Another week, another win.

The Lord Tweedsmuir Panthers continued their winning ways Nov. 8 after taking down the Mt. Boucherie Bears 41-0. The result gave the Panthers a playoff win in the wild-card round of the B.C. high school senior varsity football playoffs. It also gave rookie head coach Michael Carter his first playoff win as Panthers鈥� HC.

The Panthers scored three touchdowns in the first half and added three more in the second. The team's defence was stingy throughout the game, not allowing the Bears to gain much yardage on offence and forcing turnovers.

Carter said he has to give full credit to his players for being 鈥渕entally tough鈥� after facing a long delay to open the game. The game鈥檚 kickoff got pushed back after Mt. Boucherie鈥檚 bus in from Kelowna was delayed for more than an hour because of an accident on Highway #1.

鈥淲e were on the field for almost 2.5 hours awaiting kick off,鈥� Carter explained.

Despite the early adversity, he said his players 鈥渟tayed focused on the task at hand鈥� and because of that they were able to run out a convincing playoff win and head into the second round with some momentum.

鈥淚t was a three-phase win this week,鈥� Carter noted. 鈥淥ur offence was rolling with Chase Thurston at the helm posting our best performance of the season, numbers-wise. Our defence did a good job adapting to some plays and formations we weren't expecting, while pitching the shutout. Our special teams units were solid again.鈥�

Carter added he was very happy with his team's overall effort.  

He said the players will need that same amount of effort and preparation in order to face next week鈥檚 opponent, again at home at Cloverdale Athletic Park.

鈥淚t鈥檚 special to win a playoff game,鈥� Carter said. 鈥淲e have an opportunity next week to host a quarterfinal against GW Graham, the same team that ended our season a year ago. We'll need a great week of preparation.鈥�

Key Stats

Thurston was 12/16 for 242 yards passing and 5 TDs; Peyton Mansfield had 17 rushes for 109 yards, with one rushing TD and one passing TD; Tristan Dominguez had four catches for 91 yards and one TD, with an interception on defence; Jack Roberts had four catches for 79 yards, with seven tackles on D.

With the win, the Panthers move into the second round of the playoffs and face Chilliwack鈥檚 GW Graham. GW Graham is coming off a 31-30 win over Carson Graham last week.

Kickoff for the quarter-final playoff game is tentatively set for 1:30 p.m. on Nov. 15 at Cloverdale Athletic Park.