MIFFLINBURG — The Wildcats had mixed emotions coming out of the postgame huddle after Mifflinburg’s 49-7 win over Milton on Friday night.

The passing game once again exploded for Mifflinburg, who finished with 389 yards and five touchdowns through the air, but there were a few too many mistakes elsewhere for head coach Cody Botts to be content.

“Obviously, it feels good to get back in the win column, but that was pretty sloppy,” he said. “We had a ton of penalties in the first half, and we can’t do that going forward, but I’m overall pretty pleased with how we responded to the adversity of last week.”

Despite the penalty struggles throughout the first half, the Wildcats came out hot.

Chad Martin kept for no gain on Mifflinburg’s first play from scrimmage, but Jackson Griffith found himself open over the middle on the next play. Martin connected with the senior receiver, who took it 64 yards for the game’s first score.

“We thought they were going to run zone on us, so we planned to run the ball down their throat,” Martin said. “Then they came out in man, and I like our weapons on the outside every day of the week against man, so we made stuff happen.”

Milton managed to reach the Mifflinburg 32-yard line on the next possession behind runs from Monty Fisher and Brady Wolfe, but a fourth down stop gave the ball back to the high-powered Wildcat offense. Martin picked up his second touchdown pass of the night on a 25-yard strike to Landen Murray after the turnover, but the Wildcats caught the penalty bug shortly after.

Two runs up the middle garnered the Wildcats a quick 15 yards on their next possession before two holding penalties set up a first-and-30. Martin found Griffith once again and Mifflinburg got the yards back, and more, with a 29-yard catch and run.

“I’m very lucky and fortunate to have the weapons that we do, but we don’t want to be in that situation,” Botts said. “We’ve got guys that can make plays in those situations and I think that’s what makes us a special team, but it’s something we’ve got to work on.”

The Wildcats finished off the drive, their longest of the night, with a 1-yard touchdown pass to Cole Reibsome. Murray finished off the first half with an 83-yard grab, and the senior triggered the mercy rule after taking the second-half kickoff back 88 yards for a score.

Martin played just one series in the second half, handing the ball off to Seth Hartman twice before finding paydirt after a Landen Moser interception set the Wildcats up at the 11-yard line. Despite not throwing a pass in the second half, Martin finished 12-of-18 with 309 yards and four touchdowns in the win.

“That kid is unreal,” Botts said. “He does a really good job of getting the ball out and letting the receivers do their thing, but he had some really good deep passes tonight. He’s a phenomenal athlete and kid, and that’s what we expect out of him.”

After being held to under 100 yards on the ground in the first three quarters, the Black Panthers finally broke through with less than three minutes remaining in the game. Monty Fisher had been the workhorse for Milton all day, and the senior finished off the Black Panthers’ scoring drive with a 40-yard keeper.

It wasn’t the last score of the day, though, as freshman quarterback Brennen Snyder capped off a stellar day for the receivers with a 64-yard touchdown to fellow freshman Hayden Showalter.

While the Wildcats believed it wasn’t the prettiest of victories, it was still a win. After being held to just 14 points last week, both Martin and his receivers said the return to being explosive was much-needed.

“It was a lot of fun today,” Martin said. “When you can make plays like that, it sometimes feels like you’re playing Madden, but it’s great to know we can make that happen.

“We had some problems last week, but we came back stronger. There are things to clean up, but it was a great team win today.”