Coaching football has been a family affair for the Koscioleks for over 40 years.

The late Cazzie Kosciolek Sr. began his coaching career at Panther Valley in 1972 and his sons Cazzie Jr., Greg and Matt all followed his footsteps into the profession.But this week, the family affair the Koscioleks have with football might be more "Family Feud."When Lehighton and Panther Valley play on Thursday night in Lansford, Greg Kosciolek will be on the Panther sideline and younger brother Matt will be part of the Indian staff.Since the day that Cazzie Sr. joined the Panther Valley staff in the early 1970s, there has always been at least one Kosciolek on the sidelines, occasionally two, and at times as many as three.During that time span, there have been many games when multiple Koscioleks were on the field at the same time. A father has coached sons, brothers have coached brothers, and brothers have played with brothers. But Thursday night will be the first time in over four decades of family coaching that a Kosciolek will coach against a Kosciolek."All three of us played for my dad when he coached," said Greg. "Then, when I played football at New Haven, my brother Cazzie was on the coaching staff. When I began my coaching career at Shippensburg, Matt was on the team. Cazzie and I also played together at Panther Valley since we were just a couple years apart in high school."So, we've all been part of the same team many times during our playing and coaching careers. This will be something new, however. I'm pretty excited to get a chance to go up against my brother's team this week."Matt, who is seven years younger than Greg and nine years younger than Cazzie who is currently a member of the Holy Cross College coaching staff is also looking forward to the game."As the youngest of three brothers, I got it handed to me pretty good on the athletic fields when we were growing up. This will give me a chance for some pay back," laughed Matt. "Honestly, though, I'm really looking forward to going against my brother's team."I'm actually friends with the entire Panther Valley staff. I've known just about all of them my entire life. So I'm hoping this game will give me some bragging rights. I'm looking forward to being able to do a little trash talking ... I guess that's probably the defensive back in me."Greg, who is in his first year coaching the offensive and defensive lines at Panther Valley after previous coaching stints at Reading High School, Kutztown University and Shippensburg University, said he regularly discusses football with his brothers ."I talk to Cazzie and Matt all the time," Greg said. "We talk about what happened in our games and discuss coaching decisions and coaching strategies."But this week was a little different. When I talked to Matt, we didn't mention football at all. We talked about a lot of different things, but not football."That doesn't mean there won't be a mention of football if the brothers talk again prior to the game."If he does bring up football, I think I might remind him of how the games used to go when we played against each other on the playground when we were younger," joked Greg. "Matt usually ended up taking a pretty good beating from Cazzie and myself."Matt said he'll be focusing on a different 'beating' when talking to Greg."My senior year at Shippensburg was Greg's first year coaching at Kutztown," recalled Matt, who was a starting defensive back for Shippensburg. "We ended up beating them and winning the PSAC championship that season. Maybe I'll have to flash my championship ring as a reminder of the only previous time we've gone against each other."It's obvious by the good natured joking that Greg and Matt are both hoping to leave the field Thursday night with bragging rights. But no matter the outcome, they both talked about one person who will be a winner when it's over."My mom (Diane Kosciolek) tries to get to as many games as possible," explained Greg. "She normally has to choose one or the other because we both usually play on Friday night."This week, she won't have to decide which son she is going to see coach."Matt added, "I think she'll probably be wearing a Panther Valley t-shirt and a Lehighton sweatshirt over the top or vice-versa. Either way, she's guaranteed to be leaving a winner after the game."With three successful sons following in the footsteps of her late husband and continuing what has become a proud family tradition, it's a good bet that Diane Kosciolek already feels like she's a winner no matter what the scoreboard says when the game is over.**********NO SCORE AT HALFTIME ... In last Friday's game between Jim Thorpe and Panther Valley the two rivals went to intermission without a point having been scored.The 0-0 halftime tie isn't a common occurrence for both programs.The last time the Olympians played to a scoreless halftime tie was Oct. 20, 2007 (72 games ago) when both they and Schuylkill Haven failed to get on the scoreboard. Thorpe eventually won that contest, 10-0.For the Panthers, 2007 was also the last time they were involved in a 0-0 game at the end of two quarters. PV and Upper Merion went to the lockers scoreless on Sept. 14 of that year (76 games ago) before the Panther pulled out a 9-0 victory.**********20-SOMETHING TIMES FIVE ... Northwestern's Cam Richardson gained Times News Player of the Week honors after scoring five touchdowns last Friday against Salisbury.While five touchdowns in a game isn't as rare as you might think (this was the 20th time it's happened by Times News area players since 1993), Richardson's accomplishment was a little more special.All five of the senior's scores originated outside the red zone. He had a scoring run of 57 yards and TD catches of 54, 21 28 and 21 yards.That marks just the third time (since 1993) that a TN player had five scores of 20 yards or more. The other two to achieve this were Panther Valley's Rich Smith (on Sept. 14, 2012) and Northern Lehigh's Cody Remaley (on Oct. 1, 2010).**********PLEASANT VALLEY COMEBACK ... Pleasant Valley pulled off the ultimate comeback last Friday when it dug itself out of a 23-0 hole to East Stroudsburg South and rallied for a 33-30 victory.Since 1987, this is the biggest comeback by any Times News area team. The previous best was a 21-point turnaround by Panther Valley on Sept. 22, 1990. In that contest the Panthers trailed West Hazleton 21-0 but came back for a 26-21 win.The Bears' biggest rally over that time period was a 15-point comeback. On Oct. 26, 2012 PV fell behind East Stroudsburg North 21-6 before gaining a 30-21 victory.**********OFFENSIVE EXPLOSION ... Palmerton fell to a powerful Southern Lehigh squad last Friday, but the combined totals between the two teams were quite memorable.The Spartans pulled away for an eventual 68-21 Colonial League victory. The 89 combined points could be the most ever in a Palmerton game. Since 1958, there have never been more combined points during a Bombers' contest. The previous high was 81 back on Oct. 4, 1996 when Palmerton dropped a 42-39 contest to, ironically enough, Southern Lehigh.Also in Friday's game, the Spartans registered 537 yards of offense and the Bombers totaled 338. The last time Palmerton played a game where both teams had at least 338 yards of offense was Sept. 12, 2008 (65 games ago). In that contest, a 42-29 win by Palisades, the Pirates had 363 yards and Palmerton had 345.**********RAIDERS DYNAMIC DUO ... In last week's win over Minersville, Tamaqua's Bud Moyer rushed for 218 yards while teammate Tyler Skripko added 139.Since 1988 (when the Times News began running individual stats with their game stories), this is the first time one Raider player had 200 or more yards rushing in a game and another one reached 100 yards in the same contest.Over that time period, there have been 111 times a TN player has rushed for 200 yards in a game. In 15 of those games, a teammate also topped 100 yards.Besides Moyer and Skripko, the others are: Lehighton's Vinnie Andrews (301) and Josh Strawser (110) on Sept. 28, 2002; Northern Lehigh's Cody Remaley (258) and Jake Kern (148) on Nov. 26, 2010; Lehighton's Todd Wolfe (251) and Kyle Williams (131) on Nov. 10, 1990; Marian's Dylan Quirk (247) and Paul Martin (198) on Oct. 28, 2011; Palmerton's Chris Siracuse (237) and Tony Jordan (113) on Oct. 23, 1998; Northern Lehigh's Kody Fedorcha (231) and Mike Lilly (114) on Oct. 13, 1995; Jim Thorpe's Deonte St. Hill (219) and Ryan Saunders (133) on Sept. 20, 2013; Panther Valley's Rich Smith (218) and Kyle Ferryman (123) on Sept. 21, 2012; Northwestern's Trevor Dolena (217) and John Griffiths (103) on Sept. 11, 1992; Pleasant Valley's Chris Jacobs (213) and Mike Wallace (105) on Sept. 12, 1998; Northern Lehigh's Cody Remaley (208) and Tyler Bolton (107) on Sept. 18, 2009; Panther Valley's Chas Field (207) and Emmanuel Vega (129) on Nov. 5, 2004; Palmerton's Jeff Noyes (204) and Matt Falcone (132) on Sept. 19, 2008; and Northern Lehigh's Cody Remaley (201) and Randise Pryor (102) on Sept. 19, 2008.