Tamaqua gave its seniors something to remember and its future opponent something to think about.

The Blue Raiders put together their most impressive performance of the season, dominating Panther Valley on both sides of the line of scrimmage and rolling to a 49-0 mercy-rule win on Friday night.

It was a senior-night performance that left Tamaqua coach Sam Bonner proud and Panther Valley coach Mark Lavine impressed.

“We played a really good game,” said Bonner. “I’m happy for all our kids, but especially our seniors. We talked to them about this being their final opportunity to play in their home stadium and making it a performance to remember - and they did exactly that.”

Tamaqua scored on its first five possessions of the game while limiting Panther Valley to just one first down during that time.

“Tamaqua whipped us up front - offensively and defensively,” said Lavine. “They were very physical and we just aren’t there yet. They owned the line of scrimmage. It was an impressive performance by them.”

Tamaqua took the opening kickoff and went 61 yards in eight plays for a score. Connor Dillon scored on a 23-yard run as the Raiders set the tone for the game early.

Jacob Hehn then came up with an interception on Panther Valley’s first offensive play from scrimmage. Five plays and 49 yards later, Isaac Curvey powered into the end zone from four yards out.

A three-and-out on the Panthers’ next possession led to another Tamaqua TD. Dillon went 57 yards to set it up before quarterback Luke Kane scored from 11 yards out to make it 21-0 with :42 left in the opening quarter.

“We wanted to play solid, fundamental football tonight and I thought we did that,” said Bonner. “Offensively, we did a nice job with our power run game, and defensively I was happy with how we got a lot of people around the ball.”

After running the ball on its first 18 plays from scrimmage, Tamaqua opened its fourth possession with a play-action pass and Kane hit John Klein with a perfect strike down the middle of the field that went for a 70-yard touchdown.

The final score of the opening half came on a Bradley Whalen 10-yard run that made it 35-0.

“I’ve been happy with how we improved as a team the second half of the season,” said Bonner. “I think we’ve gotten better defensively and I think we’ve also shown a lot of improvement across the offensive line.

“We’ve played some pretty good football teams so the improvement hasn’t always been obvious by looking at the scoreboard. But as a coach, you see players and units improving and that’s a rewarding thing.”

Whalen and Colton Tomczak added second half scores for Tamaqua while the defense finished off the shutout.

Tamaqua (6-4) entered the night as the seventh-place team in the District 11 Class 3A playoff race and could have possibly been eliminated from district contention with a loss. The Blue Raiders used the win and losses by Jim Thorpe and Saucon Valley to jump to fifth in the unofficial district standings. They will likely play fourth-seeded Palmerton in the opening round once everything is officially confirmed.

“We talked about taking care of our business by winning tonight and not having to rely on other results going our way,” said Bonner. “The big thing is getting into the playoffs because once you’re in, you never know what can happen.

“I know our record might not be extremely impressive, but we’ve played a lot of good teams tough for two or three quarters. If we can put four quarters together, I think we have the ability to play with the teams in our class.”

BIG FIRST QUARTER ... Dillon ran for 133 of his game-high 165 yards in the first quarter - and he did it on only seven first-quarter carries.

MILESTONE ... Kane’s 88 yards passing puts him over the 1,000-yard mark (1,014) for the season. He entered the game with 926 yards according to Times News statistics,

VERSATILE PANTHER ... Freshman Brody Briener of Panther Valley (2-8) did a little bit of everything for his team last night. Breiner played a little quarterback (1-for-4 for 29 yards), played a little receiver (two catches for eight yards), and also took a few handoffs (three carries, 10 yards).

SENIOR SHOUT OUTS ... Tamaqua only dressed five seniors for the game and Bonner made special mention of their contributions, saying, “Ryan Snyder and Josh Shelton have both done a great job for us on the offensive line all year; Issac Curvey got a touchdown tonight and ran hard - and he’s blocked his tail off for us all year from the fullback position; John Klein caught a long touchdown pass and has made huge plays offensively, defensively and on special teams all season; and Vinny Schlosser has had a really nice season at defensive end for us and made some big plays again tonight.”