Prior to the season, Tamaqua head coach Caszy Kosciolek put a good deal of emphasis on his team's defense.

It appears to be paying off.In its home opener Tuesday night, the Blue Raiders easily ran away with a 67-33 non-league victory over Shenandoah Valley.With the way Tamaqua has played during the first week of the season, any questions Kosciolek might have had about his defense seemed to be answered."Last night, we gave up 33 points to Minersville on the road. Tonight, we gave up 33," Kosciolek said. "In our opener, we gave up 44 to Notre Dame of East Stroudsburg. so, we're averaging holding teams to under 40. If it continues, we can really do some good things."I really just like our focus. I like our concentration. We're playing defense long into the possessions. So, I'm really pleased."The Blue Raiders defense keyed the surge that allowed them to take control of the game as they held shendoah to just two points during the last 10 minutes of the opening half.Meanwhile, the Blue Raiders' offense fed off the defense and built a comfortable lead heading into intermissions. Bo Rottet, who had seven points, and Russ Blaker, who added five points, sparked a 24-2 run that allowed Tamaqua to take a 37-11 lead into the lockerrooms.The stingy man-to-man defense continued late into the third quarter. After allowing a three-point play to the Blue Devils' Julio Cabrera 49 seconds into the second half, Rottet (five points), Tyler Skripko (four points) and Brett Kosciolek (four points) led another superb run by the Raiders, this one 13-0.Kosciolek soon turned to his bench, giving others a chance to contribute to the convincing victory."On the varsity level, we have 12 kids that come here and work really, really hard," Kosciolek said. "And, I commended both groups tonight. I commended our starters and our core players for having the patience to sit basically a quarter and a half in the second half."And, I think our younger guys went in and continued the offensive flow. They're good kids that work hard, that really play together and they're really fun to coach."Rottet finished with 16 points to lead a trio of double figure scorers for Tamaqua (3-0). Kosciolek added 13 points and Blaker added 11.SHENANDOAH VALLEYI. McCole 4-2-2-11, Creasy 1-2-2-4, Chagolia-Rojas 2-0-0-5, Allegretta 0-0-0-0, Cabrera 3-2-2-8, White 2-1-5-5, Michalik 0-0-0-0, Uholik 0-0-0-0, T. McCole 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 12-7-11-33.TAMAQUAShilko 1-0-0-2, Blaker 5-0-0-11, Miller 2-0-0-4, Rottet 6-2-2-16, Coleman 1-0-0-2, Zuber 0-0-0-0, McDonald 0-0-0-0, Murphy 0-2-4-2, Skripko 4-0-0-8, Kosciolek 6-1-2-13, Scott 1-0-0-2, Berezwick 3-0-0-7. TOTALS: 29-5-8-67.Shenandoah 9 2 10 12 - 33Tamaqua 20 17 19 11 - 67Three-pointers: SV - McCole 1, Chagolia-Rojas 1; Tamaqua - Rottet 2, Blaker 1, Berezwick 1.