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The North Penn-Mansfield Panthers suffered a 26-12 NTL Large School Division loss on the road in Athens on Friday, September 1.

With 4:12 remaining in the first quarter, the Panthers’ Brendan Hill raced 69 yards to the end zone. The extra point failed but the Panthers led 6-0 and remained in front until early in the second quarter when Athens’ Zack Jayne scampered 19 yards through the Panther defense for the score to knot it at 6-6. Athens made the extra point to put them up 7-6.

North Penn’s defense forced a Wildcat turnover and the Panthers capitalized immediately. The Panthers marched down field and scored on their fifth play of the drive as Dylan Wesneski caught a Brent Burleigh pass from 17 yards out to take the lead with 6:23 remaining in the first half. North Penn went for two to position themselves a full touchdown to tie, but the two-point pass attempt slipped off a Panther receiver’s hands and fell incomplete.

Athens and Jayne went right back to work and put together a clock-chewing drive that culminated with a one-yard jaunt by Jayne into the end zone. Athens’ Aric Westbrook made the extra point to put the Wildcats up two, 14-12, with a handful of seconds left in the half.

Like last week against Northwest Area, the Panther defense buckled down and kept the Wildcats scoreless until Jayne Jayne bulled into the end zone from a yard out with 4:09 left in the game to make it 20-12. Jayne scored again on a 19-yard run just two and a half minutes later to seal the victory for Athens.

“We made plays when we needed to, that was a two point game, could have been a tied game with our conversion until the fourth quarter,” said Panther head coach Tom Dickinson. “That running back, he’s good. Zack Jayne is a good ball player and he wore us down. It’s a young team, we made mistakes, but that outcome could have been different.”

Hill led the Panthers with 95 yards rushing on 13 carries, Burleigh was 14-24 for 94 yards with a touchdown and interception, and Wesneski caught 7 passes for 53 yards and a score.

Jayne led all rushers on the night with 283 and 4 touchdowns on 37 attempts.

North Penn (1-1, 0-1 NTL Large School Division) travels to Wyalusing (2-0) on Friday, September 8.