Home Page Sports

The North Penn-Mansfield Panthers scored 28 points in the second quarter to break open their game with Cowanesque Valley for a 50-8 win on Friday, October 13.

The win improved the Panthers to 5-3 overall (4-2 NTL Large School Division) while moving them into 8th place in the District IV Class AA playoff standings with 600 points.

On North Penn’s second drive the Panthers marched downfield on runs by Kipp Hillson. After Hillson got the ball near the goal line, quarterback Brent Burleigh connected with Sawyer Freeman to put the Panthers up 7-0 following Justin Kriner’s extra point with 1:52 remaining in the first quarter.

The Panther offense exploded for 28 points in the second quarter, starting with a 3-yard Burleigh pass to Nick Kasper, then a 4-yard pass to Justin Shedd and a Kriner kick pushed the score to 21-0 with 6:05 remaining. A Garrett David 1-yard run with 3:26 left made it 28-0, then Shedd later scored on another 4-yard pass from Burleigh with 57 seconds remaining to make it 35-0.

North Penn’s starters got one final series of work on the night to start the second half and made the most of their opportunity. Burleigh threw his fifth touchdown on the night as he connects with Kasper from 36 yards out. Kriner’s kick made it 42-0 with 10:06 remaining.

Cowanesque Valley found the scoreboard for the only time of the game with 5:09 remaining. With the Panther backups in, a fumbled exchange was picked up by Matt Barber and returned for 47 yards. Barber made the two-point conversion and North Penn led 42-8.

North Penn’s JV team scored for a final time on the night with 36 seconds remaining in the game. Colton Litzleman found Kaelan Matczak for a 4-yard pass and Bryan Bogaczyk made the two-point conversion, brining the final score to 50-8.

“We started a little slow but the defense played great the entire game,” said Panther head coach Tom Dickinson. “Offensively we need to execute a little bit better against Troy next week. Once we got going I was pleased with it.”

Burleigh threw for 145 yards and 5 scores on 13 completions, while Litzleman was 2-for-3 for 12 yards and a touchdown. Brendan Hill gained 137 yards on 18 carries, Hillson rushed 5 times for 25 yards, and Dylan Wesneski carried the ball once for 21 yards. Hill also led the Panther receivers with 57 yards. Kasper finished with 3 catches for 43 yards and Shedd had 30 yards on 4 catches.

The Panthers are back in action on Friday, October 20 in Troy before hosting rival Wellsboro in the annual Morton F. Jones Trophy game.