Marian Catholic’s Tyler Price had quite a game against Panther Valley on Friday night.

The 6-2, 205 pound junior running back amassed an unofficial 272 yards — 132 of them in the third quarter. He ran for three touchdowns, one an 82-yard dash shaking off two defenders.

Thanks in large part to his offensive display, the Colts scored a 26-6 victory over the Panthers in a rivalry game.

“We haven’t had a player like Tyler Price at Marian in a long, long time,” gushed Marian head coach Billy O’Gurek after the game.

It was the second game in a row that Price rushed for more than 100 yards. Last week against Palmerton, he accumulated 115 yards on 17 carries and scored two touchdowns.

The Panthers were missing the offensive impetus that they showed a week ago. In the first half, though, the defense came through for PV as well as for Marian, and the two teams battled to a scoreless deadlock.

In the second half, the Colts came onto the field with newfound vitality as the Colts overwhelmed the Panthers.

The agony for PV started on the first play of the second half. The Colts took the second-half kickoff on their own 27. On the ensuing play, Price maneuvered through the big PV line, shook off two tackles and raced to the end zone, making the score 6-0 after just 15 seconds of play.

The trouble didn’t stop there for the Panthers.

PV was held to four-and-out. On the punt, Dante Tate caught the ball on the 45 and returned it to the 20 of PV. Seven plays later, Price ran for an 8-yard touchdown. In that series, he carried four times, including a 28-yard gainer.

“We cleaned things up at halftime with some of our counter base run game stuff and it ended up working out pretty well,” O’Gurek said. “We saw something on the weak side of their defense we thought we could take advantage, and our kids went out and executed it. The effort was great, so we got a big win over a rival, over a good team.”

Price agreed. “They came out as hard as they could because it’s a big rivalry,” he said. “The only little difference was the mental part of the game. In our last game, we started to die out (in the second half). This week, we played really well in the second half.”

O’Gurek said, “I thought our offensive line did good holding up at the point of attack. They’re the biggest team we’re going to play all year. To be able to open up some holes, especially on the running side of the ball, and being able to neutralize their running game like we did, I think our line did very well tonight.”

Panther Valley coach Mark Lavine was undeniably disappointed.

“There’s not a positive right now we can pull from this game,” he said. “We got out physicalled on both sides of the ball. They ran all over us.”

The Panthers had just 17 rushing yards in the first quarter and two plus yards (one minus three yards) in the second. They were limited to two carries in the third quarter, both for minus yardage, and 28 positive yards in the final period.

The Panther passing game came alive in the fourth quarter with three completions for 47, 44 and eight yards respectively. Before that they had a combined 39 yards passing for three quarters.

The only score for Panther Valley came midway through the fourth period. Quarterback Cy Maynard connected with Corrigan Crampsie for 47 yards, then hit Chase McArdle for a 44-yard pass play, putting the ball on the Colt 4-yard line. Two plays later, Maynard broke the plane and scored with 6:09 left to play.

Marian came right back with a touchdown of its own, capping a 48-yard drive with a two-yard run by Jason Ashfield.

SPECIAL THANKS ... Asked to comment after the game on his stellar performance, Price said, “I just want to thank my linemen and my grandma.” Asked why he was thanking his grandma, he smiled and said, “She’s my grandma. I love her.”

THE BREAKING POINT ... While the two teams held each other scoreless in the first half, Lavine feels that touchdown run by Price on the first play of the second half was crippling. “When they popped that one to start the second half, I think that deflated us a little bit. And we got one piece of adversity, and we didn’t handle the adversity very well,” the coach said.

HALL OF FAME GAME ... Before the game, Panther Valley held its first-ever Hall of Fame induction ceremony. An inaugural class of 10 inductees was introduced. A plaque with the names of the inductees will be placed in the Panther Valley Middle School.

NEXT UP ... Panther Valley travels to Shenandoah next Friday night. The Blue Devils have started the season 2-0, outscoring their opponents 128-19. PV is now 1-1. Marian, also 1-1, travels to Tamaqua next Friday.

Marian 26, Panther Vy. 6

Marian 0 0 14 12 - 26

Panther Vy. 0 0 0 6 - 6

M - Price 82 run (kick failed)

M - Price 8 run (Griguoli pass from Tirpak)

M - Price 27 run (kick failed)

PV - Maynard 1 run (run failed)

M - Ashfield 2 run (kick failed)