Tigers Rebound With Win
Tagged under: District 2, District 4, Gameday Hub, News
Dave Fegley | October 23, 2022
SCA waxes Wyoming Area 55-28
Southern Columbia head coach Jim Roth knows a thing or two about football. After all, the 39-year veteran is sixth all-time in wins across the country while winning a record 12 PIAA Championships.
After his Tigers defeated Wyoming Area at home on Friday, he started his interview by comparing the game pace to the college level following the 55-28 win over the Warriors.
“The way it started, I thought we were playing in the Big 12 Conference. Those college games are always high scoring and this one was bizarre with all the action. We forced four turnovers on defense or else this could have been a game with over 100 points scored combined,” said Roth.
On Senior Night, it was a night full of memories. Especially for one senior in particular.
“Getting to play on Senior Night, every senior wants to make that memorable. I was able to make some big plays and most importantly we were able to get a good win against a tough and physical team,” said senior Braeden Wisloski.
After forcing a fumble and recovering it to keep the Tigers lead at 27-14, Wisloski was given a handoff near his own end zone in the second quarter. What was originally thought to be a record 99-yard run, will officially be ruled a 98-yard TD which tied Jay Drumheller’s school record run in 1983.
Following a two-point conversion throw from Blake Wise to Ryan Kerstetter, SCA led 35-14 with 8:50 remaining in the half. Just over two minutes later, the Tigers scored again.
This time, Wisloski started with the football, but junior Louden Murphy was the man that scored the touchdown.
After picking up 12 yards and a first down, Wisloski was being tackled by a trio of Warriors. Before they were able to bring him down, he pitched it to his teammate.
“I was getting tackled by like three people, but I heard Louden screaming my name and saw him looking directly at me. I tossed it to him, and the rest is history,” said Wisloski who eclipsed 1,000 yards rushing on the season.
Murphy caught the ball as if the play was scripted and went 54 yards to finish off the 66-yard scoring play.
Earlier, on Murphy’s first carry, he scored on a 64-yard jaunt. With the lateral being just the second time that he touched the ball to that point, Murphy’s stat line was technically better than Wisloski’s 98-yard run to that point.
By rule whenever a lateral occurs past the line of scrimmage, the initial ballcarrier gets marked for a rushing attempt and the yards up to the point of where the ball is lateralled. From there, the recipient of the lateral gets the rushing yards but the player isn’t marked for an attempt.
So, with 6:16 left in the first half, Murphy’s stat line was as followed — one carry for 118 yards and two touchdowns.
As Murphy crossed into the end zone, all he could do was wait for Wisloski to greet him with Southern in front 41-14.
“I had just finished blocking my guy and then Braeden cut it up the field. I was going to find another player to block but at that point he was wrapped up. As I stood toward the outside with nobody around, I yelled his name and he looked up,” said Murphy. “Once I got the ball and nobody was around me, I started laughing and then Braeden laughed with me in the end zone. It was a fun play the way it worked out.”
Although the game resulted in a loss for Wyoming Area, junior running back Aaron Crossley continued to put up mind-boggling numbers. He finished with 297 rushing yards against SCA which for as weird as it sounds was his lowest rushing output of the past three weeks.
“He is a heck of a player. Whenever our guys tried tackling him high, he just broke through. Hopefully this was another learning step for our defense of staying disciplined and using proper technique of tackling lower on the body,” Roth said.
The Tigers (6-3) will travel to Shikellamy to close out the regular season while the Warriors (5-4) head to Pittston.
“We just have to finish off the season strong. I felt we were more physical in this game than we were last week against Mount Carmel,” said Tiger sophomore linebacker Dom Fetterolf who had an interception. “They still got a lot of rushing yards, but they had to earn them more. I’m confident that we will keep improving.”
Southern’s defense forced four turnovers in the victory. The first one resulted in the first touchdown of the game as senior defensive back Jake Toczylousky intercepted a pass and returned it 23 yards.
“We hadn’t been forcing as many turnovers as we have in previous seasons. Getting these four was huge because they were able to sustain some long drives. Who knows, if they cut the turnovers in half it could have been a completely different game,” said Roth.
Southern Columbia 55, Wyoming Area 28
S — W
First downs 16 — 12
Rushing-yds. 22-401 — 55-395
Passing 2-5-0 — 3-5-2
Passing yds. 19 — 54
Total yds. 420 — 449
Fumbles-lost 0-0 — 6-2
Penalties-yds. 3-15 — 3-20
Wyoming Area (5-4): 14-0-7-7 — 28
Southern Columbia (6-3): 27-14-7-7 — 55
SCORING
First quarter
S—Jake Toczylousky 23 interception return (Isaac Carter kick), 10:25
W—Aaron Crossley 80 run (Liam Burke kick), 10:12.
S—Louden Murphy 64 run (two-point failed), 9:12.
W— Garrett Pocceschi 26 pass from Crossley (Burke kick), 3:55.
S—Carter Madden 42 run (Braeden Wisloski run), 2:34.
S— Jack Biermaas 1 run (kick blocked), 0:26.
Second quarter
S—Wisloski 99 run (Blake Wise pass to Ryan Kerstetter), 8:50.
S—Murphy 66 run (kick blocked), 6:16.
Third quarter
S—Wisloski 31 run (Carter kick), 9:45.
W—Pocceschi 22 pass from Michael Crane (Burke kick), 2:43.
Fourth quarter
S—Kyle Christman 8 pass from Wise (Carter kick), 11:15.
W— Crossley 5 run (Liam Burke kick), 4:06.
STATS
Rushing:
Southern Columbia—Braeden Wisloski 6-154, 2 TD’s; Louden Murphy 4-141, 2 TD’s; Carter Madden 2-47, TD; Jack Biermaas 7-39, TD; Tyler Arnold 1-11; CJ Swank-Dworchak 2-9.
Wyoming Area— Aaron Crossley 33-297, 2 TD’s; Michael Crane 19-84; Luke Barhight 1-9; John Mruk 2-5.
Passing:
Southern Columbia—Blake Wise 2-5-0, 19 yds, TD.
Wyoming Area— Michael Crane 2-4-2, 28 yds, TD; Aaron Crossley 1-1-0, 26 yds, TD.
Receiving:
Southern Columbia—Kyle Christman 2-19, TD.
Wyoming Area— Garrett Pocceschi 2-48, 2 TD’s; John Mruk 1-6.
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