Southern Columbia Shuts Out Milton

Tagged under: District 4, Gameday Hub, News

Dave Fegley | September 6, 2025

Tigers dominate cat clash

On Milton’s final drive of the first half, they picked up four first downs against Southern Columbia’s defense. The end result? A sack that ended the second quarter as the Tigers went into their home locker room with a comfortable 21-0 edge.

Those first downs were hard to come by as the Black Panthers didn’t move the sticks in any of their other eight offensive drives in a 35-0 loss to the Tigers.

“We couldn’t put together a consistent offense in this game. Give them credit for making it tough on us when we tried to get things going,” Milton coach Matt Wilson said.

Southern’s lead at the break was fueled offensively by Brayden Andrews who scored the first two touchdowns on runs of 27 and one yard.

“This was a great team effort in this game. We all wanted to keep getting better to stay on the path of what we want to accomplish this season,” Andrews said.

The third touchdown was a 27-yard connection from Ayden Hockenbroch to Blaise Kissinger.

“That was all Ayden. He threw me a perfect fade. The defensive back had pretty good coverage. It was just a great throw, and I got my hands under it,” Kissinger said about the touchdown catch. “I am confident that I can get open. I know Ayden is confident that he can get me the ball. He can get Jace (Malakoski) the ball, and we will have Nate Gallagher back next week too. Our backs are good pass catchers out of the backfield to add to our options.”

The Tigers gave up only 71 total yards on the 31 offensive plays that Milton ran as Southern has now outscored its past two opponents 76-0.

“I was really pleased with the way our defense played. The last two games our run defense has been playing really well. That’s where it all starts. If the front four plays well then things fall into place for the rest of our defense. When a team can’t get it going on the ground, it makes the passing more predictable,” Tiger head coach Jim Roth said.

In the final five minutes of the third quarter, Southern added two more rushing touchdowns as Joey Williams (11 yards) and Caden Hopper (19 yards) both found the end zone. The offensive numbers didn’t jump off the page in the win, but they didn’t need to with how well the Tigers played defensively.

“Our run defense has really gotten better over these past two games despite losing. Last week, we held Montoursville under 100 yards in the game. We really wanted to focus on trying to shut down Southern’s Wing-T offense. I mean, they are powerful. They are the perennial state championship program in the state,” Wilson said.

Although Roth was pleased with the outcome, he wants to see more out of his offense. Specifically, he wants to see the plays on the edges work for more success as the season progresses.

“I was a little disappointed tonight with our permitter running game. It didn’t go as effectively as we had envisioned it would. Although, I said coming in that their ends and linebackers were bigger kids and physical. That gave us some problems. We broke some at times, but it wasn’t as consistent as we hoped for,” Roth said.

Milton (0-3) will look to get into the win column next week against South Williamsport. The Tigers (2-1) host their biggest rival in a week. After Mount Carmel Area beat the Tigers 7-6 last year, the black and gold want to get the bragging rights back in a series that Southern leads in the series all-time 24-11.

“We are extremely motivated. That’s all I have to say,” said senior defensive lineman Ethan Makowski as the Tigers prepare for the 36th matchup in the rivalry. “It was nice to have another shutout after that opening loss. I think our defense is getting a lot closer to firing as well as we can on all cylinders right now. There is always room for improvement, but we have done a good job these past two weeks.”

Southern Columbia 35, Milton 0

MLT — SCA

First Downs: 4 — 13

Rushes-yds: 18-58 — 45-219

Passing yds: 13 — 100

Total yds: 71 — 319

Passing (C-A-I): 4-16-0 — 8-13-0

Penalties: 5-35 — 3-30

Fumbles-lost: 2-0 — 1-0

Milton (0-3): 0-0-0-0 — 0

Southern (2-1): 7-14-14-0 — 35

SCORING:

1st Quarter

S– Brayden Andrews 27 run (Preston Shadle kick), 7:14.

2nd Quarter

S– Brayden Andrews 1 run (Shadle kick), 8:58.

S– Blaise Kissinger 27 pass from Ayden Hockenbroch (Shadle kick), 2:46.

3rd Quarter

S– Joey Williams 11 run (Shadle kick), 4:44.

S– Caden Hopper 19 run (Shadle kick), 0:41.

4th Quarter

None.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Southern: Brayden Andrews 9-74, 2 TDs; Grady Garcia 10-54; Caden Hopper 3-36, TD; Joey Williams 5-22, TD; Ayden Hockenbroch 4-12; Talon Piatt 4-11; Parker Pesarchick 4-7; Gavin Trometter 2-6; Kane Cecco 1-1; Gavin Brown 2-(-3); Team 1-(-1). Milton: Montgomery Fisher 14-66; Jaeden Canelo 3-2; Cole Rhodes 1-(-10).

PASSING — Southern: Ayden Hockenbroch 8-13-0, 100 yds, TD. Milton: Montgomery Fisher 4-16-0, 13 yds.

RECEIVING — Southern: Blaise Kissinger 3-54, TD; Grady Garcia 1-23; Jace Malakoski 2-10; Brayden Andrews 1-7; Keagan Diehl 1-6. Milton: Brady Wolfe 1-7; Jaeden Canelo 1-4; Jensen Souder 1-1; Cole Rhodes 1-1.

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