forced a fourth and 15 that resulted in a turnover on downs. Holton's got the ball back with 2:39 to play in the contest and put together their best drive of the night moving quickly with 12 plays and scoring on a run by Kyler Jackson that was called back because of a holding penalty. Holton then had a second holding call two plays later and then a false start then led to a fourth down and 20 play to end the game and fall by one-point for the second straight week in Big East play. 

Holton did not turn the ball over, but had 12 penalties for 85 yards and finished with 208 yards rushing. Another one of Holton's penalties that proved super costly was running into the kicker after Riley County had missed a PAT but got a second chance and made it.  Jackson led the way with 71 yards and a touchdown while Korban Wilson added 52 yards and had a pair of rushing touchdowns. Logan Altenburg had 26 yards as the Wildcats played the entire second half without their starting fullback and leading tackler at linebacker as Cael Frazier suffered a shoulder injury. Bodie Dillon had a defensive interception for the second straight week and returned it 70 yards to set up one of the early Holton short-field TDs and Dillon also had one of the two forced fumbles. 

Holton (0-2) will play at Royal Valley (2-0) in week three against a rival Panther team they haven't lost to since 1996. Riley County (2-0) who ran 61 plays (16 more than Holton), and had 17 first downs, will host Chapman next week before district play begins.