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North Penn-Mansfield’s season came to an end against Mount Carmel in the District IV Class AA semi-finals on Saturday, November 10. The Red Tornadoes racked up 369 yards and all 5 touchdowns on the ground to advance to the AA championship game next week against rival Southern Columbia.

Mount Carmel got things started with under 5 minutes remaining in the opening quarter. With the ball at midfield Shane Weidner took a hand off and went up the middle for a big gain down inside the Panther 20. From there quarterback Tommy Reisinger faked a hand off sprinted 18 yards to put the Red Tornadoes ahead with 4:23 remaining.

Mount Carmel added another score to start the second quarter as John Ayers punched the ball in from 3 yards out to make it 14-0.

The Panthers hung around and eventually cut the Red Tornadoes’ lead in half before the second quarter ended.

After two monster penalties by Mount Carmel moved the ball from around midfield down in scoring distance. The Panthers were unsuccessful in their first three plays but finally found the end zone on fourth down as Brent Burleigh connected with Dylan Meyer with 2:19 remaining.

The third quarter was when Mount Carmel put the game firmly in their control. The Red Tornadoes continued working the ground game and wore down the Panther defenders. Back-to-back runs by Weidner moved the ball down inside Panther territory where Ayers capped the drive from 4 yards out.

Weidner picked up where he left off on their next drive with another long run into Panther territory. Following a tough run by Reisinger to the 5, Ayres scored for the third time on the afternoon to take a 27-7 lead.

Weidner found the end zone for the final time for the Red Tornadoes with 6:57 remaining in the game to push the score to 34-7. North Penn scored just over a minute and a half later as Burleigh found Justin Shedd that Shedd turned into a 76-yard gain.

“I told them afterwards that we had nothing to be ashamed of, not to put their heads down and that they accomplished a lot,” head coach Tom Dickinson said. “Coming down to this environment and playing this type of team it was 14-7 at the half and we battled until the end. I can’t be happier with the effort they put in.”

Weidner led Mount Carmel on the ground with 171 yards on 16 carries and Ayres finished with 118 yards on 22 carries. Reisinger ran the ball 8 times for 54 yards and was 1-for-8 passing for 17 yards, with Weidner catching the only pass.

Burleigh finished the afternoon going 10-for-15 with 2 touchdowns through the air. Shedd led the Panther receivers with 3 catches for 92 yards and a score, Sawyer Freeman caught 2 passes for 17 yards, Mikah Kolb caught 1 for 15, and Meyer had 2 grabs for 7 yards and a touchdown. Garrett David led the Panthers’ ground attack with 28 yards on 8 carries and Kolb finished with 11 yards on 15 attempts.

The loss ends the NTL Large School Division champions’ 8-game win streak and brings their record to 9-3 overall.

“This group is right up there at the top (of the best team’s I’ve coached),” Dickinson went on to say. “We’ve never been the outright NTL champs and we were able to do that and we were 1-2 at one point in the season. I’m sure people were counting us out but this team stuck together and trusted us and we put on that little run and won 8 in a row and avenged our loss to Bloomsburg. Our other two losses are to Mount Carmel and Montoursville, so you can’t be too disappointed in that.”