Southern Columbia Captures D4 Gold
Tagged under: District 4, Gameday Hub, News, Playoffs
Dave Fegley | November 18, 2023
Tigers shut down Troy to win 31st district title
Troy thought this was their year. After all, the Trojans had dismantled everyone in their path leading up to the District 4 Class 2A championship meeting.
There was only one problem. Unfortunately for them, it wasn’t a minor one.
In order to win the gold they would have to knock off six-time defending PIAA champion Southern Columbia.
It was a valiant effort, but the Trojans fell like many others have in the past to the Tigers. The final score was 14-0.
Ironically, as this was a record 31st district title for Southern, it was also the 31st straight win for the Tigers against a team from the Northern Tier League dating back to 1990.
Southern drove two hours north to Alparon Park and added another championship to their overfilled trophy shelf.
Southern’s defense was impeccable, and the offense put together both scoring drives in the second half to win.
For the Tigers, who now have the opportunity to win three more games to claim a seventh straight and 14th overall state title, they scored their first touchdown with 41 seconds to go in the third quarter.
Garrett Garcia scored on a five-yard run to make the score 7-0 and the senior added a second TD from a yard out midway through the final quarter to give the offense more than enough points with how impressive the defense played.
“This was one of those games that you knew coming in was going to be a grind it out type of game. Troy was a confident group that was undefeated coming in, and they handled all of their previous opponents in convincing fashion,” said SCA head coach Jim Roth. “I have to give a lot of recognition to our defense. We gave up some third down completions in the first half, but overall it was a great effort. They didn’t have really any success running the ball.”
Despite being the least amount of points that the Tigers have scored in a win since Bill Clinton was in office, all it ultimately took was one score and the defense would close it out.
“We knew this was going to be a tough test. Coming in, you could see the way that they looked on film that it was going to be physical. They were undefeated for a reason, and we had to put together a great game. I am really happy with the job we all did,” Garcia said.
After Garcia was injured in the second quarter of last week’s 43-0 drubbing over Mount Carmel Area, it appeared as if there was a better chance of rolling a seven on a six-sided die than seeing him in uniform.
Not only was he dressed in his Southern Columbia football attire, but he was also the figure that stood out the most in Bradford County.
Despite virtually no practice time all week after spraining his knee and ankle, Garcia was a menace on both sides of the ball.
“As the game wore on, he didn’t seem to slow down at all with his performance. At times throughout the second half my assistant coaches were saying in the headset that it looked like he was getting up slow. At that point I was thinking ‘well I didn’t think it was possible for him to be playing yet alone doing what he is doing’” said Roth. “Although he had the performance that he had there had to be a lot of pain he was dealing with. He somehow found a way to fight through it and that’s a credit to him.”
Garcia finished with 138 rushing yards while carrying the ball a career-high 23 times, and he also had about 20 tackles.
“Our whole defense played amazing. The defensive line was clogging up holes and that allowed all of our backers to fly to the ball and make plays,” said Garcia.
Garcia joined now Michigan State standout Cal Haladay as just the second Tiger to ever top 400 career tackles. After missing last season with an ACL tear, Garcia moved in front of Max Tillett (362) toward the end of the regular season and is behind only Haladay’s 474 stops.
The atmosphere at Troy’s home field was electric all of the pregame and throughout the first half as the Trojan fans were hopeful that this was finally the time for someone to shine over Roth’s program.
“We had a great year. Right now, it definitely stings that the season is over. We came in confident that we could knock them off. Unfortunately for us we didn’t. They made the key plays when they needed to on both sides of the ball and showed why they are the top program in the state,” Troy head coach Jim Smith said.
In the first half, Southern had its chances on offense, but three sustained drives ended with their own mistakes. One with penalties, another with a missed opportunity down field, and the final one a turnover.
“It was huge to mentally refocus and come back from those. The mistakes were drive killers, but we got those stupid mistakes out of our system and came into the second half with better results,” Southern offensive lineman John Quinton said.
The Tigers put on about as perfect of a defensive display over the final two quarters as anyone could imagine. They held the Trojans to negative-eight rushing yards after the break and 0 for 7 passing with two interceptions.
“We knew we had to be on our A-game. It was slippery all night, but we still got it done. Everyone on defense did what they needed to do. This Troy team had a lot of success this year with big plays, but we pretty much shut them down,” said Tiger linebacker Dom Fetterolf.
With the game scoreless at halftime, Troy took the third quarter kickoff all the way to Southern’s 44-yard line.
On the very first play of the drive, Southern’s Louden Murphy intercepted Evan Woodward’s pass at the 23.
“They weren’t able to get anything going in their running game, so we thought coming out of halftime that they were going to try and pass even more. I just had a good read on the play. I saw it from the beginning and did what I had to do,” Murphy said.
Following the turnover, the Tigers were marching down the field, but a fumble deep in Trojan territory ended that drive.
Southern forced a three-and-out on the following drive, and then took the ball 57 yards in eight plays to go up 7-0.
With 41 seconds remaining in the third quarter, Garcia scored from five yards out.
“We came into halftime and changed some of our blocking schemes. They were crowding the box, and our coaches did a great job of making the proper adjustments. We just kept chipping away and eventually broke through to take control of the game for good,” Garcia said.
Against a Troy defense that came in giving up less than six points per game on the season, not only was that a rare score against the Trojans but also one that would be the game-winner.
Garcia with his second touchdown with 5:32 left in the 4th quarter it’s Southern Columbia 14 Troy 0 @CCHastings1863 @circlewsports @DFegs9 @jimsmit93524299 @PaFootballNews pic.twitter.com/bInb4LZxep
— Lindsey Bennett (@LindseyB_PFN) November 18, 2023
“I thought all three of our backs ran hard. The field conditions got worse as the game went on, but with the help of our offensive linemen we consistently were able to pick up yards when we needed to,” said Roth.
The nail in the coffin came when Garcia leapt in from a yard-out with 5:32 remaining in the game. At that point, the Troy fans started trickling out of the stadium as the rain continued to pour down onto the muddy grass field.
“The way our defense played, you can’t really ask much more from them. They hit a few passes for first downs in the first half, but other than that I thought it was just a tremendous effort,” said Roth.
To cap off the victory, and dot the exclamation point, Southern’s Gavin Krebs ended Troy’s last ditch effort in the final minute with an interception.
“Louden (Murphy) had that huge interception and (Gavin) Krebs sealed the deal with that final defensive play. They were fitting plays for the way this game went,” said Garcia.
With a ninth consecutive District 4 gold now in hand, all the members of Southern’s program will have to eat a later Thanksgiving meal after practice on Thursday. However, they are more than thankful to have the opportunity to continue on their path that they hope ends with a remarkable seventh straight PIAA title come early December.
Although it’s a tough pill to swallow now that reality has set in that they won’t be moving on, Troy can still hang their hat on a successful season.
“The weather conditions weren’t the best. I feel like on a dry field we could have maybe made some bigger plays. Both teams were on the same field though, so you can’t really make an excuse of that,” Smith said. “We will definitely miss our seniors, but with a lot of guys returning hopefully we can get back to this game next season.”
Southern will await Saturday night’s District 6 championship winner between Richand and Bald Eagle Area. In addition to the extra day of rest, the Tigers will host next week’s PIAA quarterfinal the day after Thanksgiving.
On Black Friday, the 13-time PIAA champs will suit up in their traditional all black home uniforms and will take on tonight’s District 6 gold medalist.
Richland and Bald Eagle Area will kickoff this evening at Mansion Park in Altoona to see who will be able to extend their season.
“We were fully focused on Troy. This was a tough game, and it was a satisfying victory. We came out of this win with no injuries that I know of other than Garrett Garcia being sore I’m sure. We will enjoy this for the weekend and get ready for the upcoming game,” Roth said.
Southern Columbia 14, Troy 0
SCA — TROY
First Downs: 19 — 6
Rushes-yds: 58-284 — 21-15
Passing yds: 11 — 76
Total yds: 295 — 91
Passing (C-A-I): 2-7-1 — 6-19-2
Penalties: 5-40 — 4-25
Fumbles-lost: 1-1 — 3-0
Southern (12-1): 0-0-7-7 — 14
Troy (12-1): 0-0-0-0 — 0
SCORING PLAYS
1st Quarter
N/A.
2nd Quarter
N/A.
3rd Quarter
S— Garrett Garcia 5 run (Isaac Carter kick), 0:41.
4th Quarter
S— Garcia 1 run (Carter kick), 5:32.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — Southern: Garrett Garcia 23-138, 2 TDs; Louden Murphy 20-88; Carter Madden 14-56; Blake Wise 1-2. Troy: Brendan Gilliland 2-8; Clayton Smith 6-7; Mason Smith 5-4; Kael Millard 2-4; Evan Woodward 5-(-1); Team 1-(-7).
PASSING — Southern: Blake Wise 2-7-1, 11 yds. Troy: Evan Woodward 6-19-2, 76 yds.
RECEIVING — Southern: Louden Murphy 1-13; Carter Madden 1-(-2). Troy: Lincoln Chimics 3-29; Camryn Harwick 1-23; Mason Smith 1-17; Brendan Gilliland 1-7.
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