We’re almost halfway through the regular season. The stakes are getting higher, while the level of intensity and emotions are bound to rise.

There’s only one Schuylkill League Football Division 1 game this week, and it happens to be our Times News Game of the Week. Undefeated and unscored upon, Tamaqua will host Blue Mountain (3-1) on Friday night.

“I think they’re the most physical team we’re going to face so far,” said Tamaqua head coach Sam Bonner. “It’s great to say that we haven’t given up a point, but we also know the competition is going to get a lot tougher from here on out. We have to continue doing what we’re doing well, but also get better at it.”

Bonner’s Raiders have outscored Division 2 opponents by a 148-0 margin over the past three weeks. Tamaqua opened the season with a 42-0 non-league win against Line Mountain. While the Raiders have played some familiar faces, Blue Mountain does not have a single SFL Division 2 team on its schedule. The Eagles’ first four contests were all non-league affairs against Muhlenberg, Midd-West, Hamburg, and Wyomissing.

“Unfortunately the competition they’ve played; it’s tough to compare apples to oranges,” Bonner said. “They haven’t really played anyone that we’ve played. You know Wyomissing is a quality program ... But that being said, we need to go in and take care of business and keep doing what we’re doing this week.”

While the “Blue Flock” has pitched four-straight shutouts, the Eagles’ defense has been quite stingy in their own right. Blue Mountain blanked its first-three opponents, before yielding 28 points during last week’s loss to Wyomissing. The Eagles have 20 seniors back this year, and some decent size on its line, which includes East Carolina baseball commit Nate Nabholz (6-6, 235), who had a pick-six a few weeks ago.

“Any time you see a team that has that many seniors, you know they have experience and pride going into it, and a big senior class wants to make some noise,” Bonner added.

The Eagles’ offense is led by a pair of seniors. Tailback Ben Kramer has been a beast so far for the Eagles, rushing for over 100 yards in each game and averaging over nine yards per carry to ago along with seven scores. First-year quarterback Hunter Luckenbill has 401 yards passing and eight touchdowns.

“I think we have to take the run-game away as much as possible to start off,” Bonner said. “I think once you do that, you try to take them out of their comfort zone a little bit.”

Tamaqua has been rolling right along, and many of its starters haven’t had to play a full game this year. Junior quarterback Brayden Knoblauch is making things look easy behind-center, while his run game has been a huge help. Senior running back Nick Breiner and junior Nate Boyle, who is the true “Swiss Army Knife” of the team, are averaging 11- and 15-yards-per-carry, respectively.

Defensively, the Raiders have been flocking to the football, and each shutout has been a total team effort. The defensive line features senior Matt Amodea (6-1, 232), along with juniors Jared Reed (6-0, 209) and Bronson Strouse (6-0, 239), who have been physically over matching each opponent they’ve played in 2018. During last week’s rout of Panther Valley, the Raiders had six sacks in the first quarter and forced three safeties throughout the course of the game.

“Now that we’re getting into our division play, we know that we’re going to have to play four full quarters,” said Bonner. “Our goal is to just go in there prepared.”