Snap. Hold. Kick. It's as easy as 1-2-3. Right?

Wrong.Anyone familiar with high school football knows the perils that can be associated with the kicking game.Extra points, a near certainty in the college and pro game, are often times a coin flip at the high school level.Most seasons, there are just a couple of area teams with a reliable kicking game.This isn't one of those years, however.Through the first seven weeks of the season, a number of area teams have showcased an extremely dependable kicking game.Five area kickers have attempted at least 20 extra points and have also converted at least 85 percent of those kicks.Northern Lehigh's Dan Belfonti 17-for-20 (85 percent), Marian's Jarod Paisley 19-for-22 (86 percent), Jim Thorpe's Jon Fikentscher 18-for-20 (90 percent) and Pleasant Valley's Doug Cummings 29-for-32 (91 percent) have all had outstanding seasons.But no one has been better than Tamaqua's Mitchell Kurek, who is 25-for-27 (93 percent) on extra points.Kurek's accuracy was critical on Friday night in the Raiders' 42-40 victory over Lehighton. Both teams scored six touchdowns in the game and the Indians also benefited from a safety. But while Kurek was a perfect 6-for-6 on conversions, Lehighton attempted two-point conversions five times and made just one."Mitchell seldom misses any kicks in practice and he has carried that accuracy over to our games," said Tamaqua coach Sam Bonner. "Knowing that you have a kicker who is that reliable is a nice luxury to have as a coach. The conversions made a huge difference against Lehighton."I was spoiled when I took the head coaching job at Tamaqua because we had Lance Williams kicking for us for four years and he was automatic. Since then, we've struggled a little bit with our kicking, but this season, Mitchell has once again allowed us to be confident in our kicking game."Kurek, a junior, did some kicking as a freshman and also as a sophomore, but wasn't able to win the starting job either season."Mitchell was obsessed with improving as kicker," said Bonner. "He attended kicking camps in the offseason and worked hard all summer. You can see the difference all his work has made. He's a much better kicker this season."A year ago, we had about five plays we worked on as possible two-point conversion plays because we were forced to go for two pretty often. This year, we just have one or two plays because we're going to kick unless it's a late-game situation when we have to get a two-point conversion."With Schuylkill League games seemingly coming down to the final possession just about every week, a reliable kicker could provide Tamaqua with a nice advantage coming down the stretch and in the postseason."You saw last week how big extra points can be," said Bonner. "But Mitchell also gives us field goal potential in close games."Anytime we're inside our opponent's 20-yard line, I'd be pretty confident in sending out the field goal unit. But Mitchell has even longer range than that if we really needed it. He had made field goals in practice in the 45- to 47-yard range."Snap. Hold. Kick. This season at Tamaqua and several other area schools, it really has been as easy as 1-2-3.************ANOTHER MARIAN SHUTOUT ... Marian blanked Mahanoy Area, 30-0, in a Schuylkill League game last Friday.The shutout was Stan Dakosty's 80th as head coach of the Colts. Dakosty has more shutouts than most current area coaches have wins. Only Jim Thorpe's Mark Rosenberger (with 116) has more wins than Dakosty has shutouts.In fact since 1977 (when Dakosty became Marian's coach), only five Times News area mentors had more wins than Dakosty has shutouts. They include Northwestern's Bob Mitchell (177 wins from 1981-2009), Lehighton's Dave Parsons (136 from 1981-2000), Rosenberger, Northern Lehigh and Palmerton's Jim Tkach (114 from 1979-1981; 1992-2005) and Panther Valley and Tamaqua's Tom Bonner (92 from 1983-1986; 1988-1992; and 1999-2003).The 80 shutouts have come at the hands of 32 different teams, with Mahanoy Area's 10 being the most. The next most is eight, against both Tamaqua and Panther Valley.************BOMBER RECEIVERS ... In last Friday's loss to Palisades, Palmerton's Mike Stasko caught five passes for 114 yards while Mooney had five catches for 103 yards.Since 1988 (when the Times News began running individual stats for each game), this is the first time that two Blue Bomber players had over 100 yards receiving in the same game.Friday was Stasko's fourth 100-yard receiving game of the season. The last Palmerton player with that many 100-yard games in a season was Steve Endres, who had five during the 1989 campaign.************PANTHER COMEBACK ... Panther Valley trailed Shenandoah by a 22-20 score entering the fourth quarter of last Friday's game. The Panthers, however, rallied to earn a 34-30 victory.Before that comeback, PV had lost 48 straight games in which it trailed after three quarters. The last time the Panthers rallied to win when trailing entering the fourth frame was Oct. 8, 2010. In that contest, Marian had a 13-12 advantage going into the final period, but fourth-quarter touchdowns from Brock Mitchell and Nick McArdle resulted in a 24-21 win.************RAIDER RUNNERS ... Tamaqua had a big rushing attack last Friday during a 42-40 victory over Lehighton.The Blue Raiders finished the contest with 69 rushing attempts. That total is the most by Tamaqua in one game dating back to 1988 (when the Times News started running individual statistics), a span of 314 games. To put the 69 attempts in perspective, the Raiders have only reached 50 attempts on 17 occasions, or 5.4 percent of the time.Nick Breiner led the ground game with 36 carries, while Nate Boyle added 27 attempts. Over that same period, only once before has Tamaqua had two players with 20 carries in the same game. That happened on Sept. 14, 2007, when Jared Mahoney ran the ball 23 times and Travers Schmidt had 21 attempts.************INDIAN TOUCHDOWNS ... As mentioned above, Lehighton lost a slugfest to Tamaqua, 42-40.In the loss, though, the Indians showed off their big-play abilities. Mike Mayernik had an 85-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and a 72-yard scoring run. In addition to that, Cody Scherer and Gavin Zehner hooked up for a 72-yard TD pass.The last time Lehighton had three touchdowns of 60 yards or more was Sept. 23, 2005. On that evening, in a 28-27 win against Pleasant Valley, Robbie Frey broke off three long touchdown runs covering 66, 62 and 67 yards.