High School Football: Mahar falls to Palmer 36-6

By GEORGE MILLER

For the Recorder

Published: 10-04-2024 11:10 PM

Modified: 10-04-2024 11:11 PM


ORANGE — The best news for Mahar came in the first 6½ minutes Friday night; from that point forward, the Senators were left chasing the game.

Following Carter Hardy’s recovery of an onside kick on the opening kickoff, Morgan Softic gave the hosts a 6-0 lead on a 29-yard touchdown run with 7:40 to play in the first quarter. Palmer then lost a fumble on its first series with Zai Perry covering the loose ball at the Mahar 39.

Two plays later, Gavin Smola recovered a fumble to set up Palmer at the Senators’ 40. Matt Santos immediately aired out a 40-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Dylan Doherty, the first of his four touchdowns of the night, and that set the Panthers well on their way to a 36-6 romp over the Senators at the Woodward Complex.

With only 19 players in uniform Friday, unbeaten Palmer got an early jump on the Intercounty League North race and ran its record to 4-0, while Mahar dropped its second straight game to go to 2-2 and 0-1 in the IL North.

“They had us scouted pretty good, and I’m gonna give it to them,” said Mahar coach Percy Eady. “They were getting through faster than our quarterback could make the reads. We did have some frustration on the sideline. As a whole, we are better than what we showed.”

The Panthers added a pair of 4-yard TD runs by Doherty in the second quarter and also got a 35-yard field goal off the foot of Dylan Holbrook on the final play of the half, good for a 23-6 cushion after 24 minutes.

Trailing 13-6, Eady and Mahar went for broke on fourth down and less than a yard from their own 15-yard line. But Palmer’s Jared Perry broke through to trap Jayden Delgado back at the 11, giving the Panthers the ball on downs. Four plays later, Doherty’s third score of the night put the visitors up 20-6 with 5:48 remaining.

“It’s high risk, high reward. If we make that fourth down, everything’s looking shiny and we can keep driving down the field,” said Eady. “You don’t make it, you get buried and you give a very dangerous team the ball very close to the end zone.”

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Mahar’s four second-half possessions resulted in a turnover on downs, an interception and a pair of lost fumbles, with only three first downs coming during its final drive. Meanwhile, Palmer pushed the game into running-clock territory on a 4-yard touchdown keeper by Santos and Doherty’s 1-yard run with 1:14 left in the third.

Softic broke gains of 29 and 28 yards, but sacks and lost yardage gave him a night of a team-high 44 yards on 17 tries. He also completed 3-of-5 passes for 19 yards. Malaki Grummell contributed 24 yards on the ground for the Senators, and Hardy came up with a third-quarter fumble recovery.

Doherty led Palmer with 87 yards on 19 carries and caught three passes for 58 yards. The Panthers put up 225 yards of total offense Friday to Mahar’s 82 yards.

“It’s important to figure out who we are as a team,” said Eady. “We’ve had some super highs and we just experienced an extreme low. I think we have the personnel to do it, so that we’re not operating outside of what we’re good at, even under pressure.”