A failed attempt to play scholastic soccer.

A casual conversation with a friend in the school hallway.

An impromptu ‘tryout’ for the coach prior to a mid-season game in 2017.

Those are the circumstances that set the wheels in motion for Lucca Stroia.

A little over a year ago, Stroia had never played or kicked in an organized football game in his life.

Now, the Marian junior is doing things that no Colt football player had done in the last 30 years — or maybe ever.

Friday night against Minersville, Stroia’s 22-yard ‘walk-off’ field goal in overtime gave Marian a 17-14 victory.

Times News records dating back to 1988 revealed that no Colt player has ever kicked a fourth quarter or overtime field goal to win a game during that time period. Former Marian coach Stan Dakosty, who’s tenure as a member of the Colt staff dates back to the mid-1970s, can’t remember it happening during his time on the sideline either.

“Lucca is a huge weapon to have,” said current Marian coach Pat Morgans. “We feel like anytime we even get close to the red zone, that we have a chance to get points.

“Friday night after our defense came up with the stop on the opening possession of overtime, I was feeling pretty confident. We stayed pretty conservative on offense knowing that all we needed was a field goal and realizing how accurate Lucca is as a kicker.”

For his part, Stroia said the chance to deliver for his school and teammates was a dream come true.

“I think every kicker dreams of making a game-winning field goal,” Stroia said. “So to get the opportunity and deliver was really special.

“Getting mobbed by my teammates after helping us get our first win of the season was something that I won’t ever forget.”

It was Stroia’s third field goal of the season, which is something else that no Marian player has done in the last 30 years. The Colts have just 15 field goals during that span, with only Panther Valley having a lower total among area schools.

But Morgans sees that number increasing with Stroia handling the kicking duties for the next season-and -a-half.

“Lucca is a great talent,” said Morgans. “He’s got a live leg, and he’s really put a lot of time and effort into developing himself as a kicker.

“It’s really impressive how far he’s come in such a short period of time. It’s hard to believe, but a year ago at this time, he was a soccer kid who had never kicked a football before. Now, he can consistently make kicks from 45 yards out.”

So how did Stroia find his way into a Marian football uniform?

“I originally hoped to play soccer in high school,” explained Stroia. “Since Marian doesn’t have a team, we tried to get a co-op worked out with Hazleton High School so I could play there, but that opportunity never materialized, so I ended up going out for the Marian golf team.

“One day last year my friend Keith (McCall), who plays on the football team, mentioned they could use a kicker. He knew I was a soccer player and thought I might be interested.”

McCall was right. Stroia’s interest was piqued.

A conversation with Morgans eventually followed and a week later, he was on the football team when the Colts played North Schuylkill.

“I really didn’t know anything about kicking a football when I started, and I wasn’t very big at the time (5-7, 150 pounds). But in the offseason, I worked with coach (John) Zima who runs the “Kick It” kicking clinic, and he really helped me with the fundamentals

“I also attended camps at Kutztown, Lehigh and Colgate. Another thing that helped my kicking was that I grew a couple of inches and started lifting weights. I ended up gaining about 25 pounds and a lot of muscle.”

The hard work has paid huge dividends for Stroia and the Colts.

“Lucca is now almost automatic on extra points, and his field goal range and kickoff distance has improved tremendously since last year,” Morgans said. “He definitely has the leg strength and work ethic to kick at the next level.”

That’s something Stroia said has become a goal of his.

“I want to kick in college and hopefully earn a scholarship to do it,” Stroia said. “I want to eventually be a surgeon, and if I can get money to play football in college, that would be a huge help.”

Stroia’s future plans might be precision operations in a hospital. But for now, Morgans and the Colts are thrilled he is operating flawlessly as a kicker.

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OVERTIME WINNER ... In the history of scholastic overtime, a Times News area team has gained a victory past regulation 27 different times.

However, the winning kick by Marian’s Lucca Stroia last Friday against Minersville was the first-ever walk-off win by a TN squad via a field goal.

Only one other time did an area team win in OT with a field goal. That came on Nov. 9, 2001 when Northwestern defeated Salisbury, 10-7. The winning kick by Jordan Grube came on the first possession, and an attempted tying kick by Salisbury failed.

Stroia’s kick also marked the eighth-straight time an area overtime win came on the second possession. Obviously, it makes sense to go second in OT because a team knows what it needs to do to win or force a second overtime. Of the 27 area victories, 19 have come on the last possession.

Stroia’s field goal isn’t the only walk-off kick. There have been four other occasions when an extra-point was booted to secure a win. In those instances, the opponent scored a touchdown first, but missed on the conversion. The winning team then scored and converted the extra point. Those wins came from Northwestern (28-27 over Catasauqua on Nov. 1, 2013), Panther Valley (49-48 over Jim Thorpe on Sept. 21, 2012), Tamaqua (33-32 over Catasauqua in double OT on Nov. 11, 2011), and Marian (34-33 over Schuylkill Haven) on Sept. 7, 2007).

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SCORING STREAK INTACT ... Jim Thorpe lost its first game of the season last Friday, but a fourth-quarter touchdown allowed the Olympians to continue a streak.

Mark Rosenberger’s club has now gone 42 straight games without being shut out. That is the longest such streak in the TN area (Lehighton is next best at 21).

The last time Thorpe was blanked was Oct. 17, 2014 against North Schuylkill.

Before that shutout by the Spartans, the Olympians had gone 46 games without being blanked. That means JT has scored in 88 of its last 89 games.

Over the past 40 years, Jim Thorpe holds the longest scoring streak in the area. The Olympians avoided a shutout in 68 straight games between Sept. 7, 2001 and Sept. 28, 2007. Other schools to hold streaks of 60-or-more games include Marian (66), Tamaqua (65), and Northern Lehigh (61).

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JUST ENOUGH OFFENSE ... Panther Valley was able to edge Shenandoah Valley, 14-13, last Friday despite mustering only 100 yards of offense.

Nearly half of the Panthers yards came on the team’s second touchdown — a 47-yard scoring toss from Ethan Reis to Blake White.

Over the past 30 years, PV has won 122 games. Those 100 yards are the fewest in any of those wins.

Prior to Friday, the fewest yards during one of the Panther wins was the 116 they totaled during a 14-8 victory over Lourdes on Sept. 16, 1989.

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PASSING FANCY ... Northwestern’s Deven Bollinger set a new school record last Friday when he threw for five touchdowns against Palmerton.

Bollinger, who had 268 yards passing, along with backup Josh Gornicz’s 102 yards through the air, also enabled the Tigers to break another school record for team passing yards (370) in a game.

Gornicz also had a TD pass, giving Northwestern six in the game.

In the last 25 years, that marked just the fourth time an area team had six touchdown passes in a game. The other three times the feat was done by one quarterback were Pleasant Valley’s Brandon Keyes on Oct. 7, 2016, Pleasant Valley’s Brandon Leap on Sept. 6, 2013, and Jim Thorpe’s Corey Cinicola on Nov. 10, 2007.

What makes Northwestern’s six-touchdown game even more impressive was the fact that each scoring pass was caught by a different player, matching the same feat done by Leap in his six-score game.