Southern Beats Cowanesque Valley In Playoff Opener

Tagged under: District 4, Gameday Hub, News, Playoffs

Dave Fegley | November 1, 2025

Tigers beat Indians in first ever meeting

For a program that has had more success than any other in the state, one would think that Southern Columbia had to have played against every team in District 4 at this point, but that wasn’t the case.

The Tigers welcomed Cowanesque Valley on Halloween for the first ever meeting between the programs as SCA went on to control the tempo from the start. Southern scored all their points in the first half and went on to beat the Indians 41-20 in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score showed.

The Tigers needed just 15 seconds to open the game before senior Brayden Andrews scored his first touchdown. He was far from done as he added four more for his first career five TD performance.

” We have so many players that can contribute so it’s about executing each play no matter who is getting the ball,” said Andrews who scored on each of his offensive touches.

On his final score, he went over 1,000 yards rushing on the season as him and sophomore Grady Garcia each ran for 100 yards in the victory.

“It was a fun start to the playoffs. Obviously watching Brayden (Andrews) score on that first play was a great start. Then, I just tried to get the yards that I could. The line blocked really well,” Garcia said.

In all reality, Southern could have put 100 points on the board against a team with a roster that had just 16 players in uniform. For as lopsided as it was coming in, SCA coach Jim Roth had nothing but respect for the opponent.

“On film you saw that they had some tough players. We were realistic coming into the game knowing what they had but didn’t take anything for granted. Give their guys credit. For not having many players on their roster it was obvious to see that they competed hard on every play. They won games this year with their effort,” said Roth. “I would have liked to see our backups perform better but it was a good learning experience for them as future players that we will be counting on.”

In terms of the near future, Southern will now host Bloomsburg in a District 4 2A semifinal. The Tigers beat the Panthers 61-0 in mid-October.

“Playing them once already, we know what to expect. They are going to come out throwing the ball. It’s going to be important to get to do the same as we did last time we played them in terms of getting good pressure and playing good pass defense,” Tiger safety Kaden Zachman said after the win and registering an interception.

Southern (10-1) scored three times in both the first and second quarters against a Cowanesque Valley (5-6) competitor that made a three-hour drive to Tiger Stadium.

“We saw that we had a pretty clear advantage with them having a limited roster. When it comes to playoffs though, we need to show no mercy. It’s about taking advantage of the opportunities. At this point it’s eat or be eaten. We have to take care of business regardless, Tiger linebacker Talon Piatt said.

Southern Columbia 41, Cowanesque Valley 20

CWV — SCA

First Downs: 9 — 19

Rushes-yds: 25-103 — 36-357

Passing yds: 59 — 41

Total yds: 162 — 398

Passing (C-A-I): 5-13-1 — 3-4-0

Penalties: 1-5 — 10-72

Fumbles-lost: 0-0 — 0-0

Cowanesque Valley (5-6): 0-6-14-0 — 0

Southern Columbia (10-1): 21-20-0-0 — 41

SCORING

1st Quarter

S– Brayden Andrews 66 run (Preston Shadle kick), 11:45.

S– Andrews 26 pass from Ayden Hockenbroch (Shadle kick), 7:46.

S– Andrews 17 run (Shadle kick), 3:01.

2nd Quarter

S– Andrews 4 run (Shadle kick), 10:33.

S– Joey Williams 29 run (fumbled snap), 6:47.

S– Andrews 17 run (Shadle kick), 4:59.

C– Dave Hess 4 run (kick failed), 2:02.

3rd Quarter

C–Hess 13 run (Gavin Churchill kick), 8:27.

C–Hess 21 pass from Levi Stahli (Churchill kick), 2:15.

4th Quarter

None.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Southern: Grady Garcia 13-114; Brayden Andrews 4-104, 4 TDs; Joey Williams 4-53, TD; Parker Pesarchick 2-40; Cael Williams 3-26; Gavin Trometter 4-16; Ayden Hockenbroch 1-5; Caden Hopper 1-3; Gavin Brown 3-1; Kane Cecco 1-(-5). Cowanesque: Dave Hess 11-51, 2 TDs; Kegan Lane 12-43; Levi Stahli 2-9.

PASSING — Southern: Ayden Hockenbroch 3-4-0, 41 yds, TD. Cowanesque: Levi Stahli 3-4-0, 45 yds, TD; Dave Hess 2-9-1, 14 yds, TD.

RECEIVING — Southern: Brayden Andrews 1-26, TD; Jace Malakoski 1-14; Nate Gallagher 1-1. Cowanesque: Dave Hess 2-32, TD; Camden Stahli 1-13; Levi Stahli 1-11; Gavin Churchill 1-3.

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