Lehighton will kick off the high school football week tonight when it travels to Orwigsburg for a Thursday night matchup with Blue Mountain.

If you think that Thursday night football games are becoming more popular, you’re right.

Tonight’s game will be the fourth Thursday night game involving a Times News area team, and Lehighton will be the fifth different area team to play on a Thursday this season. Over the past five years, that is the highest number of regular season Thursday games and the most area teams playing on a Thursday.

The other games this season were:

Week 2 - Northwestern at Northern Lehigh

Week 2 - Jim Thorpe at Bangor

Week 4 - Shenandoah at Panther Valley

As a comparision, only one area team played a regular season Thursday night game as recently as the 2020 season.

While more and more teams are adding Thursday games to their schedule the last few years, no school can compare to Lehighton’s Thursday night history. Tonight will mark the ninth straight season the Indians are playing a Thursday night game. Northern Lehigh is another school with a strong Thursday history, as the Bulldogs have played on Thursdays four of the last five years. On the other hand, Palmerton and Tamaqua are the only two area teams to not have played on a Thursday in the last five seasons.

This week’s Overtime column will talk to some local coaches who have been involved in Thursday night football games and (TO) get their thoughts on it.

In addition, Rod Heckman will have some statistical highlights from last week’s games along with the historical comparisons to them. Among this week’s Overtime notes are a family connection involving Palmerton’s high-powered passing game, a Pleasant Valley “pick six”, and a host of Tamaqua two-point conversions.

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Football coaches are usually creatures of habit. They tend to be ultra organized and love to maintain the same routine as far as practices and game preparation are concerned.

But when it comes to breaking the Friday night football routine for a Thursday game, all four area coaches we talked to were highly in favor of switching things up - even though it means changing their game-week practice patterns.

“I really like playing a Thursday game once a season,” said Lehighton coach Tom McCarroll, whose team has played a Thursday night game every year since 2014. “I think the main reasons is that the kids enjoy switching things up a little, and it gets them excited.

“They know that for the most part they are the only game in town that night, which means there are a lot more eyes on you than normal. You know you’re going to have a lot of your peers that play for other teams at the game, and a lot of coaches will be there scouting as well.”

While McCarroll has been preparing his teams to play Thursday games for years, Panther Valley’s Mark Lavine got to experience Thursday night football as a head coach for the first time a couple of weeks ago when the Panthers hosted Shenandoah.

“I loved everything about it,” said Lavine. “I thought it was a good change mentally for our players ... it just had an entirely different feel. When you add in the excitement of the game being televised by Blue Ridge Cable, I thought it was a great experience for our kids.

“We all enjoy having a routine, but at the same time it was nice to add a little something new and to change up our practice week - both the week before the game and after the game. I hope we can do a Thursday night game every year.”

Jim Thorpe hasn’t been a team that plays regular Thursday night games in the past, but coach Mark Rosenberger said after playing Bangor earlier this season on a Thursday, he wouldn’t be opposed to doing it in the future.

“I would absolutely do it again,” said Rosenberger. “It’s something different for the kids. Not only are you the only game in town the night you play, but it frees up the coaches to go out on Friday and scout teams that are playing that night.

“I wouldn’t mind playing a Thursday game every year. If something could be arranged with another area team, that would be even better. I think that would be great for our players and our fans alike.”

While playing any game on Thursday adds some extra excitement, playing “the” game on a Thursday magnifies that excitement exponentially.

That’s been the case for Northern Lehigh and Northwestern the last two years, as the rivals have played their Mountain Road Rumble game on that day.

“I like the idea of a Thursday game - especially a big game. We play our Northwestern game on a Thursday because it’s before Labor Day weekend,” said Bulldog coach Joe Tout. “Our kids are off school on Friday, so they don’t have to be up and in school early the day after the game.

“Thursday night gives you a stand alone game as well, and should help increase the gate. We use the theory that it might help get the casual fan to the game.”

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PALMERTON HIGH FIVE ... Daniel Lucykanish and Kendall Robinson both caught touchdowns passes during last Friday’s game against Notre Dame.

The scores give each receiver five touchdown catches this year.

The last time the Blue Bombers had two players with at least five TD receptions in the same season was 1993, when Eric Bollinger had eight and Jesse Rehus five. Ironically, the quarterback who threw most of those touchdown passes was Chris Lucykanish - Daniel’s father.

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PICK-SIX PARTY ... Pleasant Valley’s Mario Mondillo intercepted a pass and returned it 57 yards for a touchdown last Friday against Pocono Mountain East.

The week before, Mondillo recorded a 37-yard pick-six in a win over Dieruff.

Over the past 30 seasons, Mondillo is just the fifth area player to have interception returns for TDs in back-to-back weeks. One of those was also a member of the Bears - Nyiem Nevarez, who accomplished the feat in Weeks 3 and 4 of the 2013 season.

The others include Panther Valley’s Jake Dunn (Weeks 5-6 in 2008), Northwestern’s Austin Bleam (Weeks 10-11 in 2002) and Jim Thorpe’s Jared Schrantz (Weeks 5-6 in 1996).

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NO CATCHES ALLOWED ... Ironically enough, the interception by Mondillo in the note above was the only catch made in the game.

Both the Bears and the Cardinals failed to complete a pass in their rivalry matchup.

During the 2000s, it’s the only time a game involving a Times News area team has failed to have a pass completion.

The previous low during that time span was one. On Oct. 15, 2004, Palmerton didn’t complete a pass, while Southern Lehigh completed one.

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TAMAQUA TWO-POINTERS ... In last Friday’s victory over Salisbury, Tamaqua scored seven touchdowns. After five of those, the Blue Raiders converted two-point conversions.

Connor Dillon accounted for two of those, as did Colton Tomczak, while Isaac Curvey had the other one.

The five two-point conversions (in one game) are a new school record at Tamaqua. The Raiders tied the old mark of four in a game last season, but had never reached five before.

Among area teams, the last time five two-point conversions were made in one game was Oct. 20, 2017 when Lehighton had five against Blue Mountain. Cody Scherer ran for three of them, and also threw for two (to Zack Crum and Ben Schatz).

Tamaqua has converted at least one two-point conversion every year for the past 19 seasons. That’s the longest streak among area teams. The last time the Raiders didn’t have a two-point conversion during a season was 2003.

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IT’S YOU AGAIN ... Last week’s Overtime column dealt with the fact that the annual Marian-Panther Valley contest will not be played this season, ending a string of 46 consecutive years the two schools met on the football field.

The column also pointed out long streaks by some area rivalry schools.

With the recent pandemic and schedules changing because of the new Colonial/Schuylkill merger, some former streaks have gone by the wayside - like Northern Lehigh-Catasauqua, and Tamaqua-Panther Valley to name a few.

Below is a list of the longest current streaks involving area teams (including games that have or will be played this season):

Palmerton vs. Northern Lehigh/Slatington - 88 dating back to 1935

Pleasant Valley vs. PM (East) - 62 dating back to 1961

Pleasant Valley vs. Stroudsburg - 47 dating back to 1976

Palmerton vs. Catasauqua - 28 dating back to 1994

Jim Thorpe vs. Tamaqua - 24 dating back to 1999

Northern Lehigh vs. Salisbury - 23 dating back to 2000

Jim Thorpe vs. Lehighton - 21 dating back to 2002

Marian vs. Minersville - 21 dating back to 2002

Marian vs. Shenandoah Valley - 21 dating back to 2002

Panther Valley vs. Shenandoah Valley - 21 dating back to 2002

Pleasant Valley vs. PM West - 21 dating back to 2002

Pleasant Valley vs. ES North - 21 dating back to 2002