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."
