Panther Valley’s maturing football team came within a few plays of pulling off a major upset on Thursday in its fabled and historic stadium in Lansford.

Highly-favored Minersville flexed its muscles early, but then had to hold on for a 41-28 victory.

Despite the loss, the Panthers were in this physical brawl right to the end.

“They’re a tough team, and anytime you come here to play, you better be ready to go four full quarters,” said Minersville coach Justin Frantz, who watched his team improve to 4-1 on the season.

Indeed, the Battlin’ Miners were getting a handful from the Panthers. After flicking off the first 13 points - thanks to a 31-yard sprint to the end zone by do-it-all quarterback Dante Carr and a 57-yard touchdown pass from Carr to Lorenzo Yourey - the remainder of the game turned into a battle for survival for the Miners.

That’s because the Panthers were rallying around the sensational play of sophomore quarterback Brody Breiner, who was spectacular, leading the Panthers with both his rushing and passing.

“He’s quite the leader, and is everything a coach could want in a player,” Panther Valley coach Mark Lavine said about his signal-caller.

Breiner heaved an 89-yard touchdown pass to Brady Jones to cut the lead to 13-7 with Jah Bushati booting the first of his four placements. However, Minersville reared back and tagged on two straight touchdowns to shoot in front 28-7. Luke Stevenosky capped off a 5-play, 64-yard march to the end zone with a seven-yard TD run, before the speedy senior followed that up with a blazing 56-yard burst to the end zone.

“He always comes up big for us in the tough situations,” Frantz would say about his 5-10, 220-pound bruising halfback.

But the Panthers had answers galore, thereafter.

Brennan Kunkel - who was corralled most of the evening - slithered into the end zone from three yards out with 9:31 on the first-half clock to make it 28-14.

Minersville called on Yourey yet again as he caught a 35-yard touchdown pass from Carr to once again extend the lead to three scores.

Panther Valley again answered right back with a 12-play, 80-yard touchdown march. Connor Penberth and Breiner were featured in the drive, with Penberth hauling in a 32-yard pass for the score to trim the halftime margin to 34-21.

“We need to be able to tackle better,” said Lavine. “We are starting to do some nice things the last couple of weeks, but we need to clean up the tackling. That’s just way too many points to give up in a half.”

After the eight-touchdown first-half shootout, things slowed significantly after intermission. Minersville got its only touchdown in the third quarter on a 25-yard Stevenosky run, while the Panthers countered with their only second-half TD when Kunkle squirted into the end zone on a 1-yard plunge.

“I think we’re getting there,” Lavine said. “Right now, the goal is to get back to .500 on the season.”

The panthers (2-3) will get that chance next Friday when they travel to Palisades.

BULLISH … Enough can’t be said about Breiner. The 5-10, 170-pound sophomore is a ball of dynamite. He kept on taking licks by the Miners defense and continued bouncing back.

ON TARGET … Carr is being hailed as a Division I quarterback prospect. The gifted athlete was on target with his passing last night, going 6-for-7 for 206 yards and a pair of touchdowns.