FRANKLIN -- Playing without star running back, senior Brandon Stansbury, coaches at Hanson Memorial had a gameplan they thought would work against a stingy Berwick High School defense Friday night.

The gameplan was to keep the ball in the hands of their playmakers, quarterback Christian Steiner, wide receiver Mikey Payton and running back Thomas Rogers. And they did just that going into the third quarter of a deadlocked 14-14 game before the Panthers scored 28 unanswered points to pull away from the Tigers for a 42-14 victory to improve their overall record to 3-1. HMS fell to 0-4.

Steiner, Rogers and Payton combined for 88 rushing yards in the first half while Steiner passed for 61 yards to a number of different receivers, but it was Berwick senior quarterback Seth Anslem who stole the show in the third quarter with touchdown passes of 78 and 84 yards to running back Jared Loston and wide receiver Chas Cranford respectively.

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Anslem finished the night with four touchdowns, including two- and five-yard rushing TDs to go with the two bombs that put HMS away in the third quarter.

BHS head coach Mike Thomas said his quarterback and his team are playing really well going into the Panthers’ district opener next week against West St. Mary.

“It feels very good to be 3-1,” he said. “These kids have been working very hard the entire summer. We run the spread offense and a lot of different people had a chance to touch the football tonight. Hard work pays off, but we still have a long way to go.”

Anslem echoed his coach sentiments.

“I had a good game, but I think I could have played better,” he said. “It’s been a very, very, very long time since a Berwick High School football team has been 3-1. This summer we worked our tails off to get better and it is showing. Hopefully we can win a couple of more games this year.”

After Anslem’s two touchdown passes in the third quarter, running back Theron Madise added another touchdown in the fourth quarter. Anslem than ran a quarterback sneak for two yards to put the Panthers up 42-14.

HMS head football coach Richard Sandusky said overall his team played well except for the third quarter.

“We had two busted coverages and kind of lost the momentum in the third quarter,” Sandusky said. “Our defense had some big stops in this game, but they were a better team tonight. Those two big pass plays hurt us a lot. We were playing without our star running back and the other guys stepped it up at times during the game.”

Sandusky said with the first game of the district slate coming up next week his team still has some goals they can accomplish.

“We have Delcambre next week and hopefully we can bounce back,” he said.