GREENFIELD — Barely five minutes into Thursday night's game, Greenfield cashed in a 90-yard scoring drive and went on to have a fairly productive first half, but found itself in a real grinder of a 6-6 halftime tie with Palmer.

The teams then matched scores early in the third quarter before Palmer's big-play capability and Greenfield's giveaways swung the game the Panthers' way. Palmer snapped its two-game losing streak within the Intercounty League North Division and put away the Green Wave, 28-12, at Veterans Memorial Field.

Angel Politis broke off a 21-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter to lift Greenfield (2-5, 1-3 IL North) into a 12-12 tie, but Palmer's pass-catch combo of Matt Santos and Dylan Doherty connected for a pair of scores in the span of less than five minutes, bridging the third and fourth quarters, as the Panthers ran off the final 16 points of the evening.

Doherty ran for one touchdown and caught two more as part of his 293 yards of total offense. He recorded 144 yards on 16 rushes and 149 yards on seven receptions. Despite throwing a pair of picks, Santos ended the night 11-of-16 passing for 186 yards and three scores. The Panthers finished with 354 yards of total offense and Greenfield wasn't far behind at 299 yards.

"Turnovers and their big plays, that's a letdown. It's hard to overcome that stuff," said Greenfield coach Mike Kuchieski. "(Palmer) had some great talent in the backfield, and they just fly around and have fun. We've got to understand that, too. We've gotta fly around and have some fun and try to make plays as best we can."

Greenfield lost a pair of fumbles right at the end of sizable chunk plays to blunt any potential comeback. A 20-yard completion from Caleb Murray to Jon Breor turned into a fumble covered by Palmer's Gavin Smola. On the very next Green Wave series, Politis picked up 17 yards but lost the football and Jordan Jones came up with the recovery.

Much earlier, Mason Cummings orchestrated the Wave's first score of the night with three rushes for 23 yards and four completions for 61 yards. The last two of those went to Erik Martineau, first a 20-yard gain and then a 30-yarder on a post-corner route where Martineau made a diving grab in the end zone. Greenfield's two-point try failed, but the hosts had themselves a quick 6-0 lead with 6:36 left in the first quarter.

Palmer (5-2, 2-2 IL North) needed just over four minutes to equalize with a short field, starting at the Greenfield 49. Doherty had a key 19-yard carry and Santos found Jones from 4 yards out on a right-to-left slant. Greenfield partially blocked Dylan Holbrook's extra-point kick, keeping the game even at 6-6.

Cummings and Tanner Biagini came up with interceptions of Santos in the second quarter, Biagini's coming with only 18 seconds to go in the half.

The Wave held a 164-129 advantage in total offense through the first two quarters.

Coming out of the intermission, Palmer's quick-strike capability was on display immediately following Taydem Haley's 33-yard kickoff return to the Greenfield 40. A block-in-the back call set the Panthers back to midfield, but Doherty promptly snapped off runs of 28 and 22 yards for the visitors' lead score with only 47 seconds gone in the third quarter.

Greenfield hit back with a 44-yard hookup between Cummings and Martineau to get down to the Palmer 21, and Politis ran it in on the next play with 9:11 remaining. The Wave's two-point try failed, to keep the score at 12 apiece.

Doherty then carried six times for 40 yards on the next drive and the Panthers' didn't even let a second-and-22 situation at the Greenfield 27 faze them. Hunter White ran for 7 yards and Santos zinged a 20-yard TD pass to Doherty on a post pattern. Santos then ran in the two-pointer to make it 20-12 at the 2:43 mark.

Jerad Goulston fired up the Green Wave faithful with an 18-yard run on which no fewer than six defenders were required to finally bring him down. From there, though, Greenfield was forced to punt and Palmer took over at its 20. Facing third-and-14 at the 16, Santos hit Doherty for 16 yards and some breathing room, then the two collaborated again on a 68-yard pass play with 9:54 left in the game. White's two-point run capped the scoring at 28-12.

Politis topped the Green Wave with 74 yards on 16 tries and Cummings added five carries for 57 yards, all before halftime. Cummings went 8-of-13 through the air for 128 yards, with Martineau gathering in three catches for 94 yards, and Murray finished up at quarterback with 1-of-4 for 20 yards. Krish Patel also caught three passes for 29 yards.

"The effort was there. I can't fault our kids' effort," said Kuchieski. "We've gotta learn how to wrap up, make tackles, and swarm to the ball. We didn't do that very well tonight. We'll get back to the drawing board and see what happens. We've got a few (games) left and we'll go from there."

Greenfield hosts Athol in its final scheduled regular-season game Nov. 1 at 7 p.m.