TAMAQUA – Jim Thorpe, coming off back to back 1-9 campaigns, came out with a bang against an inexperienced Blue Raider team. The Olympians had the luxury of having 10 of the 11 offensive starters having at least 5 games of varsity experience over their careers. On the other side, graduation and preseason injuries had left the Raiders with only three on defense and six on offense.
The teams battled strong throughout the first quarter until sophomore defensive end, Aaron Rega, recovered a bad snap to give Tamaqua the ball and derail an Olympian drive in which they were closing in on the redzone. The Blue Raiders, however, could not capitalize as back to back passes bounced off the hands of Tamaqua wide receivers. Jim Thorpe came back to capitalize on Blue Raider mistakes by pounding the Raiders with constant read option plays as senior quarterback, Ryan Saunders, sparked his team by escaping multiple Tamaqua tacklers to bring the ball to the nine yard line of the defending Anthracite Football League champions. Deonte St. Hill was able to cap the drive off with a nine-yard touchdown run. On a broken extra point play, the Olympians were able to escape the Blue Raider defense to go up 8-0.
Tamaqua answered right back with a 25-yard strike from Nate Edmonds to Zach Zucatti to tie the ball game, 8-8. Jim Thorpe was not rattled as St. Hill returned the ensuing kickoff to the Blue Raider 28 yard line. Saunders punched it in from the one on a QB sneak. The heavily favored Raiders found themselves trailing at the break, 15-8.
In the past, Head Coach Sam Bonner had done a fantastic job of keeping his players conditioned enough to outlast opponents through the second half. This looked to be the case early in the third quarter as Jim Thorpe did not appear to have the intensity they should in the first half. As the clock ticked away in the third, Robert Heller found a hole on the read option and outran the Tamaqua defense for a 45-yard score.
Tamaqua’s conditioning never showed up as the Raiders lackadaisical performance late in the game allowed the Olympians to wrap things up with two quick scores on the read option to amount a 34-8 lead. Ernie Shilko was able to record one more touchdown, but Tamaqua came up very short on opening night, 34-14.
The Blue Raiders were plagued by constant mistakes including 10 dropped passes, 4 balls knocked down at the line, and undisciplined defense which led to big gain after big gain on the read option. Injuries also appeared to hurt the Raiders as they missed key players such as the explosive duo of Tyler Hope (TB/FS) and Dustin Vandermartin (WR/CB), as well as the emotional and hard hitting Dylan Van Buskirk (OT/DE).
The Raiders fall to 0-1 (0-1 AFL) and the Olympians start 1-0 (1-0 AFL). Tamaqua will try to bounce back in non-league action against William Allen. Tamaqua won last year’s meeting 33-7 at home, but its a different ball game against the Canaries at J. Birney Crum Stadium as they look much improved from years passed. Jim Thorpe matches up against Blue Mountain who fell 48-20 against Conrad Weiser.
