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5 first quarter touchdowns led the North Penn-Mansfield Panthers to a 54-14 win over GAR Memorial from Scranton at Mansfield University on Friday, October 5.

The Panthers started with a score not even three minutes into the game. After putting a drive together quarterback Brent Burleigh finished it with a short, 5-yard run into the end zone with 9:40 on the clock. On the Panthers’ next possession Burleigh hit Garrett David on a screen pass that David turned into 45-yard touchdown. Kevin Alexander’s extra point was good and North Penn-Mansfield led 14-0 midway through the quarter.

The Panther defense then scored back-to-back touchdowns. Their first came with GAR backed up to their own end zone. As David blitzed to try for a sack, he deflected the pass that wound up in the hands of Roch Minnich for a touchdown with 4:23 remaining. Two minutes later, David scored as he intercepted a pass and returned it 55 yards to the house to put the Panthers up 27-0.

GAR’s Justice Lomas scored on a 51-yard swing pass from Cam Taylor just 28 seconds after the Panthers’ last touchdown to break the shutout and make it 27-8 following a two-point conversion, but the Panthers came storming back before the quarter ended.

After a long pass from Burleigh to Sawyer Freeman down to the GAR 25 David found the end zone for a third time, this score coming from 22 yards out through the middle of GAR’s defense to make the score 33-8.

One more Panther score before halftime put the game firmly out of reach for GAR. After another long pass from Burleigh to Freeman, Noah Spencer found the end zone from 11 yards out with 2:42 left to make it 40-8.

After a GAR score with 4:24 left in the third quarter the Panthers added two final scores before the quarter ended. With 3:50 remaining, David broke a 38-yard run that put North Penn-Mansfield up 47-14. Then with just 11 seconds remaining Bryan Bogaczyk bulldozed his way into the end zone from 9 yards out, bringing the final score to 54-14.

Burleigh finished the night 10-of-12 for 161 yards and a touchdown and ran 8 times and scored once. Mikah Kolb led North Penn-Mansfield on the ground with 83 yards on 10 carries, David finished with 67 yards on 4 touches, and Spencer rushed for 34 yards on 2 carries.

Freeman and Shedd both hauled in 4 of Burleigh’s passes. Freeman had 64 yards receiving and Shedd finished with 43. David (45 yards) and Dylan Meyer (9 yards) also hauled in Burleigh passes.

Defensivley David led the Panther defense with 10 tackles, Cameron Andrew had 7, and Freeman finished with 6. Two Panthers had interceptions in addition to David’s and Minnich’s picks. Spencer had one INT for a 9 yard return and Bogaczyk had one for 49 yards. Brett Harvey, John Minnich, and Kaelan Matczak all recorded sacks.

The win improves the Panthers to 5-2 overall and keeps them at 4-0 in the NTL Large School Division. The team is back in action this coming Friday, October 12 as they travel to Towanda to square off against the Black Knights.