MOUNT CARMEL — On a regular night, 301 yards from Colton Reber and three touchdown passes from Bradyn Diehl would have been more than enough to power Schuylkill Haven to a win.
But Friday was not a regular night.
The Mount Carmel run game was nearly unstoppable, and Hurricanes dropped their season opener, 48-41.
It was a back-and-forth affair with over 1,000 combined yards of offense, but the Tornadoes held strong when it mattered most.
“They had one more possession, they stopped us one more time than we stopped them,” Schuylkill Haven coach Mike Farr said. “That’s just the way life goes.”
The Hurricanes jumped out to an early 6-0 lead on a 62-yard touchdown pass from Diehl to freshman receiver Noah Runkle.
Mount Carmel quickly responded with a 65-yard touchdown run by quarterback Jaylen Delaney to make it 7-6.
A Schuylkill Haven fumble near midfield gave the Tornadoes an extra possession, and they capitalized with a 12-yard touchdown run by Michael Higgins to take a 14-6 lead.
The ensuing Hurricane possession resulted in the first of three long touchdown runs by Reber, but a failed 2-point try left them trailing by two.
Schuylkill Haven’s defense forced a punt to start the second quarter, but the offense stalled and had to kick it back to Mount Carmel.
It was another key stop for the Tornadoes, who again capitalized and extended their lead to nine points on a 3-yard touchdown run by Delaney.
Just over a minute later, Diehl and Runkle connected for another touchdown — this one from 20 yards — to make it 21-19.
A Mount Carmel punt gave Schuylkill Haven another opportunity with time winding down in the first half. Reber broke free on a catch-and-run, but was tackled inside the 10-yard line as time expired.
The Hurricanes started the second half by forcing another punt, but the possession ended with a big loss on third down. The pocket collapsed on Diehl and a short completion was followed by a fumble. Schuylkill Haven recovered, but had no choice but to punt.
The play call is one Farr would like to have back.
“On third and three, I threw that pass and we got the sack, fumble, whatever you want to call it,” Farr said. “I just should have ran the football there and got the three yards, and so I own it.”
The first play of the next drive was a 42-yard touchdown run by Jason Klokis to put Mount Carmel up 27-19.
But just as they had all night, Schuylkill Haven responded.
Reber gave the offense good position on the kick return, and capped the quick drive off with a 39-yard touchdown run. Diehl hit Runkle in the corner of the end zone for the 2-point conversion, and the score was tied at 27.
Schuylkill Haven had gained some momentum, but it was short-lived. Facing a pivotal third down, Cooper Karycki ran 60 yards for the score to put the Tornadoes back ahead late in the third quarter.
Delaney made it a two-score game less than a minute into the fourth with a 45-yard scoring run.
“They do a really good job of executing, getting guys to the line of scrimmage,” Farr said. “I mean, at the point of attack, they got three, four, five guys sometimes. It’s hard, plus, then, plus they have speed, they’re coming at you at angles.”
Reber took the first snap of the next drive 80 yards for a touchdown to make it 40-34.
It was a positive result, but Farr was thinking back to the beginning of the half.
“I made some stupid calls,” he said. “The same play Colton goes for 80 (yards) in the fourth quarter is the play I decided not to run when we had a punt.”
The opportunity was there for the Hurricanes to get a stop, but Delaney had other plans, and ran through the defense for a 39-yard touchdown, his fourth of the night.
“They got one more stop against us than we got against them,” Farr said. “One of the guys on the chain said, ‘whoever has the ball last is winning this.’”
That was indeed the case.
Diehl hit an open Chase Yoder in the end zone for his third touchdown pass of the game to make it 48-41 with 1:30 to go, but Mount Carmel jumped on the onside kick and ran out the clock.
Diehl’s performance — along with the rest of the offense — was one of the positives Farr took from the game.
“Shoot, I couldn’t tell you the last time we threw three touchdown passes in a game, two of them caught by a freshman,” he said. “So, I thought overall we had a good night. We had to have close to 500 yards of offense.”
Farr also took note of how well-conditioned his players were.
“Here’s the good thing: we didn’t have cramp issues,” he said. “You didn’t see the game being stopped for our guys.”
It wasn’t the result the Hurricanes wanted to start their season, but it’s one they’ll accept.
“It’s good learning for our guys,” Farr said. “We’ve got a long season, we’ve got a long way to go.”
Schuylkill Haven will be on the road again next week against Tamaqua. The Blue Raiders dropped their season opener to Lehighton, 44-20.
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