It wasn’t pretty. There were no celebrations after Palmerton knocked off host Catasauqua 24-13 on Friday night to start the season 4-0.

But the Blue Bombers are happy to be finding ways to win when things don’t go well and they don’t play up to expectations.

T.K. Gursky threw a pair of touchdown passes, including a 15-yarder to Carson Eckhart to clinch the win with 1 minute, 51 seconds left, and ran for another score to lead coach Chris Walkowiak’s club.

“We made key plays when we had to,” Walkowiak said. “Overall, we’re not happy. You could see that. Everyone is not in a joyous mood because we know we didn’t convert. We were sloppy. First, give credit to Catty.

“We had a lot of penalties, a lot of miscues we didn’t have early on [in the season].”

Palmerton led 17-7 at the break after taking advantage of a short field to march 41 yards in four plays, the last coming on Gursky’s 8-yard run with 41 seconds left in the second quarter. Gursky then hit Cale Young for the two-point conversion.

“We trusted the line, trusted the play calls,” Gursky said. “The play calls were great all night. Sometimes, we sputtered. But we went out there and made a statement.”

Catasauqua had a chance to score before the break after Solomon Mosby’s 62-yard kickoff return, but a sack and two incompletions ended the threat.

Defense and miscues dominated the third quarter before Palmerton put the game away after the second of Gaven Meixell’s two interceptions. He returned it 30 yards to the Catasauqua 36.

Nine plays later, the Blue Bombers sealed the game when Gursky hit Eckhart with a 15-yard touchdown pass on fourth down.

Palmerton was 2 of 4 on fourth down, 9 of 15 on third down, including seven of its first nine.

“We made plays when we had to,” Walkowiak said. “I thought our defense stepped up big time. Gaven did a heck of a job defensively. At the end of the day, it’s football. You can’t always put up 60 points. It’s complimentary football.

“Tonight, we weren’t clicking as well as we’re used to offensively, but our defense stepped up. That’s a sign of a good football team.”

The Blue Bombers took the lead 3-0 on Devlin Moyzan’s 29-yard field goal on the game’s first series despite three penalties.

The Rough Riders responded with an eight-play, 75-yard scoring drive capped by Aiden Reilly’s fourth-down, 9-yard touchdown pass to Tuari Wright with 1:55 left in the first quarter. Two more Blue Bombers penalties aided the drive.

The teams exchanged punts before Palmerton took a 9-7 advantage on Gursky’s 22-yard TD pass to Ben Negley with 4:21 left in the first half. The Blue Bombers converted all four third downs on the series.

Catasauqua scored on its first drive and its last drive when Reilly threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Omar Pacheco on the game’s last play. But the Rough Riders didn’t get much in between. They managed 109 combined yards on those two scoring drives, 46 on the eight drives in between.

Up next

Palmerton (4-0) goes to Pen Argyl for Saturday’s 1:30 p.m. kickoff. Catasauqua (1-3) goes to Notre Dame-Green Pond for a Thursday 6:30 start in the Crusaders’ return to their home field for the first time since 2024.

PALMERTON 24, CATASAUQUA 13

Palmerton; 3; 14; 0; 0; 24  

Catasauqua; 7; 0; 0; 6; 13

ORDER OF SCORING

First quarter

P: Devlin Moyzan 29 FG, 5:24

C: Aiden Reilly 9 pass to Tuari Wright (Reilly kick), 1:55

Second quarter

P: T.K. Gursky 22 pass to Ben Negley (Moyzan kick), 4:21

P: Gursky 8 run (Gursky pass to Cale Young), 0:41

Fourth quarter

P: Gursky 15 pass to Carson Eckhart (Moyzan kick), 1:51

C: Reilly 4 pass to Omar Pacheco (run failed), 0:00

TEAM STATISTICSPalm; CatFirst downs; 20; 8Rushing yds; 36-127; 22-63Passing yds; 186; 92Passing; 15-28-0; 12-23-1Punts; 1-18.00; 4-36.5Fumbles-lost; 2-1; 0-0Penalties-yards; 7-60; 3-39

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICSRushing: (Palmerton) Carson Eckhart 15-68; T.K. Gursky 10-13; Cale Young 11-39; team 0-7; (Catasauqua) Ruben Concepcion 4-35; Joziah Martinez 6-23; Solomon Mosby 3-8; Aiden Reilly 9-(-3).

Passing: (Palmerton) Gursky 15-27-0,186 yards, 3 TDs; Ben Negley 0-1-0; (Catasauqua) Reilly 12-23-1, 92 yards, 2 TDs.

Receiving: (Palmerton) Connor Lawless 2-11; Gaven Meixsell 3-47; Negley 2-28, TD; Young 5-67; Eckhart 3-33, TD; (Catasauqua) Mosby 3-10; Omar Pacheco 5-49, TD; Moises Polanco 1-7; Tuari Wright 2-23, TD; Chase Kratochvil 1-3.

Senior writer Tom Housenick can be reached at thousenick@mcall.com