It wasn’t the start of the season Catasauqua head football coach Travis Brett expected.

He knew his team would face a challenge traveling to Slatington to face defending District 11 Class 2A champion Northern Lehigh in their opener.

Brett wasn’t shocked at the outcome, but he was surprised at his team’s performance in their 32-12 loss. The Rough Riders will try to get back on track Friday night when they travel to Palmerton.

“We had a fumble in the first half that hurt us, and it allowed them to score,” reflected Brett.

“We were still in the game at halftime, being down 6-0, At the end of the third quarter, it was 12-0. But we missed too many assignments on our line, and we looked like we were out of shape.”

Some missed chances came back to haunt them.

“We had our opportunities,” added Brett. “They had three turnovers, and we couldn’t take advantage of them. That was hard to swallow and a hard knock. The kids realized what happened and what they need to do.”

Brett noted that senior quarterback Christian Fye struggled with his 8-for-17, 71-yard, one interception performance. Fye’s interception was a pick six, returned for a touchdown in the fourth quarter in which Northern Lehigh erupted for 20 points.

“Fye struggled a little bit throwing the ball,” said Brett. “He didn’t have his best game, but he was under pressure. He has to have a good game for us to win. Give their defense credit. They played a pretty good game.”

One major blow for the Roughies was the loss of junior running back/linebacker Hunter Reitz, who reinjured his knee in which he suffered an ACL last year. Reitz will miss this week’s game and is scheduled for an MRI either this week or next.

“He said he heard a pop,” said Brett. “We don’t know if he’ll be gone for the season, but it doesn’t look good. We’re not the same team without him out there.”

Senior fullback/linebacker Anthonie Hunsicker has been nursing a knee injury the past two weeks, and obviously was slowed.

“Hunsicker has been battling with his knee,” said Brett. “He isn’t in the shape he should be. It looks just like a tendinitis problem.”

One bright spot was junior running back Jyzaiah Bonilla, who took over the workload for Reitz and Hunsicker with 12 carries for 107 yards.

“He had a good game, and we’ll move him to linebacker now,” said Brett of Bonilla. “We would rather play him on defense, but he’s in good shape to play both ways.

“He’s a great kid with a lot of talent. We believe he will have a big year.”

Brett will regroup his troops for the visit to Palmerton, which will be another challenge. The Blue Bombers routed Lehighton, 49-29, in their opener last week. Junior quarterback Matt Machalik threw for 348 yards with four touchdown passes, and he ran for two others.

“We’re going to have to contain their quarterback,” said Brett. “He’s probably the best quarterback in the Valley, and that’s counting the EPC (East Penn Conference) ones.

“They blitz quite a lot, and we have to get our line issues straightened out. We need to be better on offense.”

PREDICTION: The Roughies dropped a regular-season game to Palmerton, 42-8, and then a district playoff game, 47-7, last year ... Wyatt Younes was the Roughies leading receiver last week with six catches for 22 yards ... Catty is scheduled to meet Mahanoy Area in their home opener Sept. 16. They will travel to Marian Catholic next week ... Brett is optimistic a sinkhole issue at the stadium will be solved before their home opener. The Roughies had to move their game to Northern Lehigh because of it ... This is another tough task for the Roughies. If Hunsicker isn’t 100-percent, it will have a further effect, notably on the defense. Catty needs to get its offense going to be competitive ... Roughies will be competitive Friday night, but the Bombers will eventually overtake them. Eric Snyder needs to ship me some cabbage and noodles from Blondies ... PALMERTON, 35-17.