After overcoming a 17-0, halftime deficit Friday night, Potomac's football team had no problems overcoming a three-point disadvantage with a little more than 3 minutes to play.

Quarterback Gary Price led the Panthers 85 yards to paydirt, culminated by a game-winning, 11-yard touchdown run, and the defense held on as Potomac recorded a thrilling, 28-24 win over visiting Cave Spring in the Division 5 Northwest Region semifinals.

The Panthers (9-2) will travel to Culpeper next week for the region final.

``It doesn't surprise me," Potomac coach Ben Stutler said of the comeback victory. ``I expect them to play like that all the time."

The Panthers scored 21 unanswered points to take a 21-17 lead with 8:33 left in the fourth quarter, but the Knights came right back to go up, 24-21, on a touchdown run from Desmond Jalloh with 5:47 left.

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Price threw an interception on the ensuing possession but the Panthers forced a punt and took over on their own 15 with 3:18 to go.

Price opened the drive with a 17-yard run, then completed back-to-back passes to Antwan Stewart for 20 and 22 yards. Price followed that up by breaking a few tackles for a 15-yard gain and then ran 11 yards for a touchdown, stalling at first out of the shotgun before sprinting for the right corner.

``We knew that we can come out and score as fast as anything," said Price, who was named the Cedar Run Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year earlier in the day. ``We just tried to come out as hard as we could in the second half."

Following the touchdown run, Andrew Chudacek hit a very important extra point for a 28-24 lead with 1:20 left. The kick was crucial because it gave Potomac a four-point lead and Cave Spring (8-3) kicker Tom Hagan had booted a 52-yard field goal earlier.

The defense made the lead stand up as Isidro Morales sacked quarterback Jeremy White on first down and White's pass was just out of reach of his intended receiver on fourth down.

Price was 10-of-14 for 177 yards and a touchdown in the second half and added 117 yards and two touchdowns on the ground, but it was a miscue by him that led to a play almost as improbable as the comeback itself.

Trailing 17-14 early in the fourth quarter, Price fumbled for the third time of the game, but Potomac fullback Willie Koger scooped up the loose ball and raced 57 yards for the go-ahead touchdown.

``I was about to cry, I was like thank the Lord Willie picked that up," Price said. ``He was there at the right time, it was fate."

The play capped a furious initial comeback by the Panthers.

It started on defense as Potomac stopped the Knights on 4th-and-a foot from the Panther 46 on the first drive of the second half.

Price found sophomore Wade Green wide open for a 34-yard touchdown that narrowed the gap to 17-7 and woke the crowd up.

That was just the beginning of 14 points in 54 seconds.

Stewart intercepted White (15-of-32, 177 yards, touchdown two interceptions) on the ensuing possession and returned it 22 yards to the Cave Spring 38.

Price sprinted 38 yards for a touchdown on the first play, getting a nice block from Carlton Hughes and cutting the score to 17-14.

The Panthers were finally stopped on their next possession but Koger's play put them up, 21-17, with 8:33 to play.

``In order to win this time of year you have to have a little luck," Stutler said. ``We had a little luck and I don't feel the least bit guilty."

The comeback came after a disastrous first half for the Panthers.

The Knights scored on a 50-yard pass on their opening drive, a 3-yard run by Jalloh and the 52-yard field goal by Hagan as time expired in the second quarter.

Cave Spring entered with two losses by a combined three points and the defeat denied the school of its first playoff win since 1978.