BETHLEHEM It wasn't until Tamaqua's Schuylkill League championship game loss against Pottsville that the Raiders thought a state appearance was within reach.

In Friday's District 11 Class AAA consolation game against Salisbury, the Raiders saw that come to fruition, making program history along the way.After holding the Falcons to two points in the second quarter, the Raiders never trailed from that point on in their 53-47 win at Freedom High School's Joseph J. McIntyre Gymnasium. Weeks after securing their first Schuylkill League tournament win since 1995, the Raiders cemented a PIAA appearance for the first time since that season as well."I don't know if we thought we were capable of getting to the state tournament at the beginning of the year," said senior Bo Rottet, who scored game-high 21 points. "We wanted to make it to leagues that was our first goal. Our second goal was to make a run in districts after leagues was over."When we gave them [Pottsville] a run and took them into overtime, no team had done that before the entire year, so that's when we learned a lot about ourselves."The Raiders (21-6) face District 3 No. 1 seed Steelton-Highspire on Friday to open play in states. Time and location are TBD."We've had five postseason games so far, knocking on six," Tamaqua head coach Caszy Kosciolek said. "It doesn't get a whole lot better than that."Tamaqua, after watching Salisbury's Chad Cooperman sink a trio of three-pointers in the first quarter on the way to a 14-10 lead for the Falcons, veered away from its zone defense.The switch turned out to be costly for the Falcons.The Raiders allowed Salisbury (21-6), which was held scoreless for the first four minutes of the second quarter, to just two points on 1-for-4 shooting from the field. The Falcons committed four of their eight turnovers in that eight-minute stretch as well."Our plan was not to play man, but we had to because we're not going to let people stand around and shoots threes," coach Kosciolek said. "We did a heck of a job pressuring the ball and contesting shots. Our interior defense was really good.""We've seen a lot more man in the [Colonial] league, so we run [our man offense] more and I thought we would be more comfortable against it," Salisbury head coach Jason Weaver said. "But I just thought their defensive pressure made it difficult for us."While the Raiders did take a 21-16 lead into halftime, the Falcons opened up the third quarter with five straight points to tie the game at 21. But the Raiders, behind a combined 40 from Rottet and senior Brett Kosciolek, never fell behind.Kosciolek's rebound and putback halted Salisbury's quick 5-0 spurt, and Rottet's field goal seconds later make it a 25-21 Raider advantage. Russell Blaker, who scored five points in the third, then hit a three-pointer from the left corner that gave Tamaqua a 32-25 advantage, their largest lead of the game at the time.The Falcons cut it to three in the final seconds of the third, but a Rottet trey at the buzzer brought to rest any thought of a comeback."We have a lot of poise and a lot of composure," coach Kosciolek said. "That's so important. That's a big attribute that I think we have."The Raiders grew their lead to 45-35 midway through the fourth before free throw shooting down the stretch helped cement the win.Salisbury shot 10-for-19 (53%) from the free throw line, while the Raiders made 11 of 17 (65%) from the stripe."We're 56 percent as a team," Weaver said. "Tuesday and Friday night, we shot 12-for-30 against Central Catholic and Tamaqua. That's not going to get it done in close games."To go along with Rottet's 21, Brett Kosciolek added 19 points and four blocks before fouling out with 1:38 remaining.Dylan Belletiere paced the Falcons with 13 points, while Cooperman added 11.TAMAQUAShilko 0-1-2-1, Blaker 3-0-1-7, Miller 0-0-0-0, Rottet 7-5-8-21, Zuber 0-2-2-2, MacDonald 1-1-2-3, Kosciolek 7-2-2-19. TOTALS: 18-11-17-53SALISBURYWeber 3-2-4-8, Cooperman 3-2-3-11, Brown 1-0-0-3, Reichenbach 2-1-2-6, Slutsky 0-0-0-0, Belletiere 4-5-8-13, Fairclough 3-0-2-6. TOTALS: 16-10-19-47.Tamaqua 10 11 16 16 - 53Salisbury 14 2 15 14 - 47Three-pointers: Tamaqua - Kosciolek 3, Rottet 2, Blaker 1; Salisbury - Cooperman 3, Brown 1, Reichenbach 1.