Unbeaten North Schuylkill has turned out the lights on opponent after opponent this season.

Friday night against Tamaqua, the Spartans did it again - both literally and figuratively.

In a game that featured a pair of lengthy delays because the stadium lights went out, North Schuylkill’s electric big-play offense still managed to illuminate the scoreboard.

The Spartans rolled to a 55-7 mercy rule win to improve to 9-0 on the season.

“That’s a really good football team,” Tamaqua coach Sam Bonner said. “They have a lot of playmakers. It’s a hard offense to slow down.”

The Spartans ran just 36 plays from scrimmage in the game, but 14 of them produced double digit gains - including nine that went for 20 yards or more.

“We have a lot of athletes and a lot of speed,” said North Schuylkill coach Wally Hall. “We want to get the ball in their hands as much as possible and let them make plays. We do that in the run game and the pass game.

“We’ve been a big-play team all season and we were able to make a number of big plays tonight as well.”

In North Schuylkill’s opening possession, quarterback Jake Hall completed passes on 20 yards to Joey Flail and 25 yards to Evan Stanakis, before firing an 11-yard TD pass to Gavin Whalen.

The Spartans increased their lead to 21-0 midway through the second quarter as Josh Chowansky ran 39 yards for a score and Hall hit Stanakis with a 24-yard TD pass.

“Our game plan was to try and control the ball, work the play clock, and keep their offense off the field as much as possible,” said Bonner. “We didn’t do a bad job of that in the first half.

“We had some success running the ball and chewed up some clock, but when North Schuylkill did get the ball they made big plays.”

One of those came after Tamaqua (2-6) had used a 25-yard TD pass from Nathan Gregoire to Connor Dillon to cut the deficit to 21-7 with 2:32 left in the half.

But just two plays after the Raider touchdown, Hall went back to pass, couldn’t find a receiver, and scrambled 35 yards for a back-breaking TD.

“It’s easy to look back and say we missed some tackles on their big plays, but they make people miss tackles,” Bonner said. “Good teams make big plays and they are a really good team. There’s a reason why they are ranked as the top team (in Class 3A) in the state.”

North Schuylkill flashed some big play ability on special teams and defense as well.

A blocked punt by Terry Thomas set up a two-yard TD run by Robbie Weitz on the Spartans’ first possesion of the second half. A Jack Dean interception the next time Tamaqua had the ball then set up a Chowansky scoring run that kicked in the mercy rule with 8:07 left in the third quarter.

BLACK OUT ... One of the bank of lights on the Tamaqua side of the field went out early in the first quarter. That delay lasted 20 minutes. Then, less than two minutes into the second half, both banks of lights on the Raider side went out, causing a 17-minute delay.

ALMOST PERFECT ... The Spartans scored on eight of their nine possessions. The only time they didn’t score was early in the second quarter when they turned it over on downs at the Tamaqua 13-yard line. North Schuylkill actually crossed the goal line in that drive as well, but a 55-yard TD run by Chowansky was called back by a holding penalty.

BALL CONTROL ... Tamaqua’s plan to keep North Schuylkill’s offense off the field was successful in the first half as the Raiders picked up at least one first down on each of their first four possessions and had the ball for 17:45 compared to the Spartans 6:15. It didn’t matter, however, as North Schuylkill put together three scoring drives of 45 seconds or less in the opening half.

RUNNING HARD ... Bonner praised the play of Raider running back Warren Stewart. Stewart carried the ball 20 times for 84 yards and also added a 45-yard kickoff return. “I thought Warren had a nice game for us,” Bonner said. “He ran hard and played hard. He also added a couple of nice special team returns.”