(Douglas, WY) – The 99 year history of Riverton and Douglas has been a pretty one-sided conflict with the Bearcats winning roughly 2/3 of the football battles over the years.
Wolverine fans, of a certain age, fondly remember 1999’s 3A state championship game and a muddy 14-6 win against the Bearcats at Tonkin Stadium.
This century however, it hasn’t been pretty for Big Red supporters. Riverton had lost 12 games in a row against DHS and 18 of the last 19.
That skid was snapped Friday night as Riverton clawed the cats 28-0.
RHS went 77 yards on the first drive of the game, making it 7-0 after a Hunter Saltsgaver 1 yard touchdown run and they never looked back. Saltsgaver, the Wolverine senior star running back, had an 8 yard TD run to begin the 2nd quarter.
With 4:01 remaining in the first half, Coach Mark Lenhardt at the Riverton offense got tricky. A hand-off to Gage Treber made the Douglas secondary react to an apparent running play, when Treber then threw the football to a wide open Eric Smith Jr. for a score. Saltsgaver caught a pass from senior quarterback Blake Gantenbein in the 3rd quarter from 24 yards out, making the eventual final score 28-0.
The Wolverine defense was stellar all game long, pressuring the Douglas quarterback on multiple occasions. It was the first shutout for Riverton since a 7-0 2024 “zero week” win at Powell.
After three succesful road trips, the 4-1 Wolverines host their Homecoming game Friday against the Buffalo Bison at 6:00 p.m.
Radio coverage of every RHS game can be heard on 105.1 JACK-FM and if you can’t make it to Wolverine Field, we’ll have video coverage on our YouTube channel.
And, if you want to re-watch the big shutout win at Douglas, check out the player below!