Palmerton sophomore Cole Serfass was cool, calm and collected following the Blue Bombers’ convincing 56-14 victory over Catasauqua in Friday’s season-opening contest.

In the post-game interview, he was quick to thank his offensive line and blockers in the outing, as he put together an impressive showing, rushing 22 times for 204 yards and scoring four touchdowns He also threw for another score.

“It was amazing, especially because we didn’t even know if we were going to have a season to begin with,” he said. “Then, to come out, and play together like we did and stick together as a team, it’s all you could ask for.”

Early on, the Blue Bombers scored the game’s first two TDs, before Catasauqua responded with two of their own to tie it at 14-apiece early in the second quarter.

“It was great to get that challenge because it showed how we were coached all summer long,” Serfass said. “We kept rolling with the punches and we’re not going to stop until the fourth quarter bell rings.”

Following the 14-all tie, Palmerton put together an eight-play, 60-yard drive to respond when Serfass found Lucas Heydt for the 18-yard scoring reception.

A few minutes later, the winners took six plays to go 62 yards, when Serfass finished the drive off with a three-yard run to make it 28-14 with 3:48 left before halftime.

“It’s a great start to the season, and credit goes to the kids and the coaching staff,” Bomber head coach Chris Walkowiak said. “Early on, Catty made us pay for some mistakes there, and I like the fact that our guys responded in a big way.

Obviously Cole had a tremendous game tonight, managing the game in his first varsity start and gave us a boost to our running game. But it starts up front with Coach Falcone and Coach Fred Lesher doing a great job with the offensive linemen and Owen Buck is our leader up there with some great blocks. I think James Denicola had some nice blocks from the backfield and we played some consistent defense throughout.”

Considering the defense, Palmerton held the Rough Riders off the scoreboard the remainder of the shortened contest, and took a 35-14 lead into the locker rooms.

After a Catty punt, Palmerton tacked on two more scores in the third to make it 49-14.

In the final frame, decimated by the mercy rule, the Bombers tacked on one more for insurance and won, going away.

With a tough road test next week for Palmerton, as they travel to Notre Dame of Green Pond, Walkowiak knows the importance of fixing the early-season issues they committed in this game.

“We definitely want to fix the mistakes and the sloppiness there early on tonight,” he said. “We can’t afford that kind of let-up against Notre Dame, who is very well coached and they have a ton of athletes. We’re definitely going to go to the drawing board and we’re happy that we came out of tonight healthy and we’ll have our hands full against the Crusaders next week.”

“I think we did a good job of capitalizing on opportunities when they turned it over and we also thought we did a good job of getting upfield on third downs and hopefully we continue to do that.”