Tamaqua’s whirlwind left Palmerton breathless.

The Blue Raiders attacked the Bombers at a rate they couldn’t keep up with on Tuesday.

When it was all over, the Tamaqua boys soccer team had swept aside Palmerton en route to a 9-2 nonleague victory.

An early breath of fresh air came from the Palmerton side thanks to Jon Perloni’s score that sent his team in front with less than three minutes off the clock to open the first half.

From there, it went downhill quicker than a skier in an Olympic Alpine race, as Tamaqua racked up six straight goals to take control.

But Blue Raiders’ head coach Jim Fisher still found plenty for his side to work on despite the lopsided result.

“We only played 25 or 30 good minutes,” Fisher said. “We’re working to spread the ball and things like that, which we’re not doing.”

Fisher was pleased in the first half, as his team soared to score six straight goals. The parade was led by senior Mike Shlanta, who scored twice in the first half and added two assists.

He opened the scoring in the second half to complete a hat trick.

The tying goal by Shlanta came off an assist from Tyler Steigerwalt at 26:04. Just 14 seconds later, Zack Campomizzi booted the go-ahead goal into the back of the net on an assist from Shlanta to give the Blue Raiders a 2-1 lead.

Steigerwalt got his foot into the mix with a goal at 10:44 on another Shlanta assist. There was 7:02 on the clock when Shlanta booted his second goal of the game past the Palmerton keeper, as Zaidyn Walker was credited with the assist to lift the Raiders to a commanding 4-1 lead.

“My disappointment comes from us breaking down mentally,” Fisher said. “Yes, it’s great to win, but we need to be more (disciplined) with the defense.”

There were little problems with the offense, however. After Shlanta completed his hat trick to open the second half and Steigerwalt tallied his second goal of the contest, Palmerton’s C.J. Kern interrupted the Tamaqua run of points with an unassisted score at 30:56 of the second half to make it 6-2.

The Blue Raiders finished the game with three straight goals. Walker upped the lead to 7-2 with Ian Davis assisting.

Ryan Fisher added the eighth score unassisted, before Luke Verta kicked in the final point thanks to an assist from Dominic Stegemerten.

For first-year Palmerton coach Antonio Orlando, the loss served as a learning experience.

“This was only our second game,” he said. “We’ll learn; we have only two seniors, (and) it takes time to learn how to play this game.”

BOOTING AND SAVING

… Tamaqua had a whopping 31 shots on goal compared to Palmerton’s three. The lone save for the Raiders came from Kevin Bazan.

GOOD IN THE MIDDLE

... Fisher was pleased with defenders Justin Lewis, Nate Zeigler, Ryne Fisher and Verta.

NEXT UP

… The Blue Raiders improved to 4-2 with the victory, and now meet Pottsville in their next match Thursday. Palmerton travels to Catasauqua today.