Panther Valley's Hunter Kennedy has turned into the focal point of the Panthers' offense.

And the junior quarterback helped make the biggest play of the season for the Panthers last week against Shenandoah Valley.Trailing by two late in the game and facing a fourth-and-four, head coach Matt Davis trusted his second-year signal-caller to come up big.The Panthers showed run, but ran a play-fake, and Kennedy hit tight end Tristan Blasko down the seem for a 44-yard score. The bold move put the game away for PV and could pay off huge dividends down the stretch, as the Panthers jockey for District 11 playoff positioning.Kennedy's heroics were part of a performance that included 266 passing yards, four total touchdowns, and a Times News Player of the Week honor."We were trying to grind clock," said Panther Valley head coach Matt Davis of the game-changing play. "All of the sudden, we saw their safety kept coming up into the box. He was making plays at the line of scrimmage and being very aggressive. We didn't care that it was fourth-and-four. When you see something as an offense, you have to take advantage of what they're giving you. They were giving us the deep ball. So, we ran play action and Hunter made a great throw, and Tristan made them pay for it. The protection up front was great."Kennedy took over midway through the 2015 season as the team's quarterback and has made significant strides this year. He has surpassed 1,000 yards passing after last week's victory."Last year, I was only a sophomore and it was uncomfortable," said Kennedy. "This year I'm feeling better. I'm used to the offense and the coach that I have has been with me since my freshman year. Last week got us all excited after some losses we took earlier in the season. We wanted to bump back and get another win. My brother (Tanner) stepped up and never played running back before, which motivated us to go and win. Haven is a pretty tough team. If we play tough, I could see us beating them."Kennedy has taken on a bigger workload this season due to his diverse skill set. He currently leads the Panthers in rushing attempts."Hunter has all the tools you need to be a high school quarterback," said Davis. "You can see it, he's more mature out there and he knows the offense. I think the game is really starting to slow down for him. We are expecting a lot of big things from him as we finish this year and into his senior season. He's progressing the way we want him to and we feel like there are a few wins out there that we can still get."The Panthers will surely lean on their quarterback down the stretch. Currently, Mahanoy Area and Minersville are both ahead of Panther Valley in the District 11 class AA standings, and they're both on the Panthers' remaining schedule. Kennedy and his club have a chance to be in the drivers' seat at the end of the regular season.But before they look too far ahead, they'll have a big test against undefeated Schuylkill Haven on Friday."We kind of control our own destiny," said Davis. "We need to just take care of our end of things and get some wins."