HS Football: Crimson Tide look to avenge loss to Tamaqua
Pottsville linebacker Max Clews during an Aug. 22 game against Shamokin (Photo by Jocelyn Barrett / Danie Mae Photography).
POTTSVILLE — This one still hurts at “The Castle on the Hill,” like stepping on a sharp rock in your shoe.
Luke Kane to Victor Schlosser — 47 yards (Ouch!). Kane to Schlosser again — 36 yards and a touchdown (Ouch!). Just like that, in the final minute, Tamaqua snatches victory out of the jaws of defeat, stunning Pottsville 24-21 in Week 3 of the 2024 high school football season.
Now here we are, 12 months later, Week 3 again, and the Blue Raiders and Crimson Tide are preparing to buckle their chinstraps for a Schuylkill-Colonial Red Division battle.
(The game will air live on WPPA 1360 AM and A-106/105.9 FM, beginning with pregame at 6:45 p.m. and kickoff at 7 p.m.)
Pottsville (1-1, 1-0 Red) enters the contest coming off a hard-fought, 16-7 victory at Jim Thorpe, while Tamaqua (0-2, 0-1) got steamrolled by North Schuylkill 50-7 last week. The Blue Raiders were much more competitive in Week 1, falling 14-6 to Pen Argyl.
“It was a really high-energy practice (Tuesday),” Pottsville coach Mike Brennan said. “I think we always practice well, but (Tuesday) there was more intensity, more physicality. Coming off the win, it was high energy. It was a win we had to earn because we didn’t play poorly, but Jim Thorpe played really well.
“The Tamaqua game sits with us. There’s no doubt about that,” Brennan added. “We don’t discuss that generally, but it was a tough one. This is an opportunity to make things right. The kids have really worked hard to put ourselves in position to play our best game of the year.”
Pottsville, which alternated losses and wins for most of last season, has a chance to build some momentum, to get on a roll with a second straight victory. A win over Tamaqua would lift the Crimson Tide above the .500 mark and continue the season trending in the right direction.
The Tide bounced back from the Week 1 loss to Shamokin Area by taking advantage of limited possessions, bending but not breaking on defense, flipping field position on punts and booting a clutch field goal off the foot of Andrew Allen.
“I think we competed,” Brennan said. “When things weren’t going well, when we had to fight to get off the field (on defense), we really showed a lot of grit, mental toughness and physical toughness. That’s the thing I liked the best. … I’m really proud of the kids. They came together when they could have fragmented.”
Jim Thorpe stacked the box to take away star running back JuJu Bainbridge, who has rushed for 145 yards and three touchdowns on 38 carries this season. Allen stepped up at quarterback by making some big throws to a variety of receivers. He’s 22-of-40 for 221 yards with one TD and one interception this season. Brennan noted that Pottsville did well in pass protection against the Olympians.
Pottsville has thrown the ball to a lot of different players so far as the Tide search for someone who can make the explosive, chunk plays teams need during a long season. Pass-catchers include Max Clews (4-62), Nick Huda (5-45), Christian Alvarez (5-41), Bainbridge (2-39) and Donovann Durham (2-11) among others.
“We feel like we have those playmakers,” Brennan said. “We just haven’t gotten going yet. … We expect to be able to find that in the run game and the pass game, the kicking game. We believe we have players capable of making big plays.”
To come home with the victory, Pottsville must contend with Tamaqua sophomore running back Terrence McDowell, who has 40 carries for 170 yards and one TD this season. He went for 120 yards on 23 carries against North Schuylkill, has caught three passes for 39 yards, returned a kickoff 62 yards and intercepted a pass.
“He’s a shifty guy,” Brennan said of McDowell.
