Tamaqua got a breakthrough victory against Pen Argyl Saturday.

And the Blue Raiders got a breakout performance from running back Zander Coleman.

Coleman ran for 194 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries in a 34-14 victory over the Green Knights.

The performance helped Tamaqua secure its first win of the season, and earned Coleman Times News Football Player of the Week honors.

Coleman played a prominent role for the Blue Raiders in a game that saw fellow running back Warren Stewart exit early with an injury.

“He’s a sophomore, and we kind of knew going in through our passing scrimmages over the summer, that him and Warren were going to be our go-to guys,” said Tamaqua head coach Sam Bonner. “When Warren went down in the first quarter, I thought that Zander did a great job of picking it up and making some big plays for us, especially in that first half to help give us that three-score lead. He had a big run, which he’s kind of been doing for us all year. But I thought this was really a good breakout game for him.”

Coleman had a 50-yard touchdown run to cap a 21-point second quarter for the Raiders. He added a two-yard score in the fourth quarter that pushed Tamaqua’s lead to 34-0.

“Warren is a big part of our game plan,” Coleman said of Stewart. “He usually gets the ball the majority of the time, so with him going down, that was a big hit to our game plan. So we had to use that and adjust, and we found something that worked, and we just kept using that.”

Against Pen Argyl, Love Ortiz also saw more playing time with 16 carries for 55 yards, taking some of the pressure off Coleman.

Stewart leads the team with 60 carries, which have gone for 185 yards and four scores.

“I’m pretty comfortable,” said Coleman. “I have a lot of people around me to help me, so if I go down, we can have someone back me up.”

Coleman had three carries for 71 yards in Week 1 against Northwestern, and also added a catch for 20 yards.

In a 55-43 loss to Lehighton in Week 2, Coleman had 13 carries for 107 yards - including a 50-yard TD run.

As a freshman, Coleman was primarily a JV player, though he missed several games with an injury.

Coleman dedicated himself during the offseason, and his efforts have paid dividends in the early going.

“He worked hard in the weight room,” said Bonner. “He probably put on about 25 or 30 pounds in the offseason, and probably grew five or six inches, so that was big for him coming into this year.”

Coleman has been a big part of the passing game as well this season. His four catches are tied with Steven Kostecky for the team lead, while his 128 yards rank first on the squad.

“He’s a gamer. He’s one of those guys that wants the ball when it’s a critical time in the game,” said Bonner. “He had a little bit of difficulty the week before against Northern Lehigh holding on to the ball, and they kind of got one early on him. But that’s something that he’s really started to clean up and be conscious of. We think he’s just going to get better as the year goes on. He’s still a young guy, with pretty much only four varsity games under his belt, so I think you’re going to see him progress as the year goes on.”

Coleman is currently third in the area with 402 rushing yards, and he’s done it on just 33 attempts (12.18 yards per carry).

“He works hard, he plays both sides of the ball, and very seldom comes off the field,” said Bonner. “So to have a big offensive game and rush for almost 200 yards, I thought it was big for him. I mentioned it earlier in the year, but I think he’s going to be one of those breakout guys for us this year. And he’s been proving that right so far.”

More than any individual statistics, Coleman is hoping to build on the success the team had against Pen Argyl this week against Salisbury.

“Usually at Tamaqua, we’re a winning team,” he said. “This is probably the first year in a while we took until the fourth week to get our first win. So we’re going to use this, and use the momentum to try and push forward to get the win next week, and then look to the week after that later.”