On a night Tamaqua inducted five new members into its Athletic Hall of Fame, the Blue Raider football team put up some Hall-of-Fame type numbers.

The most important of those numbers was one - as in one win.

“We definitely needed that,” said Tamaqua head coach Sam Bonner after his club’s 52-0 victory over visiting Salisbury. “We had a gauntlet to start off the year, and we played some really good football teams.

“I thought our kids performed on both sides of the ball tonight. After having a rough one last week against a good North Schuylkill team, it’s good to bounce back. We were able to lick our wounds, but now we need to build on it.”

The Raiders (2-3) excelled on offense, especially on the ground, gaining 379 rushing yards. They had 12 carries that produced 10-or-more yards and registered all seven touchdowns on running plays.

Sophomore Brad Whalen led the way with 151 yards, including the first two scores of the game on Tamaqua’s first two possessions.

But he wasn’t the only one to excel out of the backfield.

“We have a running back by committee there,” said Bonner. “Whalen, Connor (Dillon), Luke (Kane), all those guys ran well. And Isaac ran really tough tonight.

“I think he also had a lot of pancake blocks. He’s a physical kid. It’s good to see him get some carries and score a couple times. He’s a workhorse that does a lot of stuff that doesn’t always get a lot of recognition.”

Curvey, a senior, led the way for his teammate on the opening drive. Whalen ran eight times for 49 yards, including the final three to open the scoring.

After Jacob Hehn intercepted a pass on the Falcons’ first play from scrimmage, the tandem of Curvey blocking and Whalen running produced another tally. Whalen eventually got in the clear, and broke free down the sideline for a 35-yard score and a 16-0 advantage.

“Offensively, we established the run game and I thought that was good to see,” said Bonner. “Power football is kind of like what we want to build off and it was good to see that this week.”

Curvey got into the scoring act in the second quarter. After a high snap on a Salisbury punt attempt put Tamaqua in the red zone, he bulled his way in from a yard out to extend the advantage to 22-0.

The senior added two more scores in the second half, a 2-yard TD run four minutes into the third quarter and a 32-yard burst early in the fourth frame that made it 44-0 and ended the night for the Raiders’ starting lineup.

As productive a night the offense had, the defense also put up those Hall-of-Fame type numbers.

Tamaqua allowed just one first down in the first half, and only gave up 19 total yards before substitutions were made late in the game. The Raider ‘D’ also had 12 tackles for loss, including back-to-back sacks by Michael Styka and Damon Sell that ended a Falcons’ drive in the third quarter.

“We emphasized that we needed to get better fundamentally, especially defensively,” said Bonner. “We switched stuff up a little bit with personnel. I thought our kids did really well on that side of the ball.

“We have Jim Thorpe next week and they’re obviously going to be a challenge. They’re always very tough and very physical. So, we have to make sure we’re healthy and have a good week of practice, and build off of what we did well tonight.”

FINISHING TOUCH ... Tamaqua’s final score came with 3:25 to play when freshman Colton Tomczak broke free for a 73-yard touchdown run.

PASSING NOT NEEDED ... The Raiders only completed three passes for 11 yards, easily their lowest total of the season. They had thrown for over 100 yards in each of their first four games.

HIGH FIVE ... Dillon scored on a 12-yard run in the third quarter, which after Curvey’s two-point conversion, brought the mercy rule into effect. Dillon has scored a touchdown in all five of Tamaqua’s games this season.

HONORED ... Inducted into the Tamaqua Athletic Hall of Fame in pregame ceremonies were Aaron Frantz, Margaret Benny Kimeck, Tanner McHugh, Eric Lech and Joe Berezwick.