Tamaqua's Malachi Stewart (Photo by Leroy Boyer)

EASTON — The Blue Raiders knew what they had to do.

But doing it for four quarters was too big a task.

Tamaqua slowed down Notre Dame-Green Pond’s explosive offense briefly before the Crusaders ran off four straight first-half touchdowns en route to a 59-16 win in Friday’s District 11 Class 3A semifinal at Lafayette College.

“We gave them a little tussle to start off,” Tamaqua head coach Sam Bonner said. “Unfortunately, too much firepower. It’s tough to keep up with.

“The first drive went exactly the way we wanted it to go. They just have weapons all over the place. It’s tough to stop. You get a nice long drive then you give up a quick score. It’s hard to keep up with that kind of stuff.”

Notre Dame (12-0) runs an up-tempo offense that can score quickly.

The Crusaders’ first touchdown drive covered 65 yards in four plays while taking just 40 seconds off the clock.

The Blue Raiders (4-8) got the ball and used up over eight minutes on their way to Malachi Stewart’s 1-yard touchdown run. They took an 8-7 lead when Brady McCabe caught a two-point conversion pass from Ace Schickram with 3:02 left in the first quarter.

From there the Notre Dame defense stiffened, allowing just one first down over the next four Tamaqua drives.

The Crusaders’ next two drives used all of four plays and resulted in two touchdowns in less than two minutes.

Alex Clark caught a 68-yard touchdown pass from Matthew Bodnar and Tommy Murphy broke free for a 43-yard touchdown run for a 22-7 lead late in the first quarter.

Two second-quarter touchdowns gave Notre Dame a 35-8 lead.

“We want to go fast,” Crusader head coach Phil Stambaugh said. “It’s something we practice. We want to have that explosiveness. We want to have the ability to put the defense in a bind. That’s a credit to our guys the way they’re playing and adapting to our system.”

Bodnar, a senior, completed 13 of his 16 passes Friday night for 287 yards and a pair of scores.

“They throw the ball as well as anybody around,” Bonner said. “We said that going in. They have a lot of athletes. They have a lot of guys that can make plays and the quarterback is accurate. He’s a calm character and he makes plays. He’s a heck of a ball player. There’s a reason why he threw for over 3,000 yards this year.”

Bodnar connected with six different receivers in the game. Leading the way were Clark (3 receptions, 111 yards, TD), Jonathan Striba (4-69) and Drew Boyd (2-44).

The Raiders scored again when Terrence McDowell scampered in from a yard out with 25 seconds left in the first half. Another two-point conversion catch by McCabe, who caught this one from quarterback Chase Serfass, made it 35-16 at halftime.

Tamaqua got the ball after intermission and was driving before a fumble ended the possession and gave the Crusaders good field position.

Notre Dame scored on each of its four second-half possessions, although it had to settle for a field goal on one of them.

The win sets up a showdown between the top two seeds in the Class 3A bracket and a pair of 12-0 teams as the Crusaders advance to face Northwestern Lehigh in the District 11 championship game at 7 p.m. Friday at Catasauqua.

Stambaugh said his players have had the defending state champs on their minds all season long.

“They’ve been excited since August,” he said. “We’ve just been trying to keep them under wraps. It’s been that way the whole year.

“We knew what it was pulling to. We didn’t know if it was going to be North Schuylkill or Northwestern. Now that it is Northwestern we know what the game is going to be and we’re excited to be in the game. We’re excited to go after a district title.”

The Raiders season ends with the loss. Bonner credited his seniors with leading the team to last week’s win over Saucon Valley, the program’s first playoff win in six years.

Tamaqua had a lot of young players mixed with a handful of first-year seniors in 2025, and has a solid nucleus in place for next season.

“Next year we have a nice core coming back — Terrence [McDowell], Ace [Schickram], C.J. Walker, three linemen up front,” Bonner said. “We have a lot of young guys that got great experience. They got to play in two playoff games. They got to play in 12 games this year. It’s definitely something to build on in the future.”

TERRIFIC TERRENCE … McDowell had a game-high 121 rushing yards on 31 carries. He had 59 of those yards and nine carries on his team’s opening touchdown drive.

GROUND AND POUND … Tamaqua ran the ball 49 times and threw it just eight in the game in an effort to slow down the powerful Crusaders.

TWO DIMENSIONS … Notre Dame ran the ball 19 times for 210 yards and piled up 497 yards of offense in the win.

Game Summary

District 11 Class 3A Semifinal

At Lafayette College

Notre Dame 59, Tamaqua 16

Tamaqua (4-8).     8 8 0 0 – 16

NDGP (12-0).    . 22 13 10 14 – 59

ND — Capobianco 1 run (Cintron kick)

T — Stewart 1 run (McCabe pass from Schickram)

ND — Clark 68 pass from Bodnar (Boyd pass from Bodnar)

ND — Murphy 43 run (Cintron kick)

ND — Striba 6 run (Cintron kick)

ND — Capobianco 7 run (Cintron kick)

T — McDowell 1 run (McCabe pass from Serfass)

ND — Capobianco 1 run (Cintron kick)

ND — FG Cintron 22

ND — Driscoll 23 pass from Bodnar (Cintron kick)

ND — Striba 62 run (Cintron kick)