The Tamaqua football team has already climbed to heights that no team in school history had previously reached.

If the Blue Raiders want to continue their lofty ascenssion through the PIAA State Tournament, they will need to do something no team has done this season — beat Wyomissing.

On Friday at 7 p.m. at North Schuylkill High School, Tamaqua will get that chance when it plays the No. 1 ranked team in the state in Class 3A in undefeated District 3 powerhouse Wyomissing (12-0). The Spartans are no strangers to postseason success, having played in 13 District 3 title games in their history, winning seven of them.

By contrast, this year’s District 11 championship game against North Schuylkill was the first in Tamaqua school history.

Past history aside, however, the 2019 Raiders have played as well as any 3A team in the state during the postseason. Tamaqua has won all three of its postseason games by at least 20 points, and has outscored its three opponents (Notre Dame, North Schuylkill and Pope Jophn Paul II) by a combined total of 116-49.

The Tamaqua-Wyomissing game could come down to the power run game and which team is able to execute it better and which team will be able to make adjustments if the power run game isn’t working.

The Spartans have gashed pretty much every team they’ve played this season with their rushing attack, including in the playoffs. In the District 3 semifinal against Annville-Cleona two weeks ago, they racked up an incredible 510 rushing yards and 28 first downs. Last week in the District 3 title game, a Middletown team that has played in three straight District 3 championship games was able to somewhat limit the Wyomissing rushing attack, “holding” them to 145-yards on the ground. Despite that, Evan Niedrowski still rushed for over 100 yards as Wyomissing pulled out a hard-fought 24-21 victory.

The Spartans have been far from a one-person show this season, however. Among the major offensive contributors have been Niedrowski (17 touchdowns), Max Hurleman (over 1,200 rushing yards this season and over 2,100 for his career), and Jevin Tranquillo (8.3 yards per carry, nine touchdowns), while quarterback Jordan Auman has also been a part of the run game.

The Spartans average 42.5 points per game, while giving up just 11.2 for a point differential of over 31 points in their 12 victories.

“Our approach is going to be similar to when we played North Schuylkill,” said Tamaqua coach Sam Bonner. “We have to be disruptive on the early downs, and force them into uncomfortable situations.

“They’re not a team that passes a whole lot, so we have to try and force some negative or short yardage running plays, We can’t give up the five- or six-yard run on first or second down.”

Usually this deep in the state playoffs, teams that are facing off with each other do not have many common opponents, but that is not the case in this one.

The Raiders and Spartans have played three common opponents. Wyomissing defeated Blue Mountain (35-14), Pottsville (21-20 in double OT) and North Schuylkill (31-14). Meanwhile, Tamaqua lost to Pottsville, Tamaqua defeated Blue Mountain (49-14), but suffered regular-season losses to Pottsville (34-17) and North Schuylkill (27-18). The Raiders were able to avenge the loss to North Schuylkill, beating them 20-0 in the District 11 championship game.

The common opponent record on paper certainly gives the edge to Wyomissing, but this a Raiders team that is on a six-game win streak, with three of those wins coming against high-quality opponents in the postseason. There’s no doubt that this is a different Raiders team than the squad that dropped back-to-back games midway through the regular season.

“We didn’t finish well in our two losses, and now I think we have a lot more confidence, and we’re the team that is finishing strong in the fourth quarter,” said Bonner. “You can see over the last three weeks that once the game has gone into the fourth quarter, we have kind-of hit another gear, and that’s what you need to do when trying to advance in the postseason.”