Halftime adjustments are a part of every football game.

Those adjustments, though, usually deal with offense and defense — not special teams.

But on Saturday night, Jim Thorpe used the intermission to tweak its return game. Needless to say, it was time well spent as the Olympians came up with two kickoff returns for touchdowns to help gain a 42-20 victory over Tamaqua in a District 11 Class 3A quarterfinal game.

“We talked at halftime about our kickoff return,” said Thorpe head coach Mark Rosenberger. “Coach Zurn made it a point to make sure our second row and third row didn’t get quite so deep and they got out of there a little bit quicker so (Jarrin) Geisinger and (CJ) Selby could get up to top speed quicker. The first couple times it was just too clumped up back there so the coaches made a nice adjustment.

“Geisinger is a district champ in the 100, and you saw his speed on display, and Selby is not too slow himself. They made two huge plays for us.”

Despite controlling the action most of the opening half, the Olympians managed just a 14-6 lead at the break.

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Geisinger changed that by taking the second-half kickoff and going 80 yards up the middle of the field for a touchdown. The Blue Raiders rallied with scores on their next two possessions to pull within a point at 21-20, but their momentum quickly faded when Selby scooped up a kickoff and sprinted 85 yards to the end zone for another TD.

“We put goals on the board every week,” said Rosenberger. “When we played (Tamaqua) the first time we felt that on a couple of kickoff returns we were just one block away. So one of our goals was to make sure we weren’t one block away this week. Obviously the kids got the job done this week and we weren’t one block away.”

“Those two big plays had a lot to do with the score,” said Tamaqua mentor Sam Bonner. “I thought we did a good job of fighting back, but you fight back and then give up a big score like that, it affects you.”

Following Selby’s return, which made the score 28-20, the Raiders (6-5) managed just 33 yards on their final 15 plays and never entered the red zone again.

“We emphasized scoring on kick returns every single day this week,” said Thorpe’s Justin St. Hill, who rushed for 199 yards and accounted for his team’s other four touchdowns. “We had it as one of our main points to win, and we ran back two ... Last time we played them we messed up because we had turnovers. It was as simple as that. We were in position and had chances to score, but it was just turnovers. We cut down on the turnovers this week.”

The Olympians (10-1) didn’t give up the ball the entire evening and used a solid running attack after the two kickoff returns to take command.

St. Hill completed a 64-yard drive with a 7-yard scoring run early in the fourth quarter to up the lead to 35-20, and sealed the victory with a 16-yard tally with five minutes left in the contest.

“You think you have him bottled up and before you know it, he’s getting away,” said Bonner of St. Hill. “A lot of times on third and long or fourth down, you think you have him and you’re going to get the ball back and get back in it, but he makes a big play.”

“I thought our offensive line did a great job as well, controlling the line of scrimmage” said Rosenberger. “I thought we were able to run the ball successfully tonight, and I thought we stopped their running game for the most part. Overall, it was just a great team effort.”

Ironically, it was a 60-yard kickoff return by Tamaqua’s Nick Breiner that opened the game and gave the Raiders great field position. Nate Boyle capped a short march with a 5-yard TD run that gave the visitors a 6-0 start.

St. Hill reached the end zone twice, on runs of five and three yards, to give his team the halftime lead.

RARE FEAT ... In the past 25 years among Times News area teams, Saturday marked the first time that a team had two different players return a kickoff for a touchdown in the same game.

RETURN MAN ... For Geisinger, it was his second kickoff return for a score this season, and the fifth in his career. Over the last 25 years, only one other area player (Lehighton’s Robbie Frey) has had as many as five kickoff returns for TDs in a career.

RAIDER RALLY ... After the second-half kickoff, Tamaqua received a 33-yard TD run from Boyle and a 24-yard scoring pass from Brayden Knoblauch to Matt Kistler on consecutive possessions. The Raiders, however, didn’t threaten after that. Also of note, all three Tamaqua scores came of fourth-down plays.

UP NEXT ... Jim Thorpe, who gained its 10th win of the season for just the second time in their history, travels to Lehighton Saturday for a rematch of their Week 10 showdown.