WARMINSTER— If you’re a fan of big plays, William Tennent High was the place to be Friday night. Some big plays led to a big night for the Panthers, who pulled away from New Hope-Solebury in the second half as they rolled to a 35-7 win non-league win.
Four of Tennent’s five touchdowns came on plays of 40 yards or more as the Panthers (2-3) ended a three-game losing streak.
It was a huge night for senior running back Gavin Mensch who ran for 180 yards on 12 carries, scored rushing touchdowns that covered 60 and 81 yards, and caught a 64-yard touchdown pass.
Junior quarterback Brayden Rementer ran for a 45-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter and had another long run nullified by a penalty.
“This is what we worked all summer for,” he said. “We’ve been working all season, all summer, just putting in our work, and this is what we get.”
Tennent coach Biz Keeny said a big key to the win cutting down on mistakes and his team delivered on that front.
“Tonight I thought we were pretty complete,” he said. “We minimized mistakes, we talked about that all week. We didn’t make as many tonight as we have in the past.
“In that part of it, we’re getting better every week.”
Mensch got things started for the hosts on the second play of the game with his 60-yard sprint off the left side. Tony Canales extended his team’s lead three-and-a-half minutes into the second frame with a two-yard run that was set up by a Lions fumble.
New Hope-Solebury (2-3) cut that lead in half when Jon Scrima connected with Finn Johnson on a six-yard hookup with 43 seconds left in the first half.
But Tennent extended its lead once more when Rementer found Mensch wide open over the middle; he had clear sailing all the way to the end zone to make it a 21-7 game with 6:25 left in the third quarter.
“We practiced it a lot,” Mensch said. “We knew it would be there.”
The Lions were still in the game at the start of the fourth quarter they reached the Tennent 4-yard line with three chances to put the ball in the end zone. But Johnson was stopped for no gain on second down and two incomplete passes, one prompted by an errant snap, ended the drive with 8:53 left in regulation.
“That was a big part of the game. We strive for perfection on defense and offense and obviously, giving up seven points there {would have hurt.}”
Four plays later Mensch sprinted 81 yards on a toss to the left side to extend his team’s lead to three scores.
For New Hope-Solebury coach Dale Smith it was a case of too many mistake.
“We just couldn’t seem to get out of our own way tonight,” he said. “We had the fumble earlier, came down to the {4-yard line} and we had a bad snap. We self-inflicted some stuff.”
With the season now half gone, Smith says his team has some cleaning up to do.
“We have an incredibly talented roster,” he said. “We have a lot of talent, but we need to clean up things like penalties, self-inflicted errors, and mental lapses.”
New Hope-Solebury 0 7 0 0—7
William Tennent 7 7 7 14—35
Scoring
WT—Mensch 60 run (Ward kick)
WT—Canales 2 run (Ward kick)
NHS—Lasky 6 pass from Scrima (Reider kick)
WT—Mensch 64 pass from Rementer (Ward kick)
WT—Mensch 81 run (Ward kick)
WT—Rementer 45 run (Ward kick)
New Hope-Solebury William Tennent
First downs 10 7
Rushing 135 250
Passing: att-comp-int 6-12-0 4-6-1
Passing yards 47 94
Total offense 181 344
Punts 5-35.6 3-12.0
Fumbles/lost 2-1 1-0
Penalties 9-60 5-55
Individual
New Hope-Solebury
Rushing: Scrima 16-54; Ferlazzo 8-46; Johnson 4-21; Lasky 6-13; Kolen 1-0
Passing: Scrima 6-12-0, 47 yards, TD
Receiving: Lasky 3-32, TD; Kolen 1-10; Ferlazzo 1-4; Johnson 1-1
William Tennent
Rushing: Mensch 12-180, 2TDs, Rementer 7-44, TD; Canales 7-15, TD; Stanfield 1-7; Kulpa 1-4
Passing: Rementer 4-6-1, 94 yards, TD
Receiving: Mensch 1-64, TD; Stanfield 1-13; Canales 1-10; Kulpa 1-7