Blow by blow, Pottsville kept pushing forward.

The Tide spent four quarters delivering body shots before squaring up the knockout punch.

Pottsville pounded out a 34-17 Schuylkill League Division 1 victory over Tamaqua Friday night.

The Tide strung together long drives and connected on big plays to end the Raiders’ (5-1) undefeated start to the season.

“Pottsville played a great game on both sides of the ball,” said Tamaqua head coach Sam Bonner. “Tonight, I thought we were right in it in the third quarter when it was 20-17, and then they got another one on us, and we kind of got gassed after that. Their offense kept our defense on the field for a long time tonight.”

A 23-yard run by Nate Boyle (eight carries, 105 yards) with 6:41 to play in the third quarter cut the Raiders’ deficit to three points and answered a Tide (5-1) touchdown to open the second half.

But Pottsville capitalized on an interception on Tamaqua’s next possession, capping a six-play, 59-yard drive with Bobby Walchak’s 2-yard plunge to go up 27-17 with 1:50 to play in the third. After getting a stop on fourth down, the Tide strung together a seven play, 66-yard drive that ended with Damon Yost hitting Mason Barnes for a critical 31-yard score to make it 34-17 with 8:01 remaining in the game.

Yost completed 17-of-24 passes for 242 yards, while Barnes hauled in seven catches for 71 yards. Addison Mullins (three catches, 60 yards) and Kevin Schenk (three, 56) also had touchdown catches.

The Tide also sustained drives on the ground. Walchak finished with 15 carries for 91 yards, and Kevin DiCello carried the ball 13 times for 85 yards.

“If I had enough game balls, I’d give it to the O-line, that was an outstanding performance for those guys. They really stepped up,” said Pottsville head coach Tom McGeoy. “We’ve been passing the ball well all season, but until last week (a 57-8 win over Interboro), we really weren’t establishing the run. And last week, we weren’t really sure if that meant a lot or not. And this week, coming out and running against Tamaqua ... that was big.”

The Raiders had given up just 37 points all season through the first five weeks and were allowing only 175.6 yards per game. The Tide finished with 445 yards of total offense.

“They’ve been doing that all year,” said McGeoy. “If you try to single-cover them, we like our chances. One’s 6-6 (Schenk), the other guy is 6-1 (Barnes), they’re two of our best basketball players, they both jump and time the ball well, so we like those matchups.

“Tamaqua did a nice job with the safeties over the top, but once we started running that gave it to us.”

Tamaqua took an early lead when Brayden Knoblauch hit Matt Kistler for a 26-yard score in the first quarter.

The Raiders increased their lead to 10-6 early in the second quarter when Boyle connected for a 25-yard field goal. The drive was set up by the senior’s bruising 71-yard run to put the ball inside the 10-yard line.

Pottsville grabbed a 13-10 lead before halftime when Yost hit Schenk for a 14-yard score on fourth down with 5:44 left in the second quarter.

A 29-yard scamper by DiCello on the first drive of the third quarter put the Tide ahead 20-10 before Tamaqua answered with its only scoring drive of the second half.

“We didn’t really get a chance to get any kind of rhythm going offensively,” said Bonner.

“They kept us off the field, and I think our guys wanted to make big plays, and sometimes we had a hard time finding consistency. We had a couple nice drives and some big plays, but we didn’t have any consistency to keep them off the field.”

I’LL TAKE THAT

... Boyle had two interceptions in the first half for Tamaqua, the second of which came in the end zone and set up a field goal.

GREAT CAUSE

... Friday was the 4th Annual Recovery Awareness game at Tamaqua. The observance raises awareness of substance abuse disorders, celebrates individuals in long-term recovery, and acknowledges the work of prevention, treatment and recovery support services.

UP NEXT

... Tamaqua travels to North Schuylkill (5-1) next Friday.