Stopping big plays was a huge part of the Pottsville game plan.

Making big plays was one of the main reason for its victory.The Crimson Tide not only limited Lehighton's explosive playmakers, but they came up with three big touchdown passes of their own.That combination carried Pottsville to a 35-20 Schuylkill League victory.A week after having three scoring plays of 70 yards or more against Tamaqua, Lehighton's biggest play of the night covered just 18 yards against the Tide."We wanted to force Lehighton to drive the ball and make them use 12 or 13 plays if they were going to score," said Pottsville coach Tom McGeoy. "We wanted to keep them away from the big play. I thought we did a good job of that."Meanwhile, Pottsville displayed its most prolific passing numbers of the season on offense.Crimson Tide quarterback Eric Wapinsky passed for 222 yards and three touchdowns. His chief target was 6-6, 230-pound junior tight end Ian Renninger. Renninger, who also plays defensive end and is drawing a lot of attention from Division 1 colleges, caught five passes for 143 yards and two of the scores. Kory Kleckner added five receptions for 59 yards and a score."Ian was able to find some space in the passing game," said McGeoy. "We try to take what the defense is giving us and tonight we had some opportunities in the passing game. Ian is a nice weapon to have. With his size and strength he went up and make some nice plays on the ball."Lehighton coach Tom McCarroll said the Indians knew what was coming, they just had trouble stopping it."Our defensive coaches did a great job of preparing our kids for the pass plays we were going to see from them," said McCarroll. "We practiced against them and I thought we were ready, but we had breakdowns during the game."I'm proud of our effort, but we were a little undisciplined at times and Pottsville took advantage of it."The Tide (7-1) grabbed the early lead on a 51-yard pass from Wapinsky to Renninger on their first possession of the game. Wapinsky and Darion Jacoby added first half scoring runs as Pottsville built a 21-14 halftime lead. The Indians hung tough thanks to a couple of short TD runs by quarterback Cody Scherer.Renninger caught a 35-yard TD pass in the third quarter and Kleckner caught a 24-yard scoring strike in the fourth. In between, Lehighton got a 6-yard TD run by Mike Mayernik. But after cutting the Tide lead to 28-20 on Mayernik's score with just under two minutes left in the third quarter, the Indians had just one more possession the rest of the game."We had some chances and didn't take advantage of them," said McCarroll. "We couldn't overcome some penalties and negative plays and Pottsville did. That's the difference between a good team and an average team."NEXT, NEXT MAN IN ... Injuries to starting halfback Jacoby late in the second quarter and his backup Sam Siminitus early in the third, forced the Tide to move fullback Ian Murhon to halfback for most of the second half. Murhon responded by rushing for 108 yards.LOSING STREAK ... The loss was third straight for the Indians, who fell to 4-4 on the season. "This is unchartered territory for this team," said McCarroll. "We haven't had a losing streak like this since my first year (2012) here and none of these kids were part of that team. So this is a new experience for all of them. We need to find a way turn it around quickly."TIDE DEPTH ... The Pottsville halfbacks weren't the only ones getting injured. At one point in the second half, the Tide had three defensive starters out of the game with injuries. McGeoy said he had to use a pair of timeouts during the half just to move people around and make sure everyone was on the same page. Despite that, Pottsville held the Indians to under 100 yards of total offense in the half.