Will Eshleman Powers North Star Past Northern Bedford 33-14

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Baron Dionis | October 17, 2026

Will Eshleman scored five touchdowns, leading the North Star Cougars to a 33-14 victory over the Northern Bedford County Panthers at Boswell War Memorial Field.

Despite jumping out to a first quarter lead, Northern Bedford could not find a way to contain Eshleman. He broke off multiple runs for over 60 yards.

“We put a lot of pressure on the line this week to step up with their rage and dominate this football game and I felt right from the start that our line, on both sides of the football, took control of this game,” North Star coach Shane Smith said. “Will’s our shifty guy, and we thought if we can get him loose a little bit, it was going to benefit us.”

North Star got the game started with a 45 yard rush from Kasey Yoder, but a fumbled snap on the next play gave the Panthers the ball.

From there, the Panthers capitalized with a 59 yard touchdown from Trace Baker to Nevin Lloyd.

It took a little for the Cougar offense to really get going, but once the second quarter began, junior running back Eshleman took over.

On the first play, Eshleman took the handoff 79 yards for the touchdown to tie the game at 6-6.

Northern Bedford made it to the red zone to break the tie, but Yoder intercepted the pass in the endzone, ending the drive.

Eshleman followed the turnover with a 67 yard touchdown to give North Star the lead.

A flag on the following kickoff put the Panthers inside their own 10. After a negative play put them on the two-yard line, the Cougars sent pressure and the pass attempt was thrown up and Eshleman came down with it. He scored on the two-yard pick-six, giving North Star a 19-6 lead entering the half.

Eshleman came out of the half and quickly got into the endzone again, this time from 14 yards out. After North Star picked up a loose ball on defense, Eshleman took it in again from 20 yards out.

Northern Bedford finally got their offense going again as Baker found Lloyd again, this time for a 49 yard score. That wrapped up the scoring from this game at 33-14.

“We were just sloppy,” Northern Bedford coach Garry Black stated. “We’re going to erase it from our memory and go play Windber next week. We don’t have to see them in the playoffs, but when you watch those guys play, that line is enormous. They’re very physical and they just took it to us tonight.”