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The North Penn-Mansfield Panthers scored early and often in a 48-14 win over Bucktail on Friday, September 29.

The Panthers put the game out of reach with 34 first quarter points. Starting just two minutes into the game, Brendan Hill scored on a 10-yard touchdown run to make it 6-0. Garrett David increased the lead two minutes later on a 5-yard touchdown run. After a Kipp Hillson interception, Brent Burleigh and Dylan Wesneski connected on a screen pass from a yard out, the Panthers were up 20-0 with 6:19 remaining in the opening quarter.

The Panthers kept the pressure on late in the quarter as Burleigh ran in a touchdown from 26 yards out and Isaac Way ran in the two-point conversion. Way then scored from 8 yards out with 23 second remaining to put the Panthers up 34-0.

North Penn’s starters got one more offensive series of work in the second quarter and again found the end zone. David scored for the second time on the night, this time from 21 yards out on a hard-fought run through the middle of the Bucktail defense. Justin Kriner followed with the extra point and North Penn led 41-0 with 9:40 left in the half.

Bucktail finally found the end zone with 6:34 left in the half as Richard Perry found Logan Long on a bootleg from 13 yards out to cut the score to 41-6. North Penn answered right away with their backups as Colton Litzleman connected on a screen pass to Judson Wise, which Wise took 38 yards to the end zone to make it 48-6.

North Penn went into the locker room with the 48-6 lead, but Bucktail found the end zone once more to close out the game’s scoring.

Tanner Riggle rushed from 8 yards out and Long caught the two-point conversion try from Perry to bring the score to 48-14.

“Tonight was a long trip for us,” said Panther head coach Tom Dickinson. “This team (Bucktail) they battle though, 17 kids I think dressed so we knew we’d be able to play a lot of players. Our offense executed early, our defense shut them down. We got our starters in and out healthy and then just about everyone on the team played, so that’s the most important thing.”

Litzleman was 4-for-5 for 80 yards and Burleigh was 2-for-3 for 12 yards. Both North Penn quarterback threw touchdowns during the game. Mikah Kolb led the Panthers’ ground game, picking up 81 yards on 6 carries. David finished with 53 yards and 2 scores on 4 carries, and Hill had 43 yards on 5 tries. Wise led the Panther receivers with 38 yards on his only catch.

North Penn-Mansfield (4-2, 3-1) returns back to NTL Large School Division play on Friday, October 6 against Towanda at Island Park.