ANNVILLE – “Offense wins games, but defense wins championships,” Despite the old saying, the Blue Raiders were perfectly fine with just winning the game on Friday night. The poor Annville-Cleona defense had no chance of stopping Tamaqua on what became a sad Football Alumni Night. In a mercy rule effort the Raiders recorded 566 yards of total offense as they rolled dominating 54-21 victory.
On the first play from scrimmage, Jake Love broke free on a toss and got Tamaqua down to the two. The senior capped off the drive two plays later to give Tamaqua an early lead, but a missed extra point made it 6-0. The Little Dutchmen had no intention of giving up to the undefeated Raiders and quickly struck back in six plays that ended on a 24-yard touchdown pass. The visiting team continued to give the Lancaster-Lebanon team a lesson in Coal Region football with a tough, groundin’-n-poundin’ drive ending with a Dalton Nunemacher touchdown run. Tamaqua put a two-point conversion on the board to extend their lead to 14-7. Annville-Cleona answered yet again to tie the game at the end of the quarter with a 7 yard QB keeper.
The early evidence of a shootout quickly disappeared as Tamaqua pulled away with40 unanswered points and piled an insurmountable 54-14 lead. Senior tailback Jake Love posted his third 100 yard game with 146 yards on 16 carries with two touchdowns. Tamaqua quarterback, Nate Edmonds put up a perfect night by going 3-3 with 128 yards and three touchdowns. Even in a losing effort, Annville-Cleona quarterback, Mitch Rodkey, had a good game on the option by carrying for 138 yards on 20 carries.
Next week, the Blue Raiders travel to Fountain Springs to take on the mighty North Schuylkill Spartans in an Anthracite Football League game. This game is very important for both teams because it could very well be the deciding factor over who wins the AFL with the Raiders coming in 5-0 and the Spartans at 4-1 with a win over undefeated Marian Catholic Friday Night. Annville will have to rebound next week to take on the undefeated Garden Spot Spartans in a L-L Section 3 game. The Dutchmen are much better than there record indicates. All of their losses have come against undefeated teams and Garden Spot will be the fourth undefeated team they will play.
TAM 14 20 20 0
A-C 14 0 0 7
