It was a season full of adversity for the Panther Valley football program.

The emotional toll of the season was apparent when the Panthers walked off the field following a 27-6 setback to Minersville Friday night.The hugs, the handshakes and the tears signaled the end of a 2-8 season.It wasn't the way Panther Valley coach Matt Davis wanted to see his players rewarded for their efforts over the last three months.The Panthers' third year coach, who appeared to be holding back tears himself, spoke highly of those who stuck it out the entire way."These kids came to work every single day," Davis said. "At the same time, you have to look in the mirror at the end of the day and realize the reality of what happened here. Over the past three years, we felt like we kept turning the corner, but it was tough realizing we just didn't reach that point we intended."The potential is here for this program to do good things and there are a lot of key pieces coming back next year. We tried our hardest to really reach out to these kids and we did at times, but at the same time the consistency just needs to be there."That lack of consistency showed against the Battlin' Miners.The Panthers started things off with a nine-play, 69-yard drive for the game's first score. Xander Skoutelas-Kern capped the drive with a six-yard scamper with 7:28 left in the first quarter.It didn't take the Miners to answer right back though as Bryce Miklesavage took off right up the gutt for a 59-yard touchdown run less than two minutes later.In the second quarter, after the Miners scored on another touchdown run, a failed effort in the red-zone for the Panthers seemed to set the tone for the rest of the night.With it third and 10, on the Miners' 13-yard line, Steele Fekette stepped in front to intercept one of the Panthers' Hunter Kennedy's passes denying PV a chance to tie the game."Missed opportunities hurt us tonight," Davis said. "There were a couple of times we had them on their heels a little bit. We were mixing up the run and the pass. But then we got ourselves in a bad situation and couldn't get ourselves out of it."Minersville's Kei'dre Taylor and Miklesavage both hit pay dirt for the second time to put the game out of reach in the fourth quarter."Hats off to Minersville," Davis said. "They outplayed us tonight. They're going to the playoffs. But, I told our players, 'You're not always going to be as good as the kid your lined up against, but when you give a 100-percent effort there are no regrets at all.'"TRIPLE OPTION ...In addition to quarterback Hunter Kennedy, the Panthers Tristan Blasko and Danny Gilberry also threw passes in the game. While Kennedy had seven completions for 60 yards, Blasko was a perfect 2-for-2 and Gilberry completed his only attempt for a 22-yard gain.MULTI TASKING ...Panther senior Brandon Morgans entered the program three years ago as a place-kicker, but ended his playing career having one stellar night at defensive end. Morgans finished with two sacks, a tackle for a loss and a tackle for no gain.