TAMAQUA — Playing in the Eastern Conference Class 3A championship game was not the ideal way for Tamaqua to end its season.

The Blue Raiders would have preferred to play in the District 11 tournament and it appeared they were going to do that after winning its first six games of the season.

The team fell out of contention after losing four consecutive games to end the regular season.

The Blue Raiders made up for Friday and took home a championship trophy after recording a 35-0 mercy rule over Pequea Valley at Tamaqua All-Sports Stadium.

It was the team’s second Eastern Conference championship, the other coming in 1962.

“I told the guys that it was great to finish the season with a win,” Tamaqua coach Sam Bonner said. “We had a real tough schedule to end the regular season. But we did a good job coming out today because it’s sometimes hard to get kids excited after experiencing that kind of an ending.”

Tamaqua’s defense set the tone for the victory after limiting the Braves to just three offensive series in the first half, with each one being three and out. It held the Lancaster County school to just 82 yards of offense, all rushing, and only two first downs.

The Blue Raiders’ offense dominated the time of possession and produced a 13-play, 80-yard drive to start the game that resulted in a 15-yard touchdown run by quarterback Luke Kane.

Kane had three touchdowns on the game with the second one coming on a flea flicker touchdown pass to him by wide receiver Victor Schlosser for a 14-0 lead at halftime.

Kane ended up rushing for 59 yards that included a 3-yard scoring run to end the third quarter. He also had a big passing game completing 12-of-18 passes for 148 yards.

One of those completions was a 17-yard scoring pass to Schlosser to cap the scoring in the fourth quarter. He caught 10 passes for 90 yards.

Schlosser became the school’s all-time leader for receptions in a season with 61.

“We wanted to establish the run on first drive and I thought we did a good job of that,” Bonner said. “We wanted to make sure we got Victor the ball for the record. The kids executed pretty well. But we had only 14 points in the first half because of penalties. But we came out good in the second half.”

Bradley Whalen had a big rushing day for the Blue Raiders with 152 yards that included a 70-yard scoring run in the third quarter. 

Eastern Conference Class 3A Championship

Tamaqua 35, Pequea Valley 0

Peq (5-6) — 0 0 0 0 — 0

Tam (7-4) —  7 7 14 7 — 35

Scoring summary:

T — Kane 15 run (Barron kick)

T — Kane 15 pass from V. Schlosser (Barron kick)

T — Kane 3 run (Barron kick)

T — Whalen 70 run (Barron kick)

T — V. Schlosser 17 pass from Kane (Barron kick)

Team Statistics

                        PV     T

First downs —-   2…

Rushes-Yards —- 29-82….. 32-244

Passing —– 0-3-0.. 12-18-0

Passing Yards —-0…. 148

Total Yards —-82 …. 392

Fumbles-Lost —- 0-0… 0-0

Penalties —- 0-0..6-60

RUSHING: Pequea Valley —  Tibbons 5-4, Carter 3-11,  Vollmer 5-19, Stoltzfus 4-5, Woods 2-(-2), Temple 2-1, Landis 1-(-1), Velez 2-9, Esh 4-36. Tamaqua — Kane 10-59, Whalen 12-152, Koch 3-22, V. Schlosser 4-16, M. Schlosser 2-(-5), Schickram 1-0.

PASSING: Pequea Valley — Stoltzfus 0-3-0, 0. Tamaqua  — Kane 11-17-0, 229; V. Schlosser 1-1-0, 15.

RECEIVING: Pequea Valley — None, Tamaqua — V. Schlosser 9-90, Kane 1-15, Coleman 1-43.