LIGONIER - The NorthWood Panthers got one step closer to a repeat trip to the RCA Dome when they defeated West Noble 47-0 in Friday's sectional semifinals football game in Ligonier.

After a slow first quarter, the Panthers came to life in the second quarter, scoring 20 points. NorthWood struck first with 7:33 on the second-quarter clock as Charlie Roeder ran four yards for the first touchdown.

Then Roeder tipped a Charger pass, helping Josh Cook intercept and return the ball to the 10-yard line. Roeder scrambled for the final 10 yards on the first play from scrimmage for another touchdown with 3:50 left on the clock. After the conversion was successful, the Panthers had a 14-0 advantage.

However, NorthWood was not finished. Roeder connected with Andy Mitschelen on a 30-yard pass play with one minute remaining to put make the score 20-0 going into the half.

"In the first quarter, we dropped too many passes, and that kept them (West Noble) emotionally fired up," said NorthWood coach Roch Dodson. "We didn't execute. But then we got some breaks and turned things around.

"Andy Mitschelen's catch for the score at the end of the second quarter was important. It put us up by three touchdowns going into the second half."

The scoring onslaught continued into the second half as the Panthers scored two touchdowns in each of the final quarters.

Roeder jumpstarted the second half by running 46 yards with 9:29 on the third-quarter clock to put NorthWood up 27-0. He then connected with Brock Doty on a 30-yard pass with 7:32 to go, giving NorthWood a 34-0 lead going into the final quarter of play.

Chaz Scherer scored the next NorthWood touchdown on a 3-yard run. On the ensuing kickoff, West Noble was unable to field the kickoff, and NorthWood's Ben Lehman recovered the ball on the Charger 18-yard line. Two plays later, Jesse Fink ran one yard for the touchdown to put NorthWood ahead 47-0 with 6:04 left in the game.

Although the Panther offense racked up 47 points, the defense was the story of the game.

NorthWood forced West Noble to punt or turn the ball over on downs six times and intercepted the ball four times in the game.

David Higley was all over Toby Steele, the Charger signal caller, batting down two passes and forcing him out of the pocket several times.

"I thought we did a pretty good job defensively," said Dodson. "We missed a couple of tackles, but for the most part, our defense played well.

"The game was closer than the scoreboard shows. The defense set up a couple of easy scores for us, and we were able to take advantage of them."

The Panthers will look to continue their postseason run as they host New Haven in Nappanee Friday at 7:30 p.m.

NORTHWOOD 47, WEST NOBLE 0

NorthWood 0 20 14 13 - 47

West Noble 0 0 0 0 - 0

WN NW

First downs 9 15

Rushes-yards 35-94 40-313

Passing 71 172

Comp.-Att.-Int. 6-21-1 3-16-4 Total offense 165 485

Fumbles-lost 0-0 0-0

Punts-ave. 6-39.8 2-42.5

Penalties-yards 5-35 3-19

Second Quarter

7:33 -ÊCharlie Roeder 4 run (kick blocked), 6-0 NW

3:50 -ÊRoeder 10 run (Andy Mitschelen pass from Roeder), 14-0 NW

1:00 -ÊMitschelen 30 pass from Roeder (kick failed), 20-0 NW

Third Quarter

9:29 -ÊRoeder 46 run (Anthony Sanders kick), 27-0 NW

7:32 -ÊBrock Doty 30 pass from Roeder (Sanders kick), 34-0 NW

Fourth Quarter

6:33 -ÊChaz Scherer 3 run (kick blocked), 40-0 NW

6:04 -ÊJesse Fink 1 run (Sanders kick), 47-0 NW

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

Rushing -ÊWest Noble: Doug McDonald 18-60, Chad Howard 9-20, Toby Steele 5-22, Josh Johnson 3-12; NorthWood: Charlie Roeder 12-144, Chaz Scherer 19-130, Jason Brennaman 5-18, Jesse Fink 3-18

Receiving -ÊWest Noble: Rick Johnson 1-41, Wesley Austrup 1-15, Charley Gabet 1-15; NorthWood: Andy Mitschelen 3-94, Brock Doty 2-47, Nick Juday 1-31.

Passing -ÊWest Noble: Steele 3-16-71, 0 TD, 4 INT.; NorthWood: Roeder 6-20-172, 2 TD, 1 INT; Blosser 0-1-0, 0 TD, 0 INT. [[In-content Ad]]