RICHLAND -- Sports fans love statistics, but numbers alone usually do not tell the whole story of a football game.

Then there are those occasions when they do.

Hanford played what may have been its best half of the season, capitalizing on a blocked punt and a pass interception to take a 16-7 halftime lead over a heavily-favored Kennewick team at Fran Rish Stadium.

Then, the Falcons succumbed to those undeniable statistics.

Kennewick held the Falcons to just eight yards in the third quarter and just 38 yards for the entire second half on the way to 28-16 win. The victory allows Kennewick to stay just a game back of Kamiakin in the Columbia Basin Big Nine Conference 3A standings.

As they have done at least a couple of times this season, Hanford outplayed a favored opponent in the first half.

Kennewick had run 19 plays in the first quarter -- compared to just three for Hanford -- when the Falcons forced the Lions to punt from midfield. The punt was blocked, and Hanford recovered the ball on the Kennewick 45. Falcons quarterback Austin Forsyth connected Jake Oram on a 45-yard touchdown pass on the first play from that spot. The extra point attempt was wide.

Grant Woods set up Kennewick's first score by returning the ensuing kickoff 45 yards to the Hanford 49. Woods gave his team a 7-6 lead from 13 yards out nine plays later, with 11:51 left in the second quarter.

The Falcons answered with a 14-play drive their own, finished off by Will Bishop's 21-yard field goal with 5:26 remain in the first half.

Hanford extended its lead when Kennewick quarterback Bryce Leavitt was picked off by Isaac Benard. The interception gave the Falcon's the ball on their own 35, and on the sixth play from that spot, Tyler Sanchez made a leaping catch of a Forsyth pass along the right sideline. Sanchez broke away from two would be tacklers and then dragged two more to set the Falcons up at the Kennewick three.

KENNEWICK -- The touchdown was on his hands, and then it was on the ground, and Josh Richards knew he had just cost his team seven points.

But rather than pout or get down on himself, Southridge's senior play-maker went out and got his team three more scores.

Richards hauled in four balls for 217 yards, accounting for the bulk of Matt Mendenhall's 316 yards passing in the Suns' 31-10 win over the Hanford Falcons in a CBBN 3A contest at Lampson Stadium on Friday night.

Richards scored on a 75-yard bomb and 78-yard screen in the first half, which along with Tanner Gottschalk's 40-yard interception return for another score right before the half made all the difference.

"We try to run first, use the play-action. But this was one we knew we could throw the ball around," said Mendenhall, who completed 13 of 21 throws, finding Richards again for a 34-yard score to salt the game away early in the fourth quarter.

"We've been throwing shorter passes this season, but we wanted to get some big plays. That was one of our goals."

Achieved, and just in time for the Suns (4-1, 3-0) to give a little pause to their next opponent, unbeaten Kamiakin next week.

"We have a great running back, and when you stop him, we have four or five guys who can go makes plays," said Richards, who just missed hauling in a perfect strike from Mendenhall that would have been a touchdown on the Suns' opening drive.

But he knew he would have more chances to make good.

"That's what I said," Richards recalled. "After that first time, I got the rest of the game and I can't get down on myself. There's still 42 minutes to play."

Despite the big passing numbers, Southridge had trouble moving the ball with any consistency. Chris Haueter, the top rusher in the league, was limited to 41 yards on 15 carries and had just 7 at the half.

"Our defensive line is physical," said Hanford coach Rob Oram, whose Falcons (2-3, 2-1) suffered their first league loss. "We've held every team under 100 yards rushing except Richland. We're stout vs. the run. But passing was not hard tonight. Mendenhall's tough to corral, and when he has 20 seconds to throw the ball, he's tough to stop."

RICHLAND -- Athletes don't often get second chances.

But after Hanford kicker Will Bishop came up short on a 47-yard field goal attempt on the last play of regulation, he drilled a 36-yard field goal in overtime to give his team a 31-28 CBBN 3A win over Pasco at Fran Rish Stadium on Friday night.

"He hit the big one in crunch time to give his team a win," an elated Hanford coach Rob Oram said.

The Falcons actually appeared to have the game put away after taking a 28-14 lead on sophomore Isaac Benard's 16-yard touchdown run with 10:55 left in the fourth quarter. Benard carried the ball nine straight times for 60 yards on that drive.

But Pasco quarterback T.J. Avery led the Bulldogs back with two fourth quarter touchdown passes. Avery hit Lonnie Hurley, who made a diving catch in traffic, to tie the game with just 32.9 seconds left in regulation to tie the score.

"These kids don't give up," a downcast Pasco coach Dustin Lamb said. "But these slow starts are killing us. We have to come out faster. We give up too many points early."

Hanford went up 14-0 in the first quarter. Austin Forsyth hit Jake Oram with a perfect 34-yard TD pass with 8:17 left in the first. Then Benard scored from 24 yards out with 6:31 left.

Benard was a thorn in the side of the Pasco defense all night. The compact 190-pounder, filling in for starter Jalen DeVine, crashed and rumbled through the Pasco defense 35 times for 174 yards and three touchdowns.

"Actually we've got three pretty good tailbacks," Oram said. "You should see our third stringer. He's good too, but he has a broken arm."