ALMEDIA – Back in late August, North Penn-Mansfield opened its season by being dominated by a veteran Canton team – which remains undefeated through Week 9 – and it looked like it could be a long season full of growing pains for a very young Panther squad.
But the Panthers have steadily improved through the season, and while Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech is certainly nowhere near the caliber of a Canton team that will likely contend for the District 4 Class A championship in a few weeks, the Panthers’ progression from the first week of the season to heading into Week 10 was on display on Saturday.
Kohen Lehman scored five touchdowns – halfway to the state record for touchdowns in a game set by Journey Brown of Meadville (and later Penn State) in 2015, – and NPM took advantage of six CMVT turnovers to improve to 5-4 with a 41-0 win over the Rams.
The win guarantees the Panthers at least a .500 record for the regular season – not bad for a team that has 16 freshmen and sophomores on its varsity roster – and with a win next week against rival Wellsboro, NPM will guarantee a winning record for the season, not to mention a more favorable seeding for the upcoming District 4 Class 3A playoffs, which appear to be the most wide-open class in the district, with no clear favorite heading into Week 10.
“We knew how young we were this year and the kids have been working hard each week and we’ve been getting better,” said NPM coach Tom Dickinson. “Kohen Lehman had a day today, and we took care of business and did what we needed to do today. We just need to keep working. I told them we’ve got one more week to get better and then the playoffs will be tough. We’ll let the seniors keep enjoying their final season and let the young kids keep gaining experience and keep trying to get better each week.”
The Panthers managed to blank the Rams despite being at nearly an 18-minute disadvantage in time of possession. CMVT has had some games this year in which it has won the time of possession battle in lopsided fashion, including on Saturday, as the Rams held onto the ball for nearly 33 minutes (32:51), nearly 18 minutes longer than the Panthers.
But CMVT’s nearly 33 minutes (32:51) of possession was largely negated by six turnovers, five of which directly led to NPM touchdowns, including two interception returns for touchdowns.
CMVT was coming off a two-week hiatus due to a COVID situation in its school.
“We saw when we came back to practice on Monday, some of the fundamentals – when you have two weeks off, I was afraid that the mindset of what it takes to concentrate on fundamentals was a little off this week and it showed in the game,” said CMVT coach Mark Varner. “All those things that we were moving forward in, we took a couple of steps back.”
It’s generally not a good omen when you trail by four scores despite the opposing team’s offense only scoring once. But that’s where the Rams found themselves early in the second quarter. After the Panthers turned it over on downs at the CMVT 30-yard line on their first possession, Lehman picked off two passes on each of the Rams’ next two possessions and took them both to the house, going 37 and 51 yards, respectively, on interception returns for touchdowns to give the Panthers a 14-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The Rams committed their third turnover near the end of the opening quarter as they fumbled away a handoff deep in their own territory at their own 24. NPM turned that into another score as Lehman notched his third of touchdown on the afternoon, capping a short drive with a one-yard touchdown run.
It’s a mindset thing. It’s making sure you’re throwing it correctly to the correct spot, but that also goes with receivers running correct patterns and making sure they’re where they’re supposed to be,” said Varner. “Everyone was just a step off today. That just compounds and it snowballs and it showed with the mental mistakes, and that’s what turnovers are.”
Special teams then produced another touchdown as CMVT punted after going three-and-out on their next possession, and Cameron Fabian returned it 82 yards for a touchdown to make it 27-0.
From there, the Rams put together a drive that lasted 9:24 but was stopped when Caden Long threw his third interception, which was picked off at the NPM 22 by Sammy Lawrence, who returned it to the NPM 31. With just :50 left in the half, the Panthers got an 11-yard reception by Lawrence, followed by a 58-yard touchdown run by Lehman for his fourth score of the afternoon, making it a 34-0 game at the half.
“He just made plays when got the chance and was in the right place at the right time, and that gave us a big boost getting those two defensive touchdowns,” said Dickinson. “We didn’t have the ball much on offense in the first half.”
The Rams were able to force their lone turnover of the game when Shane Tomlinson picked off Karson Dominick early in the third quarter at the Ram 6-yard line. But CMVT subsequently lost another fumble at their own 35, and two plays later, Lehman capped the scoring by finding the end zone for the fifth time, this one on a 35-yard run, to cap both his outstanding afternoon and the scoring.
Lehman finished with 112 rushing yards and exactly 200 all-purpose yards with his two interception returns. Dominick completed over 71 percent of his passes – 10-of-14 – for 81 yards.
Toby Zajac had another busy afternoon for the Rams, rushing for 141 yards on 33 carries. But he was largely the extent of CMVT’s offense, as the Rams only had six passing yards and 160 yards overall, despite having the same number of first downs (12) as the Panthers.
Although, it was another frustrating afternoon for the Rams, Varner and his team aren’t letting it get them down. They have two games left, after adding a Week 11 contest at Marian Catholic on Nov. 4, and he is optimistic they will put everything together before the end of the year.
“We’re going to keep moving forward. Hopefully next week, we have some guys back and we don’t have to play kids out of position, which plagued us a bit today,” said Varner. “I think we have a win in us this year. We have two good games coming up and I hope the kids are excited about what can happen these next two weeks.”
North Penn-Mansfield 41, Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech 0
North Penn-Mansfield (5-4) 14 20 7 0 – 41
Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech (0-7) 0 0 0 0 – 0
First-quarter
7:24 – (NP) Kohen Lehman 37-yard interception return (Alexander kick)
4:11 – (NP) Kohen Lehman 51-yard interception return (Alexander kick)
Second-quarter
10:48 – (NP) Kohen Lehman 1-yard run (kick blocked), 5-24, 1:25
9:00 – (NP) Cameron Fabian 82-yard punt return (Alexander kick)
:34 – (NP) Kohen Lehman 58-yard run (Alexander kick), 2-69, :16
Third-quarter
6:58 – (NP) Kohen Lehman 35-yard run (Alexander kick), 2-35, :15
Statistics
NP VT
First downs 12 12
Rushes-net yards 23-144 45-154
Passing yardage 84 6
Passing 10-14-0-1 2-10-0-3
Fumbles-lost 2-0 3-3
Penalties-yards 4-25 7-45
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — North Penn Mansfield: Kohen Lehman (6-112-3), Troy Dickinson (5-15), Cameron Fabian (4-16), George Perry (3-7), Karson Dominick (3-(-8)), Joe Sember (1-6), Cooper Shaw (1-(-4)); CMVT: Toby Zajac (33-141), Shane Tomlinson (5-7), Dante DiAgostino (4-9), Caden Long (2-(-8)), Jake Jeffrey (1-5)
PASSING — North Penn Mansfield: Karson Dominick (10-14-84-0-1); CMVT: Caden Long (2-9-6-0-3), Toby Zajac (0-1-0-0-0)
RECEIVING — North Penn Mansfield: Sammy Lawrence (5-49), Wyatt Wesneski (3-17), Cameron Fabian (2-18); CMVT: Shane Tomlinson (1-3), Tommy Bond (1-3)
