TAMAQUA – Last week, Dalton Nunemacher emerged as the Raiders top playmaker by amassing over 100 yards rushing with a touchdown, 63 yard receiving and another touchdown, a punt return for touchdown that was called back, and two interceptions, one for a 96 yard touchdown return. This week, he continued to dominate the field by scoring all five of Tamaqua’s touchdowns in a 33-6 thrashing of the William Allen Canaries on Friday night.
Nunemacher returned the opening kickoff to the Raiders 44 yard line and capped off the drive with a 36 yard TD run. The explosive playmaker wasn’t finished. On the next possession, he hauled in a trick play pass form tailback Jake Love to give Tamaqua a 14-0 lead late in the first quarter. Tamaqua’s defense came up big in the first quarter stopping the Canaries twice inside the red zone with outside linebacker Dylan Houser falling on a fumble and intercepting a pass inside the five yard line.
The Blue Raider defense bent but did not break down the stretch. The Canaries moved the chains 17 times and compiled over 250 yards of offense but could not find the endzone at all in the first half. Tamaqua’s offense, however, was firing on all cylinders and gave Allen no time at all to catch their breath. The Raiders closed out the half with Nunemacher again running it in. This time it was from eight yards out. Trailing 21-0 with six seconds in the half, Allen took a shot at the endzone and nearly closed the gap, but Lara’s pass went in and out of the hands of a wide open receiver Jaleel Ennis. As time expired, The “Boys in Blue” were comfortably ahead 21-0.
Tamaqua came out of the break fired up and quickly stopped the Canaries to a 3-and-out. After a long run by Love, Nunemacher again scored, this time on a 1 yard run. Allen’s offense continued to struggle as they failed to convert a fourth down and had to give the ball back to the Raiders. Nunemacher put up one more touchdown to cap off a 7-play, 69-yard drive to finish off the Canaries and put Tamaqua ahead 33-0. In the fourth quarter, William Allen finally got on the board with a 13 yard pass from Lara to Armando Castillo to make it 33-6 which would turn out to be the final tally. A total of 36 yards, rushed for another 136 yards on 13 touches, and also scored all five Blue Raider touchdowns.
Dalton Nunemacher was again the offensive standout for Tamaqua. The senior caught four passes.Tamaqua improves to 2-0 with a 1-0 record in the Anthracite Football League with last week’s victory over Jim Thorpe. The Raiders travel to Shenandoah next week to face the Blue Devils of Shenandoah Valley.
William Allen falls to 0-2 on the season but have lost to two very good opponents in Tamaqua and Allentown Central Catholic. The Canaries head north to face East Stroudsburg North. This will be Allen’s first league game as a member of the Mountain Valley Conference.
