It was another game of missed opportunities for the NYC Panthers as they were overpowered 28-20 by Manly at Pepper Stadium on Saturday.
Having settled a draw despite dominating last week's contest against South Sydney, the young Panthers were again left disappointed after failing to turn enough attacking possession into points.
The Sea Eagles made a blistering start as they ran in four tries in the first twenty minutes of the game to blow the Panthers away and cruise to victory.
Manly’s opener came five minutes in after a moment of magic from five-eighth Tom Wright. A line break inside the Panthers half created a two-on-one for Jade Anderson to stroll over, which he would fail to convert.
Manly went in again moments later when Alfred Smalley barged his way over the line to get his side’s second try in a many minutes. Anderson had no troubles this time with the kick to put his side 10-0 up.
The Panthers registered their first try through Mose Feilo after 12 minutes. The centre burst through some feeble defence to streak away and score underneath the black dot, before Blore added the simple extras to make it 10-6.
However, errors from consecutive kick-offs gifted Manly two quick tries to race out to a 16 point lead. Taniela Paseka took advantage of a knock-on from the restart, before Blake Andrews capitalised on a penalty to race through and score from a Cade Cust grubber. Anderson would convert both tries as Manly pushed out to a 22-6 lead.
The Panthers continued to gift the Sea Eagles opportunities to add to their lead but held firm before striking back through Brian Too in the 25th minute. An inch perfect cut out pass from Caleb Aekins allowed the winger to dive over out wide to bring the score back to 22-10.
They had their third five minutes from half-time thanks to another glorious cut-out pass, this time from Sam Martin-Savage. An onrushing Manly defence left winger Daniel Brown unmarked and was found by Martin-Savage’s precise pass. Blore couldn’t add the extras as the Panthers went in to the break trailing 22-14.
HALF-TIME: Penrith Panthers 14 – 22 Manly Sea Eagles
The flurry of points dried up following the restart with the first try coming 10 minutes from time courtesy of Andrews’ second for Manly. The centre exploited some jagged defence to jink his way to the try line and give his side an unassailable 28-14 lead following Anderson’s conversion.
A late consolation try through Brown’s second of the game added respectability to the scoreboard for the Panthers as the visitors ran away with a comfortable 28-20 lead.
FULL-TIME: Penrith Panthers 20 – 28 Manly Sea Eagles
