Tamaqua football uses big plays to pull away from Pen Argyl

Victor Schlosser’s first touch of 2024 was a forgettable one, a 3-yard loss on third down on Tamaqua’s first offensive series.

It led to what Blue Raiders coach Sam Bonner feared most after an 80-minute bus ride — a 3-and-out followed by a Pen Argyl scoring drive.

But, thankfully for Tamaqua, there was a lot of football left to be played on a warm Saturday afternoon.

Schlosser got several more chances to produce. His 68-yard touchdown run around the right end early in the second quarter was the beginning of a series of big plays by the Blue Raiders.

The 5-foot-9, 150-pound senior also caught a 66-yard pass that led to the go-ahead score late in the first half and picked off a pass that helped finish off a 38-7 victory at Alumni Stadium.

“I was just out there trying my best,” Schlosser said. “I think it got us up, got us to push through.”

Pen Argyl needed only five plays after a shanked punt to take a 7-0 lead on Mason Soos’ 5-yard TD run at the 7-minute, 14-second mark of the first quarter.

The Green Knights then stopped the Blue Raiders’ next series thanks to Zach Metzgar’s fourth-down interception in the end zone.

After that, coach Brady Mutton’s bunch committed several mistakes and gave up big plays.

It started with Schlosser’s long TD run to get Tamaqua settled down and even on the scoreboard at the 7:06 mark of the second quarter.

A Pen Argyl roughing-the-passer penalty on a fourth-down incompletion kept Tamaqua’s next drive alive. Three plays later, Luke Kane hit Declan Coleman for a 6-yard touchdown to give the Blue Raiders the lead for good. A 51-yard completion from Kane to Jacob Hehn got the drive started.

It went from bad to worse for the Green Knights early in the second half. They drove 11 plays to the Blue Raiders’ 10 but were stopped on fourth down when Kane dragged down Metzgar for a 4-yard loss.

Three plays earlier, Pen Argyl’s two-way starter Terrell Estes was helped off the field with what looked like a left shoulder injury. It could be the junior’s third significant injury in three years.

“We were out of shape,” Mutton said. “We made mental mistakes. Terrell went down, not an excuse, but he’s a big part of the team. That just piled on.

“The first half, we were fine then a couple big plays and it snowballed.”

After that defensive stop, Tamaqua used a 66-yard completion from Kane to Schlosser to set up Tyler Koch’s 2-yard touchdown run for a 21-7 lead.

Schlosser’s 55-yard run on the Blue Raiders’ next offensive series led to Brad Whalen’s 4-yard TD run for a 28-7 lead entering the fourth quarter.

Tamaqua added a field goal and a touchdown run by backup Ace Schickham which was set up by Schlosser’s interception.

“After that 3-and-out and then they go down to score to go up 7-0,” Bonner said, “on a Saturday afternoon on the road that can be a little scary. But our kids grinded it out, especially in the second quarter, and to go into halftime with the lead with the way we were playing I thought we were in pretty good shape.”

Schlosser accounted for 147 rushing yards and 77 receiving yards on 12 touches. Tamaqua racked up 437 yards of offense after getting 1 net yard on the game’s first drive.

The Blue Raiders defense allowed only 109 yards after the Green Knights got 42 on their lone scoring drive to start their season.

“We started seeing [Schlosser] be our playmaker at the end of last year,” Bonner said. “He had a great offseason and expected him to carry that into this year, and he did that today.

“After that first series, I thought [our defense] buckled down. One thing, we gave up a drive to start the second half. But when it came down to it, we got a stop and then we were able to take it down and score. That, I think, was the turnaround in the game.”

Up next

Tamaqua (1-0) hosts North Schuylkill (1-0) at 7 p.m. Friday. Pen Argyl (0-1) visits Palmerton (0-1), also at 7 Friday.

Morning Call reporter Tom Housenick can be reached at 610-820-6651 or at thousenick@mcall.com

TAMAQUA, PEN ARGYL

Tamaqua: 0; 14; 14; 10 — 38

Pen Argyl: 7; 0; 0; 0 — 7

ORDER OF SCORING

First quarter

PA: Mason Soos 5 run (Reid Kotulka kick), 7:14

Second quarter

T: Victor Schlosser 68 run (Nicholas Barron kick), 7:06

T: Luke Kane 6 pass to Declan Coleman (Barron kick), 1:35

Third quarter

T: Tyler Koch 2 run (Barron kick), 3:04

T: Brad Whalen 4 run (Barron kick), 0:37

Fourth quarter

T: Barron 22 FG, 4:17

T: Ace Schickram 4 run (Barron kick), 0:55

TEAM STATISTICS
Tam; PA
First downs; 16; 7
Rushes-yards; 40-262; 29-145
Passing yards; 176; 6
Comp-Att-INTs; 8-13-1; 3-9-1
Punts-avg.; 1-6; 4-30.5
Fumbles-lost; 0-0; 1-0
Penalties-yards; 5-50; 5-63

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing : (Tamaqua) Brad Whalen; 18-71, TD Tyler Koch 5-19, TD; Victor Schlosser 9-117, TD; Luke Kane 3-4; Terrence McDowell 4-47; Ace Schickram 1-4, TD; (Pen Argyl) Caiden Faust 10-83; Terrell Estes 5-9; Mason Soos 10-39; Zach Metzgar 3-13; James Accatino 1-1.

Passing : (Tamaqua) Kane 8-13-1, 176 yards, TD; (Pen Argyl) Soos 3-9-1, 6 yards.

Receiving : (Tamaqua) Schlosser; Declan Coleman 3-48, TD; Jacob Hehn 2-51; Schlosser 3-77; (Pen Argyl) Faust 1-0; Lucas Lerch 2-6.