Tigers Post Shutout Over Warriors
Tagged under: District 4, Gameday Hub, News
Dave Fegley | September 30, 2023
Southern wins on the road 21-0
The talk going around the Southern Columbia community in the preseason was that if the Tigers score three touchdowns in any game this year, their defense is good enough to hold opponents to less than that and win.
Nobody knows what the future holds, but one thing that is for certain is that Southern’s defense has been as good as advertised thus far. The offense hasn’t put up the gaudy numbers that they have in previous seasons, but the other side of the ball has played at an A+ rate.
Southern went on the road to Memorial Stadium on Friday and shut out Montoursville 21-0.
With the win, the Tigers will add another PHAC title to their trophy case regardless of next week’s outcome when they host county rival Central Columbia. With the win, SCA will win Division 2 outright and with the way the defense looks, there isn’t much doubt in predicting that outcome.
“I know Central has struggled, but considering how close they are in proximity to our school we need to have a good showing because it is kind of a rivalry. Yes, we won this game against Montoursville but there is a lot of room to improve on offense,” said SCA head coach Jim Roth. “If not for the late touchdown we had in the second quarter, this game would have been scoreless heading into the half, and Central played Montoursville close losing by only a touchdown.”
The Tigers (6-0) just couldn’t seem to find many splash plays against the Warrior (3-2). It wasn’t until there was just 1:13 remaining in the first half that Southern was able to find pay dirt when Garrett Garcia finished off a drive with a one-yard run.
The senior scored a second time midway through the third quarter from a yard out as well.
Both of those touchdowns were set up by the passing game. On the first touchdown, Blake Wise threw a 19-yard pass to Kyle Christman. Then, the second score came after Wise found Jake Hoy for a 30-yard gain.
“It is super important to get the passing game going when the opponent is crowding the box like Montoursville was,” Wise said. “Once we started passing, it opened the running game a bit. Some of our bigger chunk plays on the ground came after a few completions.”
Although the running game hasn’t lived up to the standard yet for a Southern Columbia program that historically has put up astronomical numbers on the ground, the passing game has been a bright spot this season.
“We haven’t thrown the ball much the past couple of years, but Blake has done a nice job this season when we have called upon him in the pass game,” Roth said. “We have some good receivers with experience, and it is important to have the ability to throw when we aren’t able to run the ball the way that we would like to.”
Yes, the Tigers still averaged over four yards a carry in the win, but when you have 13 PIAA championships, including six in a row now in Class 2A, the expectations are at a higher level than mostly any other program.
“We struggled to run the ball consistently. Now, you have to give them credit because they played inspired. Although we didn’t do a good job up front, Montoursville had some tough kids on their defensive line and we emphasized that going in that this wasn’t going to be just a walk in the park,” said Roth.
Despite the struggles in the running game, the Tigers were able to do enough on offense to allow the defense to continue their dominance.
The Warriors barely averaged over a yard per carry. Take away three of their runs that combined for 48 yards, and Southern’s defense held Montoursville to negative yardage on the ground.
With Southern’s offense not having much success in the first half, Montoursville had a chance to tie the game as they received the opening kickoff in the third quarter but they weren’t able to do so.
“At halftime we knew we had to get it rolling. We locked in and realized that this wasn’t going to be an easy game. Our offense didn’t have the best showing, but we were able to score three times and the defense wanted the shutout,” said SCA linebacker Dominic Fetterolf.
With SCA’s defense posting a third shutout in six games, the offense’s 21 points were the least points the Tigers have had in a win in seven years.
A 20-5 victory over Schuylkill Haven in 2016 at Shamokin’s Kemp Memorial Stadium was the last time the Tigers scored less and came out on top.
“We need to perform better next week and as we continue to move forward on offense. Hopefully this was a wakeup call for everyone on offense,” Garcia said. “We are still working out some kinks with the offensive line, but I thought we did a good job throwing the ball. When Blake Wise is able to hit our receivers like he did, it should open up some holes in the running game.”
Louden Murphy accounted for over half of Southern’s offensive production as the senior halfback caught a 53-yard touchdown pass with 1:01 remaining in the third quarter for the final score of the game, and he finished with 101 rushing yards.
“Louden has a lot of speed and when he gets out in space, he is dangerous. It is nice to have a weapon like him to throw to out of the backfield,” said Wise. “We have a lot of good athletes on this team. We just need to execute more in our blocking assignments.”
The stars of the night however were the 11-men that the Tigers had on the field defensively. Amongst them was Colden Bloom who finished with two sacks and a fumble recovery on the defensive line.
“Our defensive line has been able to put pressure on the quarterbacks that we have faced. With having a very good set of linebackers, especially our inside guys with (Garrett) Garcia and (Dominic) Fetterolf, we are confident in our run defense,” Roth said. “We gave up a couple of completions for first downs tonight but overall, our secondary hasn’t given up many big plays all season and that was an emphasis in the offseason.”
Southern 21, Montoursville 0
SCA — MTV
First Downs: 13 — 7
Rushes-yds: 38-176 — 29-37
Passing yds: 122 — 99
Total yds: 298 — 136
Passing (C-A-I): 7-9-0 — 7-18-0
Penalties: 4-40 — 5-55
Fumbles-lost: 2-2 — 3-1
Southern Col. (6-0): 0-7-14-0 — 21
Montoursville (3-2): 0-0-0-0 — 0
SCORING PLAYS
1st Quarter
None.
2nd Quarter
S — Garrett Garcia 1 run (Isaac Carter kick), 1:13.
3rd Quarter
S —Garcia 1 run (missed PAT), 7:08.
S —Louden Murphy 53 pass from Blake Wise (Colden Bloom from Wise), 1:01.
4th Quarter
None.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — Southern: Louden Murphy 13-101; Garrett Garcia 13-42, 2 TDs; Carter Madden 9-28; Joey Williams 1-5; Brayden Andrews 1-2; Jack Beirmaas 1-(-2). Montoursville: Christian Banks 15-47; Nate Fisher 7-2; Hayden Harvey 2-(-3); Jimmy Mussina 3-(-3); Team 2-(-6).
PASSING — Southern: Blake Wise 7-9-0, 122 yds, TD. Montoursville: Jimmy Mussina 7-18-0, 99 yds.
RECEIVING — Southern: Louden Murphy 1-53, TD; Jake Hoy 2-38; Kyle Christman 2-33; Carter Madden 1-5; Garrett Garcia 1(-7). Montoursville: Michael Reeder 2-31; Nate Fisher 1-22; Evan Bloom 1-20; Todd Crawford 1-17; Bryce Eberhart 1-12; Christian Banks 1-(-3).
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