Elder’s Danny Falliace scored the go-ahead touchdown in the third quarter, and the Panthers survived a scoreless final stanza to hold off Scott County 20-14 on Friday.
Elder was down one due to a missed extra point when Falliace caught a six-yard pass from Danny Nieman with 6:09 left in the third quarter, giving the Panthers the lead for good.
Jack Mazza had run in the first two Elder scores from four and 13 yards out after the Panthers had fallen down by an early TD.
Mazza’s latter score made it 13-7, but the Cardinals’ Kendri Hamilton ran the ensuing kickoff back 90 yards to put Scott County back up by a point.
Nieman was 16 of 23 for 244 yards, and Kyle Trischler caught nine of those passes for 128 yards. Mazza finished with 18 carries for 74 yards and his two crucial scores.
Elder will host Cleveland St. Edward next week.
