North Queensland have earned a quarter-final berth against the Storm and ended the luckless Panthers' weekend with a hard-fought 15-11 win.
When the Panthers regathered a lost ball and sent it through countless pairs of hands, with a few high-risk offloads and a couple of great touches by James Segeyaro, Ben Garcia opened the scoring in the corner.
But Gavin Cooper scored his fourth try of the weekend shortly after when he finished off a series of passes down the left flank. A lost ball from Suaia Matagi put the Cowboys in range for Ethan Lowe to spear through a gap and run around to the bonus zone.
A casual penalty kick from Bryce Cartwright failed to find touch and heaped the pressure on his side and young back-rower Coen Hess pushed his way over out wide for a 15-6 half-time lead.
Cartwright did it all himself to get his side back in it, single-handedly beating several defenders to score a bonus zone try, though he missed the conversion from in front to leave his side four adrift. Though Penrith hammered the North Queensland line for several straight sets to finish the game the Cowboys' line held firm to send the Panthers packing.
North Queensland Cowboys 15 (Cooper, Lowe, Hess tries) def. Penrith Panthers 11 (Garcia, Cartwright tries).
