CANTON – Five turnovers in a game generally makes it quite challenging to win a football game. And yet, despite doing just that on Saturday, Canton still had a chance, and perhaps with just one fewer giveaway, might have been able to get it done.
But as is usually the case when you cough the ball up that much, it proved to be just a little bit too much for the Warriors. A turn of events in the fourth quarter produced a 14-point swing in favor of North Penn Mansfield, and that sequence along with the five turnovers resulted in a 24-14 for the Panthers over the Warriors.
“Many times, it’s just who plays the cleaner game and I don’t think I can say we did that, but we got a lot of our sloppiness out of the way in the first half and we took care of things a lot better in the second half,” said North Penn Mansfield coach Jed Wright. “Finishing games well is important so that was probably the difference.”
Leading 14-10 early in the fourth quarter, Canton’s Rylan Wesneski completed a short screen pass to wide receiver Ryder Route. It was the first completion of the day for the Warriors, and Route dodged a few defenders around the line of scrimmage – the Canton 24 – before turning on the jets and accelerating toward the end zone, which would be a 76-yard touchdown reception and give Canton a two-score lead over the Panthers, who committed three first half turnovers of their own and hadn’t scored since the first quarter.
But Route was stripped of the ball at the one-yard line by a hustling Colton Pellett, and the fumble was recovered by the Panthers in the end zone for a touchback.
Four plays later, Wright rolled the dice on fourth-and-4 from his own 26, and his gamble paid off as Luke Kreger took a sweep around the right side and down the right sideline for a 74-yard touchdown run to give the Panthers a 17-14 lead. Kreger, who moved to running back from wide receiver this season, logged a game-high 166 yards on 25 carries.
“That was a 14-point shift so it came down to that but there were a lot of plays throughout the game that we didn’t make. We made some but we have to learn from stuff like that and continue to grow,” said Canton coach Tyler Sechrist. “It was a good football game but we just made too many mistakes and had too many turnovers in crucial spots and it’s tough to win football games when you don’t win the turnover battle.”
Canton’s last two turnovers led directly to two fourth quarter touchdowns by North Penn Mansfield that essentially decided the game. Meanwhile, the Warriors were only able to take advantage of one of North Penn Mansfield’s turnovers and cash that into points in the first half.
Losing that turnover margin and not capitalizing on enough of the Panthers’ miscues negated Canton’s 317 yards of offense, which barely outpaced North Penn Mansfield’s 305 yards.
“We put ourselves in a tough spot but we were pretty motivated to pull it out in the end,” said Wright. “We need to get better. We had so much that was self-inflicted and we need to make some adjustments for next week.”
But 75 of those yards came on the play that resulted in the fumble at the goal line, and another 40 came on Canton’s first play from scrimmage of the game, a 40-yard run by Bailey Gardner, who had another strong game for the Warriors with 154 yards on 15 carries as he scored both of Canton’s touchdowns on the afternoon.
“I think we were missing some blocks. I think their linebackers were doing a good job stepping up and we were missing them some on some of the runs up the middle,” said Sechrist. “We did break a few but other than that it was hard work for Bailey there in the middle.”
But Canton also committed a turnover on that drive just three plays after Gardner’s run. That and an additional turnover, along with three punts, kept the Warriors in the hole in the first half after the Panthers got a 86-yard return for touchdown on the opening kickoff from Colton Pellett. Later in the first quarter, Brody Grinnell kicked a 27-yard field goal to put the Panthers up 10-0.
Canton was able to cut the lead to 10-7 in the waning second of the first half. After taking over at the Panther 43 following an interception by Grant Jennings, the Warriors put together an eight-play, 43-yard drive capped by Gardner’s 5-yard touchdown run with :18 remaining in the half.
Gardner’s second touchdown of the day gave Canton its first and only lead, a 32-yard run after North Penn Mansfield turned it over on downs at its own 32 following an errant snap on a punt.
Following the 14-point swing early in the fourth quarter, the Warriors lost a fumble at the Panther 41-yard line, and North Penn Mansfield capitalized by putting together an eight-play, 60-yard drive capped by Kreger’s second touchdown of the afternoon, this one from two yards, to extend the Panthers’ lead to 24-14 with 2:56 remaining in the game.
North Penn Mansfield 24, Canton 14
North Penn Mansfield (4-0) 10 0 0 14 – 24
Canton (1-3) 0 7 7 0 – 14
First quarter
11:47 – (NP) Colton Pellett 86-yard kickoff return (Grinnell kick)
1:42 – (NP) Brody Grinnell 27-yard field goal, 7-20, 3:52
Second quarter
:18 – (C) Bailey Gardner 5-yard run (McRoberts kick), 8-43, 3:18
Third quarter
3:14 – (C ) Bailey Gardner 32-yard run (McRoberts kick), 1-32, :11
Fourth quarter
9:07 – (NP) Luke Kreger 74-yard run (Grinnell kick), 4-80, 1:52
2:56 – (NP) Luke Kreger 2-yard run (Grinnell kick), 8-60, 3:35
Statistics
NPM C
First downs 18 10
Rushes-net yards 51-262 29-209
Passing yardage 43 108
Passing 6-11-0-1 3-16-0-3
Fumbles-lost 6-2 3-2
Penalties-yards 7-45 4-43
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: North Penn Mansfield: Luke Kreger (25-166-2), Noah Musser (14-42), Sudan Benner (8-90), Bradley Brooks (2-(-16)), Jackson Raught (1-(-18)), Team (1-(-2)); Canton: Bailey Gardner (15-154-2), Rylan Wesneski (7-35), Dawson Burgess (5-19), Owen Moore (2-1)
PASSING: North Penn Mansfield: Bradley Brooks (6-11-43-0-1); Canton: Owen Moore (2-13-33-0-2), Rylan Wesneski (1-3-75-0-1)
RECEIVING: North Penn Mansfield: Patrick Youmans (2-19), Colton Pellett (2-13), Luke Kreger (1-7), Kaiden Pellett (1-4); Canton: Ryder Route (2-87), Rylan Wesneski (1-21)