Coming into Friday night’s game at Northwest Area, North Penn-Mansfield had scored just 32 total points in its first three games .. but chalk a good portion of those struggles up to the fact that their three opponents .. Troy, Canton and Towanda .. are 10-1 combined and arguably the class of the NTL this season.

The Panthers would take advantage of four first half turnovers by Northwest and nearly equaled their season points total in the first half alone with 25.

Northwest’s first turnover of the game came on the opening kickoff as the Rangers fumbled, giving North Penn-Mansfield the ball at the Ranger 19-yard line just :02 into the game.

Four plays later, on a fourth-and-4, Karson Dominick found Cooper Shaw in the corner of the end zone and the big tight end hauled in the 13-yard touchdown pass. Dominick’s point after was good and NPM led 7-0 with 9:48 left in the first quarter.

Northwest was able to answer right away, as the Rangers put together a seven-play, 52-yard drive capped by a Adam Chonko 1-yard run on fourth-and-goal to even things midway through the first quarter. 

But from that point, North Penn-Mansfield made it very difficult for the Rangers, who only managed 100 yards of offense for the remainder of the game, 57 of which came on their other touchdown drive in the fourth quarter. 

The Rangers forced a punt on the Panthers’ next drive as North Penn-Mansfield was called for back-to-back intentional grounding penalties, but a 44-yard punt by Dominick pinned the Rangers deep in their own territory at their 14. 

Cale Wagner ended Northwest’s drive by picking off Jace McCoy and returning it 19 yards. Dominick then hit Luke Kreger for a 28-yard touchdown reception to put the Panthers up 13-7 late in the first quarter. 

Northwest fumbled the ball away again on the first play of its ensuing possession, giving North Penn-Mansfield the ball at the Ranger 29. The Panthers needed eight plays in the drive to capitalize, as they converted a fourth-and-9 with Dominick hitting Wagner for a 15-yard reception, and Dominick punched it in on a quarterback sneak from a yard out to make it 19-7 early in the second quarter.

Later in the second, McCoy was picked off again, this time by Dominick near midfield. The Panthers then turned to the ground to do their damage, as George Perry burst through the line of scrimmage and into the secondary, where he outran the rest of Northwest’s defenders for a 56-yard touchdown run to make it 25-7 heading into halftime. 

Perry found the end zone for a second time as his 18-yard touchdown run capped a 53-yard drive on North Penn-Mansfield’s opening drive of the second half, giving them a 33-7 lead. Perry finished with 126 yards on the ground for the Panthers on just 10 carries to go with his two scores. 

After having success through the air early, the Panthers only threw the ball once in the second half, as they went to the ground game with the big lead. They had 114 rushing yards in the second half, but had only 44 yards on the ground prior to Perry’s long touchdown run late in the first half. 

Dominick finished with 151 passing yards on 10-of-18 throwing along with his two touchdown passes.

The Panthers made it 39-7 with their longest drive of the game, a nine-play, 61-yard sequence that spanned 5:56 and was capped by Wagner’s one-yard touchdown run with 9:01 left in the game. 

Northwest tacked on a late touchdown when McCoy hit Andrew Bonzcewski for a 25-yard touchdown pass with 5:18 left in the game.

With their first win of the season, NP-Mansfield now stands at 1-3. They’ll visit the 3-1 Muncy Indians next Friday night. 

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N.P.-Mansfield 39,

Northwest 15

N.P.-Mansfield 13 12 8 6 — 39

Northwest 7 0 0 8 — 15

First quarter

NPM–Cooper Shaw 13 pass from Karson Dominick (Dominick kick), 9:48

NW–Adam Chonko 1 run (Miller kick), 6:19

NPM–Luke Kreger 28 pass from Dominick (kick failed), 0:50;

Second quarter

NPM–Dominick 1 run (kick blocked), 9:36

NPM–George Perry 56 run (pass failed), 1:06

Third quarter

NPM–Perry 18 run (Perry run), 9:00

Fourth quarter

NPM–Cale Wagner 1 run (pass failed), 9:01

NW–Andrew Bonzcewski 25 pass from Jace McCoy (Biller pass from McCoy), 5:18

TEAM STATISTICS

NPM NW 

First Downs 19 12 

Rushes-yards 39-214 23-63 

Passing yards 150 89 

Comp-Att-Int 10-25-0 10-20-2 

Total yards 364 152 

Fumbles-lost 0-0 2-2 

Penalties-yards 12-111 8-57

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING: North Penn Mansfield: Cale Wagner (18-77-1), George Perry (10-126-2), Karson Dominick (5-8-1), Isiah Kling (3-8), Kevin Clemente-Vazquez (2-(-1)), Charles Aumick (1-(-4)); Northwest: Adam Chonko (8-45), Anakin Kosek (8-10), Nicholas Stevens (3-7), Jace McCoy (3-(-3)), Andrew Bonzcewski (1-4)

PASSING: North Penn Mansfield: Karson Dominick (10-18-151-2-0); Northwest: Jace McCoy (10-20-89-1-2)

RECEIVING: North Penn Mansfield: Luke Kreger (4-71-1), Cooper Shaw (3-36-1), Gabe Bellows (2-28), Cale Wagner (1-15); Northwest: Andrew Bonzcewski (4-44-1), Nicholas Stevens (2-20), Dominic Cavuto (1-10), Loegan Diltz (1-8), Branden Biller (1-4), Trevor Dietz (1-3)