Friday The 13th?

Eerie for some, but not for others.

The surging Tamaqua football team wasn’t thinking unlucky, it was just going about business the way it has for the first three weeks of the 2019 season.

Friday the 13th was a thing of beauty, especially for senior quarterback Braydon Knoblauch and running back Nate Boyle. Both standouts helped lead their team to a 50-16 rout over an undersized but determined Panther Valley squad.

Certainly all eyes were looking at Knoblauch, as he set a new touchdown record at the school by tossing his 32nd of his career. He also moved closer to the all-time passing yardage mark of 4,126, which ironically is held by Braydon’s uncle, Adam Knoblauch.

“Nothing like keeping it all in the family,” said Tamaqua head coach Sam Bonner. “He’s such a good leader, such a great competitor who just wants to win. Yeah, it’s nice if he breaks the mark, but Braydon wants to lead us to bigger things.”

Like the schools’ first-ever District 11 Class 4A championship, but that’s on the backburner for now.

“It feels great,” said Knoblauch of the new touchdown record, “especially since it was my uncle’s … I really admire him.”

Knoblauch almost set the mark on the first play from scrimmage when a sure-bet strike fell incomplete as his receiver took his eye off the ball for just a second.

“Nah that didn’t bother me, I just kind of laughed when (he) came back into the huddle. I told him don’t worry about it, we’ll get it back,” said Knoblauch.

It took possession No. 2 to set the new mark — a 35-yard pass to the speedy Boyle.

“We have to play great every game,” said Boyle who ran for 122 yards on only seven carries and scored four touchdowns. Boyle capped the initial drive with a 4-yard plunge and then proceeded to kick the first of seven PATs.

After Boyle’s 35-yard touchdown reception, he then posted a 15-yard scoring run before blazing 46 yards to put his team on top 42-0 to open the second half. In between, there was a Matt Kistler 6-yard score and a 12-yard bolt by Nate Curvey. The capper was added by senior Braxton Whitaker, who broke off the night’s longest run of 71 yards for the final Tamaqua touchdown.

“It feels great to get off to a good start,” said Knoblauch. “Yeah, I had the personal goals coming into the season, and it’s nice to be able to break my uncle’s (touchdown) record.”

Panther Valley was in a stall mode with an array of injuries and plenty of freshmen and sophomores getting into the varsity fires. Yet, there were a lot of signs of grit.

“We have to change the culture,” said PV coach Ricky Jones. “The bottom line here is we’re not as mentally or physically tough as Tamaqua. We stressed to go out and play ...”

And indeed, the Panthers played it right to the final gun. They put up two scores late rallying around the legs of Tremaine Ervine, who finished with a career-best 90 yards rushing on six touches. Ervine raced 51 yards for a touchdown before turning to frosh Michael Pascoe, who darted 24 yards to the end zone and scored both of his teams’ two-point conversions.

“That’s a big plus for us the way we finished,” added Jones.

DANCING AND PRANCING … How about those 205 members of the Blue Raiders Marching Band, who can captivate any football audience. Also, kudos to the PV band.

SHORING IT UP … Bonner says his team keeps improving weekly. The next area to attack is the run defense. The Raiders gave up the edge often, but that is very fixable.

HALF A CENTURY … Noted football official Jimmy Strubringer is now in his 50th year of officiating. He’s also a top-flight hoops referee.

LET’S GET IT ROLLING … The Schuylkill Football League Division I race gets going next week. The Raiders will be on the road to face Blue Mountain.