Bo Rottet reached a goal that he had been thinking about since the end of last season.

In the process, he helped the Tamaqua boys basketball team get one step closer to a goal it had targeted since the beginning of this season.Rottet scored 22 points to surpass the 1,000-point mark for his career and lead the Blue Raiders to a 70-39 Schuylkill League rout of Pine Grove on Thursday night.With the win, Tamaqua (17-4, 10-3) clinched at least a tie for the Schuylkill League wild card spot. The Raiders can secure a league playoff berth with a win tonight in their regular season finale against Blue Mountain."Almost everyone thinks about someday scoring 1,000 points," said Rottet. "But I didn't realistically think I had a chance until last season ended and I saw how many career points I had. That's when I made it a goal of mine instead of just a dream of mine. It was really nice to reach that goal tonight."But even more importantly, we moved closer to making the league playoffs. From day one of practice this season, making the Schuylkill League playoffs has been our main goal - and that's more important than any individual goal."Tamaqua took the game to the underdog Cardinals right from the outset.The Raiders were dominant on both ends of the court in the opening quarter, racing out to a 28-3 lead."Our message prior to the game tonight was that this was a playoff game and every game the rest of the way is going to be a playoff game," said Tamaqua coach Caszy Kosciolek. "I was really happy how our kids came out and responded to that challenge."We played outstanding defense, especially in that first quarter. Offensively, we were very unselfish, which led to a lot of open looks and easy baskets."Rottet was the main benefactor from the Raiders' offensive precision in the opening quarter. Needing 12 points to reach his milestone, Rottet accomplished the feat in less than six minutes.His driving layup with 2:21 left in the quarter accounted for his 1,000th point."I'm really happy for Bo," said Kosciolek. "He's worked hard to reach this level and achieve this goal."It didn't take him very long to get it out of the way tonight. He hit some big threes early and then built on that fast start."The Raider bench played heavy minutes in the second quarter as Pine Grove pulled to within 36-22 at halftime.But Tamaqua's starters returned in the third quarter and quickly ended any comeback hopes the Cardinals had, opening the quarter with a 19-3 run that was keyed by Russell Blaker's 10 points."It was nice to be able to rotate all 12 of our kids into the game for huge stretches in both the first and second half," said Kosciolek. "The reserves put in just as much work as the starters so it's nice to have games like this where you can reward them with substantial playing time."In addition to Rottet's 22 points, Blaker added 15 points and Brett Kosciolek had 13 for Tamaqua, which shot a sizzling 20-for-32 from the field (63 percent) when its starters were in the game during the first and third quarters.For Pine Grove (3-19, 1-12), Kobe D'Agustino had 22 points, including the 1,000th point of his career as well.PINE GROVERossi 0-0-0-0, Sneddena 1-2-2-4, Sager 0-0-0-0, Leininger 0-0-0-0, D'Agustino 5-9-10-22, Fidler 0-0-0-0, Weinus 3-3-3-10, Griffiths 0-1-2-1, Fick 1-0-0-2. TOTALS: 10-15-17-39.TAMAQUAShilko 2-0-0-4, Blaker 6-2-5-15, Miller 1-1-2-3, Rottet 8-2-2-22, Wassell 1-0-0-3, SZuber 2-0-0-4, MacDonald 1-0-0-2, Murphy 0-0-0-0, Skripko 0-3-4-3, Kosciolek 5-2-2-13, Scott 0-1-2-1, Berezwick 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 26-11-17-70Pine Grove 3 19 8 9 - 39Tamaqua 28 8 23 11 - 70Three-pointers: PG - D'Agustino 3, Weinus 1. T - Rottet 4, Blaker 1, Kosciolek 1, Wassell 1.