Adrian Dilworth ran for 259 yards and scored four times to lead the Pflugerville Panthers to a 40-28 District 16-5A win over McNeil at Kuempel Stadium on Friday.

Dilworth put the ball in the end zone two times in the third quarter, scoring on runs of 1 and 19 yards to help Pflugerville (2-5, 1-1) pull away after leading by 10 points at halftime. While his stats were impressive, the Mavericks’ Jalen Harrell was almost just as good. Harrell ran for 172 yards on 14 carries and scored three times. He added one catch for 57 more yards.

McNeil struggled to hold on to the ball in the game as quarterback Zach Kuhn was intercepted twice and they fumbled the ball away two more times. The turnovers, however, only led to 10 Panther points. The Panthers rushed for 393 yards in the game with Brandon Woodward added another 100 to the total.

The Mavericks looked to be on their way to a score on the opening possession of the game. Thanks to big runs from Ryan Murphy and Harrell, McNeil had a first down at the Panther 39-yard line after just three plays. However, on the fourth play Pflugerville’s Nick Bowens picked off a pass from Maverick quarterback Zach Kuhn, giving the Panthers the ball at the 11-yard line. On Pflugerville’s first play of the game, Dilworth raced 80 yards before finally being drug down at the MacNeil 9-yard line. The run marked the start of the great half for Dilworth. He ran for 189 yards and two scores before the halftime whistle blew. However, the Panthers were unable to fully capitalize on his first run. The Maverick defense held them out of the end zone for three plays and Pflugerville was forced to settle for a 23-yard Josh Ianno field goal.

The score was the only points of the first quarter, but the defensive slant of the game changed in the second. McNeil’s Jalen Harrell gashed the Panther defense for touchdown runs of 22 and 17 yards, helping the Mavericks build a 14-10 lead. Pflugerville, however, answered, scoring twice in the final four minutes, once on a 34-yard run by Brandon Woodward and then on Dilworth’s second scoring run of the quarter, sending the Panthers in with a 24-14 halftime lead.