After a season of talk around their halves, Newcastle five-eighth Fletcher Sharpe limped from the field with a knee injury in the opening half at Allegiant Stadium on Saturday night (Sunday AEDT).
But the blow did little to stifle the Knights' attack, with Ponga in everything as life under Justin Holbrook began with a win.
In a sea-sawing affair that was not over until the final five minutes, Ponga was electric for Newcastle as he helped lay on two tries.
With much of the talk over the pre-season around how the NRL's richest man in Dylan Brown could adapt to wearing No.7, Ponga shared some of the load.
The Knights fullback popped up regularly in attack, had close to as many touches as Brown and also did plenty of kicking close to the line.
After forcing a dropout early with his grubber, he helped lay on the first try of the season with a bomb for the chasing Sharpe to score.
Newcastle led 12-0 when a Brown kick rebounded back into the hands of Sharpe, who found Greg Marzhew out wide.
It was then Sharpe's injury that changed the complexion of the game, with the 20-year-old exposed in the defensive line after going down and passing an ACL test.
North Queensland ran right at him in the next set, with Heilum Luki breezing past Sharpe with ease to score the Cowboys' first.
Sharpe will go for scans on his left knee, but the Knights are confident the injury is not season ending.
North Queensland had it back to 12-12 at halftime through Murray Taulagi, before Ponga took charge again in the second half.
Combining nicely with fill-in five-eighth Sandon Smith, the fullback broke into space when he ran onto an inside ball and sent Bradman Best over.
He was then involved again in the Knights' next, when he went across field and combined with Brown, before Best tapped on a ball for Dom Young to score.
And while the Cowboys got it back to 22-18 when Jake Clifford caught Brown rushing out of the line to break free and kick for Taulagi, the Knights were too good.
A late Trey Mooney try eventually sealed it, with their attacking showing far more life than the one that only offered up 14 points per game last year.
Scott Drinkwater required time off the field in the first half with a rib injury, while fellow Cowboy Thomas Mikaele also suffered a knee injury before the break.
Newcastle veteran Tyson Frizell was put on report for the hit, coming in low as the fourth man in on the tackle.
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