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Since starting the 2019 season at 1-3, the North Penn-Mansfield Panthers have won three straight games, the most recent a 31-7 victory at Philipsburg-Osceola on Friday, October 4, to improve to 4-3.

The Panthers jumped out to a 10-0 lead after the opening quarter. Midway through the quarter, quarterback Colton Litzelman found Brandon Thompson inside the 10, and the junior took it the rest of the way for a 38-yard touchdown. Later in the quarter North Penn-Mansfield capitalized off a turnover. Rhyen Wilson recovered a fumble deep in PO territory that would setup a Kevin Alexander 30-yard field goal.

In the second quarter the Panthers again turned a PO turnover into points. With the PO in control near midfield, Logyn Choplosky sacked the Mountaineer quarterback and forced a fumble. Kohen Lehman was in the right place at the right time to scoop up the fumble, and return it 43 yards the other direction for the touchdown. Lehman struck again midway through the quarter, this time on the offensive side of the ball, as he broke loose on a 49-yard run to put the Panthers comfortably ahead, 24-0.

Philipsburg-Osceola added a touchdown late in the half, their only one of the game, on a short 1-yard run.

After a scoreless third quarter the Panthers struck for the final time in the fourth quarter. After runs by Bryan Bogaczyk and Litzelman got the ball into Mountaineer territory, Litzelman found the end zone from 2 yards out with 8:05 left to play for the game’s final score.

“Coming this far, a 2-hour trip, with a new team we are pleased with the win,” head coach Tom Dickinson said. “You make mistakes but we’ll learn from those and that’s the thing, we’ve been trying to get better each week and we were able to do that.”

Litzelman finished 12-for-20 through the air for 91 yards and a touchdown. Bogaczyk led the Panthers’ ground attack with 92 yards on 20 carries while Lehman finished with 58 yards on just 4 attempts. Thompson led North Penn in receiving yards with 38 on his only catch of the night. Logan Tokarz caught 4 passes for 9 yards and Kaelan Matczak hauled in 3 receptions for 14 yards.

Next up for the Panthers (4-3, 3-1 NTL Large School Division) is their annual Homecoming game, this year featuring the Towanda Black Knights. Kickoff from Island Park begins at 7:00 p.m.

“It’s a young group and they like coming to play so that’s what we’re trying to do,” continued Dickinson. “Last week and this week they’ve seen what they can be so hopefully we can keep it going next week, and we’re home the next three weeks so that will be nice.”