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The North Penn-Mansfield Panthers cruised to a 45-8 victory over the Canton Warriors on Friday, September 22 during Homecoming.

The Panthers put up the game’s first points midway through the opening quarter as Brendan Hill caught a 23-yard pass from Brent Burleigh. Justin Kriner’s extra point was good, and the Panthers led 7-0 with 5:04 left on the clock.

While North Penn dominated much of the game, Canton was able to mount a scoring drive that would consume the remainder of the quarter. As the second quarter started the Warriors moved into scoring position where Michael Smithers rushed from 6 yards out. Instead of kicking the extra point to tie the game, they went for two. The gamble paid off as Smithers found Timmy Ward open in the back of the end zone to go up 8-7.

The lead didn’t last long as the Panthers put the pedal down and scored 38 unanswered points.

Just over three minutes after Canton’s score, Burleigh threw his second touchdown to Nick Kasper from 9 yards out to put the Panthers back on top. As the quarter came to a close, Burleigh found Sawyer Freeman wide open in the flat, and Freeman took it the remaining 13 yards to the house for Burleigh’s third touchdown pass of the night. Kriner again made the kick and the Panthers took a 20-8 lead into the locker room.

North Penn increased their lead late in the third as Burleigh threw his fourth touchdown pass. Burleigh connected with Kipp Hillson from 5 yards out to take a 26-8 lead.

The Panthers scored three more times to put the game out of reach and close out their Homecoming victory in the fourth quarter. With 8:45 Brendan Hill broke free from the Warrior defense for a 75 yard score, then Hillson recovered a Canton fumble and returned it 10 yards with 7:20 remaining in the game, then Austin Frost closed out the scoring on a 34-yard punt return with 12 seconds left to bring the final score to 45-8.

For Panther head coach Tom Dickinson, he was very impressed with his team’s defensive efforts in causing 5 Canton turnovers.

“We kept talking this week, Coach Zaparzynski and myself, and this team has some explosive players. Everyone was playing them (Canton) in man-to-man, we’re a zone team and I don’t think they could handle our zone. We confused them a little bit, our pressure got to them. That quarterback is going to be sore. Our kids were in the right positions to make good plays.”

Burleigh complete 11-of-16 passes for for 123 yards and 4 touchdowns, Hill rushed for 146 yards and a score on 18 carries, and Dylan Wesneski caught 4 passes for 36 yards.

Naseer Burzak led the Panthers with 11 tackles (3 for loss), Garrett David made 8 tackles and Hillson, Mikah Kolb, and Judson Wise all made 6 stops. Evan Brooks made 2 sacks on the night and Hillson, Wise, and Wesneski all had interceptions.

The win improves the Panthers to 3-1 (2-1 NTL Large School Division). The team will be back in action on Friday, September 29 at Bucktail.