Matt Machalik.

It’s the name that could haunt the Catasauqua football program the remainder of the season. Hopefully, those memories will be gone by the time the Rough Riders tee it up against Marian Catholic Friday night at Alumni Field.

As for Machalik, he and his Palmerton Blue Bomber teammates were too much for the Rough Riders’ defense and the Palmerton defense shut down the Rough Riders’ offense in a 27-7 victory.

Machalik ran for 179 yards on 21 carries with three touchdowns, and Ty Sander ran for 102 yards, as the Blue Bombers registered 282 yards on the ground. The senior and Lehigh-bound recruit also passed for 71 yards. On defense, he made his 12th career interception

Catty head coach Travis Brett knew Machalik would be a major challenge.

“He can make a play out of nothing,” said Brett about Machalik. “Their best play was to let him drop back and run the ball. It is hard to prepare for him.

“A few plays defensively killed us. We had them in a few third-and-longs, and we let Machalik escape for big plays. Our pass defense was pretty good, and they didn’t complete much on us.”

Offensively, the Roughies had trouble converting inside the red zone, and they couldn’t get their running game going. They were held to 60 yards on ground with quarterback Aiden Hess accounting for 46 of them. Hess completed 14 of 28 attempts for 127 yards. Jordan Bradshaw caught six balls for 49 yards.

“We had opportunities, but we didn’t execute and finish them,” added Brett. “We had a chance to cut the lead in half, but we couldn’t convert inside the 20. We had trouble getting our running game going and a few put us behind the sticks, which didn’t help.

“Hess played all right on only his third varsity start against a good defense. It was hard to stretch the field with Machalik at safety. He just covers so much ground.”

The Roughies (1-1) will look to get back into the win column when they host Marian, which lost a 39-37 to Minersville last week.

Marian (1-1) was paced by quarterback Bruce Hopeck, who threw for 170 yards with two touchdowns passing and one rushing. Running back Jesse Rodino rushed for 49 yards, and he had another strong game defensively for the Colts. Tight end 6-3, 235-pound Mike Gelatko is a big target.

However, the Colts defense couldn’t saddle Minersville running back Luke Stevnosky, who ran for 322 yards and scored four touchdowns.

“Marian is a decent team, and we’ll have to come ready to play Friday night,” stated Brett. “They beat us last year up there, and they have a good tight end.

“We have to get our running game going a little bit more this week, but we think we’ll be all right. Our defense played well for the most part. It was just a few plays where we misaligned or just missed some tackles.”

PREDICTION (Overall record 1-1): Catasauqua lost a tight 12-7 decision at Marian last year, and it gave them a 0-3 start ... Catty blasted Marian, 42-6, in the first year of the Colonial and Schuylkill league merger in 2021 ... Hess has five touchdown passes and 335 yards passing. He has 91 yards rushing with two touchdowns and a team-high 91 yards rushing. Hunter Reitz has 87 yards rushing. Ian Jucia has 10 receptions for 185 yards with four touchdowns ... Marian won its opener with a 27-0 shutout over Schuylkill Haven ... Hopeck has four touchdowns and two interceptions. Jayden Fermin had rushed for 187 yards. Gelatko has four receptions for 74 yards, and Rodin has five for 109 with two touchdowns ... Catty’s Chad Beller continues to be a tackling machine, as he had 18 against Palmerton. He led the league in tackles last year ... Brett said the team is healthy. Last year, the Roughies had six starters hurt going into the Marian game ... Brett was miffed his team lost last year’s game, and thought his team was the better one ... This is a pivotal game for the Roughies especially after the Palmerton defeat. Roughies could use a big game from Reitz and also from their run defense here. Catty travels to Mahanoy next week and then returns home against Pen Argyl. A win here will get some momentum rolling. Brett certainly towed the line at practice, and Roughies usually bounce back after a bad game. Like them here to have a good night, and Eric Snyder can pick me up a cheesesteak from Catty Corner (side of fries, too) ... ROUGHIES, 28-21.