MAHANOY CITY — With 18 players on his game roster, all coach Scott Price could ask of his Panthers was to compete from start to finish.

That effort was proven when his team reached the red zone for the first time late in the fourth quarter in their 35-0 Schuylkill League loss to Mahanoy Area.

“I can’t ask for any more than these kids give,” he said. “With nearly everyone playing both ways and special teams, they get tired and then come the mental mistakes, but that’s to be expected.”

The Golden Bears scored on the game’s opening drive. After two incomplete passes, quarterback Danny Lawrence hooked up with Haydn Wall on a 23-yard pass-and-run play to the PV 1-yard line. From there, Lawrence punched it in for a 7-0 Mahanoy lead with just under three minutes gone by.

After a PV three-and-out, the Bears took over on their own 33-yard line. After the drive moved to the Panther 36, Lawrence — who completed only three passes in the game — found MJ Terry on the left sideline where he outran the Panther pursuit for a 14-0 advantage.

Panther Valley was unable to sustain any scoring drives in the first half.

“We moved the ball, but once again mental errors hurt our execution in key third-down situations,” said Price.

In the second quarter, the Bears finished a 63-yard, four-play drive on a pitch play to Terry, who scored from six yards out.

“Our flex bone worked well for us tonight,” said Mahanoy Area head coach Dave Holman. “Danny [Lawrence] ran the option with the deception needed to keep the defense guessing who has the ball.”

Lawrence ran the read option to perfection with under a minute to go in the half when he faked the fullback dive and kept the ball for a 45-yard touchdown run.

Following an interception, Mahanoy set up their offense on the PV 42-yard line halfway through the third quarter. On first down, fullback Tyler Clewell broke through the Panther defense and was pulled down at the 20-yard line after a 22-yard gain. Five plays later, Lawrence bulled his way in from the one to score his third TD of the game.

“We’ve been having ball security issues, but tonight we played a real solid game,” said Holman.

For Panther Valley, wide receiver Blake White had another big night catching passes from quarterback Ethan Reis. White caught 12 balls for 100 yards.

“We’re very young and Blake is just a junior, but we’ve still got a shot this year to match last year’s win total and get into the Eastern Conference playoffs,” said Price.

PERFORMANCE UNDER PRESSURE ... Panther quarterback Reis was sacked several times, but still managed to complete 14 passes for 112 yards.

THE ROAD AHEAD ... Panther Valley hosts Schuylkill Haven on Friday before closing out the regular season the following week at Minersville.