Tide look to bounce back at Bangor

Pottsville's Andrew Allen drops back to pass during last week's game against Tamaqua. The Crimson Tide visit Bangor tonight. (Photo by Danie Mae Photography)

POTTSVILLE — The sting of last Friday’s last-second loss to Tamaqua still fresh in their minds, all Pottsville’s players and coaches can do is turn the page to this week’s game at Bangor.

The Crimson Tide gave undefeated Tamaqua all it could handle before Luke Kane connected with Victor Schlosser for 36 yards and the winning touchdown in the final seconds of a 24-21 victory.

“The kids are resilient,’’ Pottsville coach Mike Brennan said Wednesday afternoon. “We’ll learn from it. We made enough plays to win the game, and obviously, we made enough devastating errors to lose the game. … We snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, and that hurts, but I think you learn a lot from that. You learn from the pain of it. We’ll come back from it. … Our kids are young and resilient, and the challenge this week is to right the ship and eliminate those major errors and find a way to win a game.’’

Pottsville (1-2, 1-1 Red) did a lot of things right against the Blue Raiders (3-0, 2-0 Red), though an early turnover and a late drive led to the Tide’s demise.

In between, Pottsville held Tamaqua’s vaunted running game to just 148 yards on 39 carries (3.8 average). Three times the Tide rallied from deficits to tie the game or take the lead. And junior JuJu Bainbridge continued to emerge as a featured back by tallying 140 yards and two touchdowns on 24 carries.

All that’s left for Pottsville is to learn how to finish the job.

The Tide will get another opportunity this week when they make the long road trip to Bangor (0-3, 0-2 Red). (The game will air live on WPPA 1360 AM and A-106/105.9 FM, beginning with pregame at 6:45 p.m. and kickoff at 7 p.m.)

“We’re just looking to build every day and every week,’’ Brennan said. “I feel we have more confidence in what we’re doing. I think what we’ve emphasized so far, we’ve gotten better at. Clearly, when we put an emphasis on something during the week, we perform better in that area on Friday night. And that’s a huge step. Our kids are really dialed in. They’re really hard workers. There’s no doubt they’re tough. They’ve exhibited toughness fighting from behind on more than one occasion.’’

Meanwhile, the Slaters have had a rough go of it this season, dropping all three of their contests and managing just one touchdown in each. The losses: 16-7 to Saucon Valley, 33-7 to Lehighton and 55-7 to Northwestern Lehigh.

At this point, Pottsville can’t take anybody lightly. The Tide must bring renewed intensity and focus like they showed the past two weeks against Jim Thorpe and Tamaqua to turn things around and get back to the .500 mark.

Sophomore quarterback Jaxson Kreider runs the Bangor attack. He’s completed 35-of-66 passes for 351 yards with two touchdowns but has thrown seven interceptions. His top targets are senior Alex Farensbach (10-102, 1 TD) and junior Jacob Hillis (9-99). Junior Riley Waldron (48-160) is the top rusher.

Pottsville will counter with sophomore Andrew Allen under center. Allen has completed 33-of-60 passes for 446 yards, two TDs and two interceptions. Senior Tsirell Curry is the big-play receiver, catching seven balls for 296 yards and two scores. Bainbridge has rushed for 302 yards on 49 carries (6.2 per carry) and six touchdowns.

“We’re battle-tested,’’ Brennan said. “We played some good people, so yeah, we’re certainly coming together. This is one of those weeks where we have another challenge with a long road trip, and we have to address focus and concentration and getting off the bus ready to play right away.

“I feel we’ll make improvements,’’ the coach added, “because our leadership is starting to come out and our identity as being a hard-nosed team that competes is certainly starting to show.’’