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Palmerton holds off Jim Thorpe to stay Undefeated on the Season.

Tagged under: District 11, Gameday Hub, News, pfn

| September 16, 2023

Jim Thorpe- The undefeated Blue Bombers, lead by their Sr. quarterback Matthew Machalik, cruised in to this Friday night matchup the winners of their previous 3 contests and hoped to come away with another victory against the Olympians of Jim Thorpe.  It did not take long for Palmerton to get on the board as they drove straight down the field and scored via an 8 yard TD scamper by Matthew Machalik (16 rushes, 191 yards, 4TD).

The Olympians were quick to respond with points of their own as QB Cole Lazorick ( 18 rushes. 88yards, TD) got Jim Thorpe in to field goal range and Kicker Noah Geiser slipped the ball through the uprights to bring the Olympians within 4 with 10:03 left in the first half. The ensuing drive saw the Blue Bombers once again drive down the field and have all their hard work rewarded with a touchdown off a great touch pass by Machalik (10-18, 103 yards, TD) to WR Bryce Marino to put  Palmerton up 13 – 3 with 9:15 left in the half after a failed extra point attempt.

The Olympians came roaring back as their QB Cole Lazorick led them down the field on their ensuing possession and capped it off with a 2 yard TD run of his own to bring the score to 10-13 with 4:53 left in the first half. This scoring drive was followed by a great defensive stand by the Olympians’ defense. They got the ball back to their offense who drove right back down the field and ended with points when Lazorick lobbed a beauty of a pass to WR Connor Miller (1 rec, 24yds, TD) to put Jim Thorpe up 17-13 with just under a minute left in the first half.

Not to be outdone by his quarterback counterpart, Palmerton QB Matt Machalik was able to lead the Blue Bombers down the field on their ensuing possession and took matters in to his own hands, scoring from 2 yards out to give Palmerton the lead 21-17 with only 9 seconds remaining in the first half.

The second half began with Jim Thorpe receiving the kickoff and methodically driving down the field.  Their scoring drive was capped off by an absolutely punishing run by Fullback Benjamin Goldberg ( 5 rush, 31 yards, TD) to bring the Olympians back on top by a score of 21-24 with 8:25 left in the 3rd quarter.

The following drive by Palmerton was brought to an abrupt end as the Olympian’s Cole Lazorick was able to strip the ball away from Blue Bombers running back Ty Sander (6 rushes, 17 yards, 1 Fumble, 4 rec, 45 yards) and come up with the recovery at their own 12 yard line.   The Jim Thorpe offense was on a roll and drove right down the field and capped off another scoring drive with a beautifully placed 45 yard pass from Lazorick to  WR Justin Yescavage (5 rec, 142 yards, TD) to extend the Olympian’s lead to 10, 31-21 with 2:26 left in the 3rd quarter.

The 4th quarter saw the Blue Bombers completely take over the game.  The first drive of the final stanza saw Palmerton QB Matt Machalik turn on the burners and took what looked to potentially be a broken play with a dropped snap 78 yards completely untouched for a touchdown.

After the Blue Bomber defense put the brakes on a surging Jim Thorpe offense, the Palmerton offense went back to work taking the ball right down the field and capped off another drive with touchdown.  This time, Machalik took it in from 2 yards out to put the Blue Bombers up 35-31 after a successful 2 point conversion attempt.  The Bombers would never look back. After his defense snuffed out the last efforts of the Olympian’s offense, Machalik took another long jaunt down the sideline for a 78 yard touchdown to put this matchup on ice.

The score would remain 41-31 as Palmerton would stop Jim Thorpe on downs and then run out the clock to end the game.  After the game I was able to speak to Blue Bomber head coach Chris Walkowiak who when asked about the game plan for tonight said” It was going to be and exciting game, a rivalry game,  we had to spread the ball around, get it to our athletes and establish the running game. Obviously we have a very special athlete at quarterback who can take things over, but it was a total team offense.  We responded in the 2nd half being down 10 points and defensively they have a great quarterback and scheme. They play hard and we knew coming in to Jim Thorpe it was going tough to get a victory here”.  When asked about the changes made at half, coach Walkowiak said “It all came down to technique, our techniques that we were doing on offense and defense, we were kind of in the right position, but weren’t using the right technique.  Once the kids started trusting in that we definitely got better”.  When asked about how this sets up his squad for the rest of the year the coach echoed another prominent PA head coach in stating “1-0, at the end of the week, that’s all we focus on.  Gonna get home, watch film, get healthy and prepare for Notre Dame Next week”.

Aside from finding coach Walkowiak, I was able to track down Blue Bomber Sr. quarterback Matt Machalik.  When asked about the game plan for this week he said “We knew they were going to be a tough team and we needed to play Bomber football, they were going to try to keep us off schedule.  We were able to do that after a little bit, we executed the game plan and good things happen when you execute.” When asked about being down at half and what was talked about during the intermission Matt said “We were facing adversity there going in to halftime, we were able to rally the troops and we just knew we couldn’t quit.  We’re a good football team and so are they.  We know good football teams rally and we were able to do that tonight.”

Lastly, I was able to talk with Bomber lineman Clayton Christman who when asked about some of the game planning for this evening said “We knew we had to shut them down defensively and on offense drive them off the ball.” When asked about the potentially quite sticky syrup chain he and his fellow lineman have donned this season after delivering pancake blocks he said “I knew at the beginning of this season we were going to have a strong offensive line, so I know right now I have 24 pancakes, Logan Anthony has 25 and Zach has about 20. We don’t get off the field much since we play both ways, but if we get the chance after a pancake block we’ll put on the chain and have some syrup”.

This victory for Palmerton puts them at 4-0 on the season.  Next week they will host Notre Dame Green Pond ( 2-1) who plays Saturday 9/16 at home vs Salisbury.  For the Olympians, this drops their record to (1-3) on the season and next week they look to bounce back as they will host Pine Grove (1-2) who plays Saturday 9/16 at home vs Northern Lehigh.

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