Danville Gets Redemption On SCA
Tagged under: District 4, Gameday Hub, News
Dave Fegley | September 24, 2022
Ironmen handle Tigers 49-14
Earth, Wind and Fire’s hit song asked, “Do you remember the 21st night of September?” Although not exactly the date, Friday’s game on the 23rd is one that the Danville Ironmen will forever remember while the Southern Columbia Tigers hope to soon forget.
What a difference a year can make. After the Tigers beat the Ironmen 55-3 last season, it was the Ironmen inflicting the Mercy Rule 49-14 over the Tigers on Friday night. An 87-point swing since last October’s clash.
“I am so proud of the way the guys played. Since day one, they have bought in. They are outstanding individuals in games, practice, and in the weight room,” said Danville head coach Mike Brennan. “Our defense has been lights out all year and held them in check for the most part. On offense, we have a bunch of playmakers who can produce when they have the chance.”
The combination of senior quarterback Zach Gordon, junior playmaker Aaron Johnson, and senior standout receiver Carson Persing combined to score more points than anyone has against the Tigers during the regular season in quite some time.
Just how long? Well, Gerald Ford was in the White House and Jim Roth was barely out of high school himself, when SCA suffered a 53-12 loss to Milton in 1976.
With less than two minutes to go in the first half on Friday, the Ironmen and Tigers were tied at 14-14. After Gordon hit Johnson on a 41-yard touchdown pass with six seconds left in the second quarter, Danville was in complete command.
“I don’t know if we had a chance in this game with the way we played overall. We weren’t physical enough, not aggressive enough, and just a general lack of execution. We didn’t execute on either side of the ball,” Roth said. “We hung around for a while, but the ending result was extremely disappointing. It wasn’t the type of effort we are used to seeing.”
The Ironmen came out after halftime in the third quarter and dominated their opponents in the first four weeks. That trend continued against the Tigers. After scoring three touchdowns on Friday night, Danville is now outscoring opponents 73-0 in the third quarter this season.
Gordon himself had more offensive yards than SCA (329 total yards). The senior threw for 229 yards and four touchdowns while scoring twice on the ground in totaling 109 rushing yards.
The Danville captain didn’t suit up in last year’s loss to Southern as he missed six games with a back injury.
“This was the first time that I got the chance to play against them. I was really excited to get the opportunity to play them in uniform. I fractured my back before the season but didn’t get X-rays until after the Loyalsock game last year. I was able to return against Loyalsock later in the year in the district semifinal, but this way my only opportunity to play against Southern,” said Gordon.
Both of Persing’s catches went for touchdowns, and Johnson also had a pair of receiving TD’s. Persing now has 10 receiving touchdowns on the year as he caught a 56-yarder in the first quarter and a 14-yard slant in the third.
In total, Johnson caught four passes for 143 yards, his longest a 68-yard TD, while adding the game’s final touchdown on a run of five yards. He also made five of six extra points. With his lone miss being blocked, he made up for it with a two-point conversion.
“We were fully prepared for this game. Every single person on this team has so much confidence,” Johnson said. “We knew that they were good against the run, so we were just trying to get the ball off quick in our passing game to try and make plays.”
Although Gordon had the game of his career, against the state’s most successful program of all-time, he didn’t want to take all the spotlight.
“We knew with the defense that they play that there were going to be some opportunities for me to run and Coach Brennan wanted me to run if the chance was there. We had a great scheme against them,” Gordon said. “With the guys I get to throw to, it makes my job easy. Most of the touchdowns I have thrown have been on slants or out patterns and the receivers do most of the work.”
After playing in the most hyped game in District 4 this week, Danville will play in a game next week expected to be a blowout. The Ironmen (5-0) will host Lewisburg in their annual Homecoming game. The Green Dragons (0-5) haven’t been able to register a win yet this season.
“Our skill players have been outstanding, but our linemen have been equally as important. Mike Gurski (defensive coordinator) and the rest of the defensive staff have done a great job. We knew if we wanted to compete at a high level that our defense was one area that we had to get better at this season. I’m proud of our kids in taking the next step,” said Brennan.
As for Southern (3-2), who hasn’t lost more than one regular season game since 2010, they will play at home next week against Montoursville.
After losing junior Garrett Garcia, who set a school-record with 205 tackles last season, with an ACL tear on the opening kickoff of the season, the Tigers look like they will be missing another standout going forward.
In the first quarter of Friday’s loss at Danville, senior three-year starting fullback Wes Barnes suffered what appears to be a devastating arm injury.
Both players were slotted to be keys on both sides of the ball as the Tigers are looking to break their own record with a sixth consecutive state title in 2022.
“We don’t know the extent of the injury yet. We are hoping for the best. As for the game, I thought if we could shut down their running game that we would have a good chance. Their passing game really hurt us with our lack of execution,” Roth said. “You have to give Danville all of the credit in this one. They seemed to want it more and have a very good team.”
Danville 49, Southern Columbia 14
SCA—DAN
First Downs: 14— 12
Rushes-yds: 38-228 — 34-237
Passing yds: 101 — 229
Total yds: 329 — 466
Passing (C-A-I): 8-16-1 — 9-12-0
Penalties: 3-35 — 2-10
Fumbles-lost: 2-1 — 0-0
Southern (3-2) 7-7-0-0 — 14
Danville (5-0) 14-7-21-7 — 49
SCORING:
1st Quarter:
D — Carson Persing 56 pass from Zach Gordon (Aaron Johnson kick), 9:05.
S — Braeden Wisloski 6 run (Isaac Carter kick), 4:59.
D — Aaron Johnson 68 pass from Gordon (Johnson kick), 1:51.
2nd Quarter:
S — Wisloski 4 run (Carter kick), 1:46.
D — Johnson 41 pass from Gordon (Johnson kick), 0:06.
3rd Quarter:
D — Gordon 25 run (Johnson kick), 8:35.
D —Persing 14 pass from Gordon (kick blocked), 7:02.
D — Gordon 44 run (Johnson two-point conversion), 2:44.
4th Quarter:
D — Johnson 5 run (Johnson kick), 1:44.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS:
RUSHING —
Southern: Braeden Wisloski 21-189, 2 TD’s; Wes Barnes 3-20; Louden Murphy 9-14; Brayden Andrews 1-8; Garrett Krebs 3-(-1); Brady Arnold 1-(-2).
Danville: Zach Gordon 6-109, 2 TD’s; Aaron Johnson 8-67, TD; Ty Brown-Stauffer 17-52; Carson Persing 3-9.
PASSING —
Southern: Blake Wise 8-15-1, 101 yds; Anthony Martino 0-1-0.
Danville: Zach Gordon 9-12-0, 229 yds, 4 TD’s.
RECEIVING —
Southern: Louden Murphy 3-45; Kyle Christman 1-25; Ryan Kerstetter 1 -13; Braeden Wisloski 2-9; Jake Toczylousky 1-9.
Danville: Aaron Johnson 4-143, 2 TD’s; Carson Persing 2-70, 2 TD’s; Mason Raup 3-18.
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