CATASAUQUA - For the next few days, Panther Valley quarterback Brody Breiner might see brown spots when he closes his eyes.

That’s because when the Panthers had the ball on Friday night, the sophomore signal-caller constantly saw numerous Catasauqua jerseys coming his way.

The Rough Riders registered four sacks and put plenty of pressure on Breiner, hitting him numerous times while being forced to throw the ball early.

PV’s trouble moving the ball led to continuous good field position for the Rough Riders, and they took advantage in rolling to a 55-6 victory.

“Brody was running for his life at certain times,” said Panther Valley head coach Mark Lavine. “He’s a tough kid but that’s hard. Their pressure definitely got to us. We’re not the healthiest up front, but we’ll get some guys back next week.

“(Field position) also killed us. We had penalties that backed us up on the kickoffs, and we fielded one on the 1-yard line. We had two consecutive drives start at the 10. That’s tough, especially when we were trying to slow the game down a little bit and keep their offense off the field. All those things you need to do in a game like this, we didn’t do early on and field position was a big part of it.”

Four of Catty’s six scoring drives in the first half started in Panther territory and the two that didn’t began at its 43 and 49.

Conversely, four of Panther Valley’s possessions during the first two quarters started inside its own 20.

Combine that field position with the Roughies’ quick-strike scoring ability and it made for a long night for Lavine and his club.

“They’re a good team,” said Lavine. “They’ve lost to some good teams and they’ve been close in those games. They were 3-4 but they were a good 3-4. We knew coming in they were going to be physical.

“The two linemen, 53 (Matthew Fotta) and 50 (Chad Beller), are as good as you’re going to see in this league, and those running backs get behind them and then they’re good at making cuts in space. They also have nice kids on the outside.”

Catty (4-4) jumped ahead the first time it had the ball, moving 44 yards in just five plays - the final one an 18-yard run from Hunter Reitz.

The Panthers (2-6) actually tied the game less than two minutes later after Eli Maynard intercepted an Aiden Hess pass to put PV in good shape. A pass interference penalty put the ball in the red zone, where Breiner broke free up the middle only to fumble the ball. Jah Bushati fielded the ball and dove in the final two yards to knot the score at 6-6.

“We said if we could just get an early spark and I thought Eli’s interception early sparked us a little bit and we went down and got a score,” said Lavine. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t build on it.

“We had some early penalties, we had an early turnover, and we just missed an opportunity where the spark early could have kept us in the game. It just kind of got away from us a little bit.”

After the Panther Valley score, the Roughies quickly responded when Hess hit Rodney Brodie with a 50-yard touchdown pass. After a PV fumble late in the first quarter, Jyzaiah Bonilla worked his way eight yards to the end zone to extend the lead to 21-6.

Hess connected with Dylan Pacheco on a 22-yard strike one play after a three-and-out by the Panthers and the rout was on for Catty. Two more scores on short runs, the final one by Beller with 21 seconds until halftime ensured the second half would be played under the mercy rule.

“We’re still not tackling great, and we’re not doing the things you need to do to win a football game,” said Lavine. “So, we’ll just keep working and keep trying to clean it up.”

A LOOK AHEAD ... Panther Valley closes the regular season with two home games, hosting Pen Argyl on Friday and then Tamaqua the following week.

SPREADING THE WEALTH ... The Roughies had eight different players score their touchdowns.