BY STEPHEN OGLINE
CLYMER — Northern Cambria could not stop the Penns Manor rushing attack in Friday night’s Heritage Conference opener.
Penns Manor scored on six of its eight drives and rushed for nearly 400 yards in a 41-19 victory.
“It’s hard to get the ball back and be down by another seven points,” Northern Cambria coach Paul Taranto said. “We got a lot of work to do for next week’s game against Homer-Center.”
Freshman quarterback Dan Ferens led the Comets to the 41-19 victory.
Ferens was 2-for-2 passing, and he rushed the ball 14 times for 83 yards. Ferens scored on Penns Manor’s first possession. He scored on a 60-yard run following a quarterback sneak late in the first half.
The Comets ran the hook-and-lateral late in the first half.
Ferens completed a 4-yard pass to Travis Trimble, who immediately pitched it back to fullback Ben Miller, resulting in a gain of 48 yards.
“As a ninth-grader, Dan Ferens did a great job,” Penns Manor coach Bill Packer said. “We ran him a lot. We have confidence in him.”
Senior fullback Ben Miller had a game-high 105 rushing yards on 11 carries.
Junior Travis Trimble rushed for
104 yards on 13 carries, including three touchdowns.
One of those touchdowns came in the second quarter, when he sprinted 39 yards.
Northern Cambria’s Anthony Penksa had a game-high of 240 passing yards, completing 10 of 17 attempts. Two of his passes resulted in second-half touchdowns. Josh Stiles hauled in a 25-yard scoring strike on the Colts’ opening possession of the second half. Eric Pizur grabbed a 22-yard touchdown pass late in the final quarter.
Stiles had four catches for 117 yards, and junior Tony Rocco contributed with three catches for 54 yards.
Junior Andy Hancharik led the Colts in rushing with 39 yards on 10 carries.
