Southern Defense Impresses In Win

Tagged under: District 4, Gameday Hub, News

Dave Fegley | September 27, 2025

Tigers Tackle Ironmen 41-21

The objective was simple. Win and stay healthy. The Tigers won handily and escaped with just one injury that will be evaluated later in the week.

“I was very happy once again with the way our defense played. They took care of business throughout the time that they were on the field. I don’t have the exact numbers but I can’t imagine that the starting unit gave up many yards at all,” said Southern Columbia coach Jim Roth.

The Tigers were looking for redemption on Friday and they got it on their home turf against Danville. Last season, the Ironmen were victorious, but last night the Tigers dominated by winning 41-21 as all three Ironmen scores didn’t come at the fault of the victors starting defensive group.

Southern has now defeated Danville in 10 of their last 12 meetings.

“We played a good game. I have to credit the offensive line for opening up the holes. Our defense did a great job which will continue to be important moving forward,” SCA running back Grady Garcia said after rushing for a pair of touchdowns in the win.

The Ironmen had a kickoff return for a TD courtesy of Braxtyn Girardi, a short run following a punt return mistake, and a late score against the Tiger substitutes.

“I was happy with the way we didn’t turn the ball over again other than that punt return that the official said grazed our return man, and we didn’t commit many penalties. Continuing that trend will be huge for us as we have a tough stretch of games coming up,” said Roth.

The legendary coach’s team nearly outgained the visiting Ironmen on Southern’s homecoming by three times. The final stats showed offensively the winners picked up 396 yards on offense while allowing just 143.

Danville lost their starting quarterback Carter Raup in the first half as the Tiger defensive unit constantly presented pressure on passing plays while allowing next to nothing in the run game until the final drive when the game was already decided as Danville marched 90 yards for the final TD.

Despite the loss, Danville’s coach knows what is at stake and hopes to get more players healthy going forward.

“I really dated myself when talking to the team after the game. I said we are really Battlestar Galactica right now. We are a rag tag fleet. We are all beat up, but the kids could have quit and folded but didn’t,” Danville coach Carl Majer said. “Southern was the better team. That was obvious and they showed it. You know going in that when you play them that they are always ready to win and they did just that against us.”

Brayden Andrews caught two short passes from Ayden Hockenbroch that he turned into touchdowns. The first one for the Tiger senior was 33 yards and the second 29. Both came in the first quarter as Southern built a 21-7 advantage that eventually became 35-14 at halftime.

On the first drive of the game, Andrews beat the Ironmen secondary, but Ayden Hockenbroch put a tad too much on the throw. Four plays later, he caught a screen pass for the opening points.

“You need to forget about those plays. They happen all throughout a game when you know you miss out on an opportunity. Nobody is perfect, so you just go to the next one and hope it works in your favor. It was nice to connect with Ayden. We haven’t had many connections yet this year in the passing game. I have to give credit to Jaden Carter too for his blocking on that play up the field as a lineman,” said Andrews who annihilated an Ironmen defender before crossing the goal line later on his second touchdown that fired up the Tiger fans.

At this point in the season, it’s important for a team to be clicking on all cylinders. For as well as Southern’s defense has played the past five weeks, the offense has done the part in racking up the points on the scoreboard.

“It’s nice to make defenses think more. It’s rare for a team to have success being fully one-dimensional. It’s great to have the ability to make plays in a variety of different ways,” Andrews said.

Caius Morrow and Kaden Zachman each had interceptions in the win for Southern. Morrow returned his interception to the one-yard line on the final play of the first quarter. Joey Williams capitalized on the first play of the second.

“I feel like we are all just playing really good together as a group. It’s not like we have just one guy that stands out. We are all playing well and the goal is to win which we have been able to do,” said Morrow.

The Tigers (5-1) have a brutal stretch to close out the regular season as they next travel to Mifflinburg who like Southern has just one loss this season and is the top ranked team in District 4 Class 3A.

After last night’s results, Southern’s final four opponents have a combined record of 19-5.

“We need to make Mifflinburg one-dimensional. The first order of business is shutting down their run game. They are a great throwing team and will complete passes,” said Roth. “We need to make sure that they can’t have success running the ball and we will focus on stopping the big pass plays in practice.”

Danville (2-4) travels to the Silver Bowl on Friday in what feels like a must-win for both teams at this point to stay in the hunt for a playoff berth.

“Next week is a huge game for us. We hope to get more kids healthy. Every game from here on out is a must win for us. Mount Carmel is always a tough team, so depending on who we have healthy, the guys need to come out and play tough at their place,” Majer said.

Southern Columbia 41, Danville 21

DAN — SCA

First Downs: 8 — 17

Rushes-yds: 24-95 — 50-264

Passing yds: 48 — 132

Total yds: 143 — 396

Passing (C-A-I): 8-18-2 — 7-15-0

Penalties: 4-48 — 4-25

Fumbles-lost: 1-0 — 1-1

Danville (2-4): 7-7-0-7 — 21

Southern (5-1): 21-14-6-0 — 41

1st Quarter

S– Brayden Andrews 33 pass from Ayden Hockenbroch (Preston Shadle kick), 8:51

D– Braxtyn Girardi 91 kick return (Liam Tomko kick), 8:39.

S– Andrews 29 pass from Hockenbroch (Shadle kick), 4:27.

S– Grady Garcia 6 run (Shadle kick), 0:26.

2nd Quarter

S– Joey Williams 1 run (Shadle kick), 11:57.

S– Garcia 10 run (Shadle kick), 6:08.

D– Landon Kehoe 2 run (Tomko kick), 2:41.

3rd Quarter

S– Williams 4 run (conversion failed), 1:30.

4th Quarter

D– Jack Rarig 15 run (Tomko kick), 4:49.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Southern: Grady Garcia 10-69, 2 TDs; Joey Williams 13-54, 2 TDs; Brayden Andrews 9-47; Ayden Hockenbroch 6-46; Caden Hopper 4-15; Gavin Brown 3-14; Kane Cecco 1-8; Parker Pesarchick 3-7; Gavin Trometter 1-4. Danville: Jack Rarig 8-67, TD; Landon Kehoe 12-28, TD; Liam Hagerman 2-4; Carter Raup 1-3; Mason Kingery 1-(-7).

PASSING — Southern: Ayden Hockenbroch 7-15-0, 132 yds, 2 TDs. Danville: Mason Kingery 5-15-2, 40 yds; Carter Raup 2-3-0, 8 yds.

RECEIVING — Southern: Brayden Andrews 3-82, 2 TDs; Blaise Kissinger 1-23; Nate Gallagher 1-16; Grady Garcia 1-8; Jace Malakoski 1-3. Danville: Landon Kehoe 3-18; Liam Hagerman 1-13; Mason Kingery 1-7; Casey Mills 1-4; Ben Nye 1-3; Benjamin Koser 1-3.

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