If there were two evenly matched soccer teams, it surely was visible Monday evening when visiting Palmerton found its likeness in host Tamaqua.

Through nearly 58 minutes, both sides were tied at 1-1, then suddenly Madison Martinez found a seam, let loose with a boot and scored the winning goal for the Blue Bombers in the 2-1 non-league encounter.It was the second score for Martinez, who put her team in front at the 20:05 mark of the second half. Both of Martinez's goals were unassisted. The goal killed off a great effort by the Blue Raiders, who rallied to tie the game behind Katelyn Rudy's unassisted score with 5:51 to play."She did really well for us tonight," smiled second-year Palmerton coach Craig Wrigglesworth when asked about the goals from Martinez. "We're excited about this win. It gives us points (for districts)."Surely, the outcome was all about a game of inches from the Raiders point of view and their coach Clem McCarroll. "Ah, we missed a penalty kick by inches … it's a game of inches."What McCarroll was sighing about came midway through the second half, when his team was awarded a free kick as Jamie Zuber cleverly tried to sneak one by the left side of goalkeeper Kyla Brown with a short dribbler that hit the post."It was nerve racking," said Wriggelsworth of the outcome as he thought back to the penalty kick. "Our team as a whole is getting better every game. We bumped up some points (for districts). We beat two pretty good teams in Lehighton and Tamaqua and we play Salisbury, which is a big school and will give us more points with a win."Without question, Tamaqua had its chances to put in a goal, but just couldn't make it work. "We're trying, but sometimes we don't get that little extra pass or we miss a good shot," offered McCarroll "We had chances, they score with two minutes left… it's heartbreaking. They dominate for a while, we dominate for a while."If there was a key to the upbeat play for the Raiders, it came when McCarroll decided to put Alexya Thomas in front. "She gave us a new energy. She just made those runs, and almost scored. She was such a spark of energy that seemed to make a difference; she's only a freshman."However, the bottom line came to conversions. "They had a good goalie, she made a couple nice stops," said McCarroll. "(Brown) just made some great plays. It was a matter of inches (to get it by her), but she was very, very good. That was the difference in the outcome of the game."COUNTING THE WAYS … The Raiders had one more shot on goal than the Bombers, 15-14, and two penalty kicks to none for Palmerton. The Bombers are now 5-6 on the season, while Tamaqua falls to 3-6-1.GOLDEN TONES … If ever there was a superb voice for singing the national anthem, it belongs to Tamaqua's Faith Roberts, who did an outstanding job.