Speed kills. Especially in space.

In a battle of 1-loss teams on Friday, Pottsville’s speed and athleticism proved to be too much for Jim Thorpe to handle.

Fueled by the big play, and making defenders miss in space, the Crimson Tide came away with a pivotal 28-11 Schuylkill League Division 1 win over the Olympians.

The Olympians controlled most of the first half ­­by stifling the Pottsville offense and doing a nice job flipping the field in the punt game. But the Tide turned late in the second quarter and Pottsville was able to come away with a big score right before intermission.

With Thorpe leading 3-0 midway through the second, the Tide put together a 13-play scoring drive from their own 25 to take a 7-3 lead. With under 25 seconds remaining, and facing a 4th-and-22, Pottsville quarterback Jazce Carabello-Snowell rolled left and fired a bullet to the left pylon to Raeff Dicello, who made a spectacular catch for the score with 18.7 seconds left. It was the play that ignited the Pottsville offense and gave it confidence heading into the half.

“That score before the half was big,” said Pottsville head coach Tom McGeoy.

“Last year against them, it was eerily similar. We got a big score before the half that got our offense going as well, but yeah, that was a big momentum shift there I thought for sure. Then on our first possession of the second half, we’re able to go right down and score again, and I thought that made them speed up their offense a bit. It was a huge swing for us there to get that score.”

Trailing 14-3 after Pottsville’s back-to-back scores, the Olympians made a surge of thier own. A strip-sack deep inside Tide territory set up a Cameron Tinajero 19-yard scamper. The Olympians were right back in it at the 4:43 mark of the third.

On Pottsville’s ensuing possession, it looked like momentum was going to shift back in the Olympians’ favor. A 4th-and-1 at the Thorpe 46-yard line looked to be short on a Pottsville rushing attempt. But after an official measurement, it was called a first down.

Two plays later, the Tide took advantage with a 34-yard hookup between Carabello-Snowell and Dicello, which made it a 2-score game late in the third. Carabello-Snowell hit Dicello on a bubble screen on the left hash and Dicello made one man miss and raced into the end zone.

Pottsville’s playmakers showed the ability to make defenders miss in space, which helped account for 3 of the 4 Tide scores.

“We’re not the type of football team that can make as many mistakes as we did tonight and come away with a win, and penalties, they just killed us,” said Jim Thorpe head coach Mark Rosenberger. “We didn’t tackle well tonight at all and that resulted in big plays for them, but credit to Pottsville - they’re a good football team. They played hard and physical, and by doing so, won the football game.”

LAUNDRY NIGHT … It was a sloppy night for both teams. Jim Thorpe committed 10 penalties and Pottsville tallied 7. Thorpe’s penalties included 5 false starts, which put its offense in tough positions throughout the game.

UNVEILING … It was the first true home game of the season for the Olympians, as they unveiled their brand-new turf field, sponsored by Lehigh Valley Health Network. Thorpe will once again get to break in their field next week in a home game against Nativity.