It was Senior Night at Starr’s Mill last Friday for the Panthers’ contest against Mundy’s Mill. Senior running back Dion Munerlyn ran for three touchdowns and 104 yards on 10 carries against the Tigers. His performance helped the Panthers remain undefeated as they beat Mundy’s Mill, 28-15.

“I’m feeling great, I’m glad that we got a victory,” Munerlyn said. “We knew Mundy’s Mill is a good team and that it was going to be a challenge, but I’m just glad that we clinched [at least] second place in our region.”

Sophomore running back Rico Frye also had a big game with 19 carries for 100 yards and a touchdown. The defense also played well, as they forced three turnovers and only allowed 176 yards.

The Panthers came out fast, scoring in four plays on a 19-yard run by Munerlyn for his first touchdown of the game to give the Panthers an early 7-0 lead.

The Tigers went the wrong direction on their first drive and punted. After the Panthers punted it away, the defense held again, giving up three yards on the Tigers the next possession.

“I’m proud of the defense,” head coach Chad Phillips said. “They really played well. The defense gets better every time we get out there.”

To open the second quarter, the Panthers extended their lead to 14-0 when Munerlyn ran 13 yards for his second touchdown of the game. The Tigers responded with a 14-play drive, lasting almost six minutes, and finishing with the Tigers junior running back Kaziah Hall, punching in a 3-yard touchdown to cut the deficit in half.

Sophomore quarterback Joey DeLuca threw his fourth interception of the season on the next drive, but the Tigers were forced to punt on that possession. The Tigers defense held, forcing a three-and-out with less than a minute to go before halftime and taking a 14-7 score to the break.

The Tigers started with the ball in the second half, but senior cornerback Satchel Goodrich picked off a pass from Tiger running back Khalid Hylton near the sideline on a halfback pass to force the Panthers first turnover of the night. The Panther offense drove 53 yards but came up short on a missed field goal by senior kicker Whitaker Chu.

The Tigers next drive was short lived, as they fumbled on the first play to give the Panthers the ball back on the Tiger 15-yard line. The offense wouldn’t fall short this time, as they scored on a 2-yard touchdown run by Frye to put the Panthers up 21-7.

“We got our linemen together and told them to pick it up and fight and that’s what they did,” Frye said. “Our front line stepped up.”

The Tigers offense was still struggling as they managed a turnover on downs with their next possession. Munerlyn responded with his third touchdown of the night from ten yards out to increase the Panther lead to 21.

If the Tigers had any chance to win they needed a quick score, but that thought was short lived when sophomore cornerback Phillip Pfaffman picked off a pass by Hall.

“We always stress to get turnovers,” defensive coordinator Jeff Schmidlkofer said. “When we get turnovers, we give the ball back to our offense and it takes a possession from them. That’s what we preach and the players did a good job of executing that plan.”

The Tigers scored again with 2:32 left in the game but it was too little, too late and the Panthers walked away with a 28-15 win to improve to 8-0.

“We’ve played Drew and Dutchtown, but we really haven’t played a team that comes out and plays smash mouth football yet,” Goodrich said, who played his first full game back after missing the previous five games with a foot injury. “Once we saw that we could compete with these boys, it was all over.”

The win sets up the last regular season game at Northgate on Friday, Oct. 30 at 7:30 p.m. in a game where one of these undefeated teams will have to lose. The winner will play in the region championship game the next week against Stockbridge.

“[Northgate is] 8-0 and has a good football team, we’re 8-0 and have a good football team. We’re just gonna see what happens,” Schmidlkofer said.