Southern’s Special Teams Were Special Against Shikellamy

Tagged under: District 4, Gameday Hub, News

Dave Fegley | October 25, 2025

Tigers win ninth straight game

The last time Southern Columbia scored more than 60 points in back-to-back weeks was the 2019 season when the Tigers broke nearly every PIAA record imaginable on the way to winning Pennsylvania’s 2A crown.

On Friday night in the final game of the regular season, Southern defeated Shikellamy 61-28 after the Tigers beat Bloomsburg 61-0 a week prior.

In their ninth straight win after dropping the opener, the Tigers turned a slim seven-point lead at the half into a 55-21 advantage after three quarters.

Southern did so by scoring three of their nine touchdowns on Friday via their special teams’ unit.

Although the Tigers registered a Mercy Rule win, their leader knows that they could have executed much better from the start.

“In the first half, we didn’t seem to come out with much intensity. It was a much better second half, but we need to put together a full four quarters of football if we want to make a deep run in the postseason,” said Tiger coach Jim Roth. “We weren’t doing a good job in pass defense in the first half. We had a lack of execution and missed some tackles. That’s something we have to focus on this upcoming week in practice.”

The first return for a TD came in the first quarter when senior Caius Morrow returned a kickoff 62 yards.

“I was shocked to get the ball. I’m in there as a blocker. We have practiced kick returns hundreds of times in practices and then in games and I haven’t touched it before that,” said the Tiger linebacker.

In the third quarter SCA had a pair of punt returns for scores before the Tiger offense even saw the field.

Brady Arnold took a punt back 27 yards for a TD on a play where the senior had no time to even react.

“I saw Chase Williams wrap up the punter. Then I saw their guy try to punt it, so I expected it to go over my head. All the sudden, the football hit me in the stomach, and I put my arms around it,” Arnold said. “I didn’t even realize I had the ball at that point. Then, I think it was Nolan Wittig, started pushing me and I just ran it to the end zone.”

Before rushing for an 82-yard touchdown, senior Brayden Andrews return a punt the exact same distance (82 yards) just over three minutes after Arnold’s score.

Despite a valiant effort, Shikellamy (5-5) will travel to unbeaten Shamokin Area for the first round of the District 4 Class 4A playoffs next week. The Indians survived a come-from-behind win in dramatic fashion to retain the Coal Bucket for the first time since Bill Clinton was in office by scoring twice in the final minute against Mount Carmel Area.

Southern (9-1) will host Hughesville on Jim Roth Field as the Tigers wrapped up the No. 1 seed in District 4’s 2A.

“We will be ready. This was our wake-up call. We need to come in ready to go from the start to the finish,” said Andrews who finished with 162 rushing yards after two weeks ago becoming the 28th player in program history to eclipse the 2,000-yard rushing plateau in a career.

Southern’s Joey Williams had two touchdown runs in the final six minutes of the first half to give the Tigers the 28-21 lead at intermission after Shikellamy was ahead in front of a packed home crowd on the Braves’ senior night earlier in the quarter.

“Our coaches weren’t yelling at us at halftime after we didn’t do a good job in the first half. They handled it very professionally and the comments were constructive,” Williams said. “I mean we deserved a talking after a bad first half, and clearly what they said to us worked.”

Southern will look to compete for another state title as they entered the week ranked fourth in PA Football News’ 2A rankings.

“We will take the weekend off and approach the next week like any other. At this point, everybody is at the same point. It is one week at a time moving forward,” said Roth who has been the head coach for all 14 of Southern’s state-record gold medals.

Southern Columbia 61, Shikellamy 28

SCA — SHK

First Downs: 20 — 11

Rushes-yds: 43-434 — 21-123

Passing yds: 69 — 200

Total yds: 503 — 323

Passing (C-A-I): 3-6-0 — 13-28-0

Penalties: 2-25 — 7-60

Fumbles-lost: 1-1 — 2-1

Shikellamy (5-5): 7-14-0-7 — 28

Southern Col. (9-1): 14-14-27-6 — 61

1st Quarter

SCA– Brayden Andrews 6 run (Preston Shadle kick), 6:34.

SHK– Brody Rebuck 5 run (Ryan DePhillips kick), 4:35.

SCA– Caius Morrow 62 kick return (Shadle kick), 4:25.

2nd Quarter

SHK– Bobby Felmy 7 pass from Rebuck (kick blocked), 10:37.

SHK– Rebuck 5 run (Thomas Pollock conversion), 7:55.

SCA– Joey Williams 17 run (Shadle kick), 5:36.

SCA– Williams 24 run (Shadle kick), 1:38.

3rd Quarter

SCA– Brady Arnold 27 punt return (Shadle kick), 9:20.

SCA– Andrews 82 punt return (Shadle kick), 8:31.

SCA– Andrews 82 run (Shadle kick), 5:06.

SCA– Parker Pesarchick 3 run (no attempt), 0:00.

4th Quarter

SCA– Gavin Trometter 5 run (kick blocked), 8:19.

SHK– Kaleb O’Connor 28 run (DePhillips kick), 4:11.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING —

Southern: Brayden Andrews 10-162, 2 TDs; Grady Garcia 7-81; Joey Williams 8-79, 2 TDs; Parker Pesarchick 5-35, TD; Gavin Trometter 3-23, TD; Caden Hopper 3-18; Kane Cecco 3-17; Ayden Hockenbroch 3-13; Gavin Brown 1-6.

Shikellamy: Kaleb O’Connor 6-62, TD; Brody Rebuck 7-55, 2 TDs; Tristan Smith 3-9; Xavier Baker-Allen 1-3; Kyler Campbell 1-0; Luke Keally 2-(-2); Brady Kurtz 1-(-4).

PASSING —

Southern: Ayden Hockenbroch 3-6-0, 69 yds.

Shikellamy: Brody Rebuck 13-26-0, 200 yds, TD; Brady Kurtz 0-2-0.

RECEIVING —

Southern: Brayden Andrews 1-36; Joey Williams 1-18; Grady Garcia 1-15.

Shikellamy: Bobby Felmy 6-85, TD; Thomas Pollock 4-84; Corbin Stahl 2-31.

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