Jersey Shore Wins District 4 AAAA Semi-Final; thumps Athens 73-14
Tagged under: District 4, Gameday Hub, News, Playoffs
Ryan States | November 1, 2025
Jersey Shore, Pa. – The (8-3) Jersey Shore Bulldogs have been nearly unbeatable in home playoff games under 14-year head coach Tom Gravish. A trend that continued in a big way against the (9-2) Athens Wildcats on Friday, Oct. 31st. After going up 50-0 in the first half, the Bulldogs kept their foot on the gas, scoring over seventy points for the first time this season in a convincing 73-14 win in front of the home fans at Thompson Street Stadium.
Coming into the game there was some newsworthy drama from the Athens perspective, as the Wildcats would be forced to be without their normal starting QB in junior Connor Davidson, as Davidson had been suspended in the second to last week of the season for an on the field incident in a win over Muncy. Per PIAA rules Davidson was suspended for two games, missing the final game of the regular season against Sayre, and the first post season game against Jersey Shore. With their starting QB out, Athens was forced to go to their backup who, ironically was Connor’s younger brother Shea. S. Davidson, a freshman, appeared in six games coming into Friday, including one start in that 57-0 win over Sayre.
Well Athens was certainly missing C. Davidson in that first quarter, as the Wildcats offense could not get a groove going. All in all in the first half Athens was unable to move the football into Shore territory, having multiple drives stall out and not getting into Shore territory until midway through the third quarter. While Athens offense went quiet, the Bulldogs were anything but as the run game made their presence felt. After an incredible catch from receiver Carson Watkins got them in the redzone, it was star running back Bo Sechrist who punched in the first TD of the game on the Shore’s opening drive. A Watkins INT would set up a rushing TD from QB Nolan Pauling, before a 74-yard Sechrist score made it 21-0 at the end of the first.
Things only got better for Jersey Shore in the second quarter, as following an Athens safety and turnover on downs Sechrist would find the end-zone for a third and fourth time as the Bulldogs exploded out to a 36-0 lead. As the first half came to an end a touchdown pass from Pauling to Luke Ryan, and a fifth Sechrist score gave Jersey Shore an incredible 50-0 lead.
In total Bo Sechrist rushed for 281 yards and six touchdowns, setting a program record for most touchdowns in a single game and breaking his career high in rushing yards that he set earlier in the year against Shikellamy (220). On the season Sechrist has now rushed for a remarkable 1,448 yards and 24 TDs.
In the second half Athens would begin to find some life, as a receiving touchdown from wide out James Friend, and a 90-yard catch and run from Gage Marmor gave the Wildcats their two scores of the game. But as the Wildcats tried to claw their way back into the game Jersey Shore never relented, putting up 23 in the second half and continuing to pour it on already being well into the mercy rule.
It should also be noted there were some controversy’s on both sides in the second half, as Athens would have a player ejected from the game due to a punch being thrown on a downed Shore lineman. Meanwhile for Jersey Shore the decision to keep the starters in the game and continue to throw the football up 64-14 with the running clock in the fourth quarter drew some negative reactions.
For Jersey Shore it was yet another playoff win in the Tom Gravish era in one of if not their most complete game of the 2025 season. After the game coach Gravish talked about how happy he was to get the win in front of the Bulldog faithful at home and get a win for their seniors in their last ever home game.
“It’s always our goal to have a home playoff game.” Gravish noted, “Thompson Street Stadium, to me, and to our players is a special place to play. It’s one of the best places in America to play football games. We challenged our kids, this is probably the last time you’re going to play [at home] this year, and for the seniors, make it count.”
Jersey Shore will certainly hope to make it count next week, as they travel on the road to take on the (11-0) Shamokin Indians in the PIAA quad A District 4 finals. That game will be a rematch of last year’s District final that ended in a controversial blocked kick, as well as earlier this season when the two teams faced off in a thrilling 43-42 double OT win for the Indians. The highly anticipated rematch will take place next Friday, Nov. 7th, with kickoff slated for 7 P.M. EST.
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