Southern Columbia Mauls North Penn Mansfield
Tagged under: District 4, Gameday Hub, News, Playoffs
Dave Fegley | November 5, 2023
SCA takes care of business in playoff opener
The first half seemed to take forever as the undermatched Panthers from North-Penn Mansfield continued to air it out inside of Southern Columbia’s Tiger Stadium.
The second half on the other hand flew by as the game was already into the Mercy Rule courtesy of the performance by the host Tigers.
In the end, the six-time defending PIAA Class 2A champion Tigers cruised to a 62-20 victory in their District 4 Class 2A playoff opener.
Southern built a 56-0 lead at the half, and that was all that interim coach Andy Mills needed to see from his starting unit.
“I am happy with this outcome. We got everyone in the game. Every player saw time on the field, and we came out of the game healthy. That was our number one goal to come out of it with a healthy win,” said Mills who has served as Jim Roth’s defensive coordinator for the past 40 years.
The Tigers racked up exactly 500 yards of offense as senior Louden Murphy passed the 1,000-yard rushing mark and senior quarterback Blake Wise went over 1,000 yards through the air.
“We definitely knew coming in that the score had the potential to get out of hand. Coach (Brandon) Traugh did a good job of calling the offense for the second week in a row,” said Wise. “We made the plays early and then were able to let the younger guys come into the game and get reps for more than a half of the game.”
On the opening drive, Southern needed just three plays to reach pay dirt.
The first two passes went for 41 yards and the score came on a 20-yard scamper from Garrett Garcia who went over 1,000 yards two weeks ago on the ground.
Kyle Christman caught a 75-yard strike from Wise for the second TD of the game less than four minutes into the quarterfinal matchup.
“This is my first ever game of getting 100 receiving yards, so that was nice. We didn’t throw it much but when we did, we were successful. It is a good confidence booster for Blake (Wise) and our receivers,” said Christman.
Murphy topped the 1,000-yard mark on the final play of the opening quarter that resulted in an eight-yard TD run.
“It’s something that I’ve always had as a personal goal. It feels good knowing that I can join a big group of SCA running backs who have previously reached this achievement,” Murphy said.
In the second quarter, Southern added five touchdowns. Two of those scores came on interception returns from Dominic Fetterolf and Christman.
Fetterolf, who is already a two-time all-state linebacker like Garcia, doesn’t play offense but was happy to score his first high school touchdown. In addition to his fourth career pick, he recovered a fumble earlier in the second quarter to set up a touchdown for Southern.
“Every time that somebody forces a turnover, we all get excited. I think it really brings us together as a defensive unit. We congratulate each other because it is a team effort,” said Fetterolf. “On my fumble recovery, I ran off the field thinking maybe I could have done something different. Instead of falling on it, maybe I should have tried picking it up and running. Then I was able to get the pick six, so that was nice getting into the endzone for the first time.”
Jim Roth makes his return to the sidelines next week, after missing the last two games, as the Tigers take on their biggest rival. Mount Carmel Area defeated Wyalusing earlier in the day Saturday to set up a rematch from a month ago when the Red Tornadoes won 42-30.
“From here on out, every team is a quality team. Right now, we are focused on Mount Carmel. Our kids want to play better next week than they did a few weeks ago against them,” Mills said.
For North Penn-Mansfield, they close out the season with a 4-7 record in Jed Wright’s first season as the head coach. Although they were a younger squad, they will need to find a new quarterback as Karson Dominick’s career came to a close.
In addition to the senior throwing 36 times, 19 of which came in the first 20 offensive plays that the Panthers ran against the Tigers, he got to catch a late touchdown pass from his top target Cooper Shaw.
“We still have some things to work on. On defense, it starts with improving our pass defense. With how much they were throwing, we obviously got a lot of reps,” Mills said. “Even though all their scoring came on our backups, we still had some breakdowns with the starters.”
Southern is now 8-0 all-time against North Penn-Mansfield (the first five wins came against North Penn before the schools merged). Now, the Tigers are looking for a 24th win over MCA next week.
Their 10th loss in the series that dates back to 1996 against their archrival came back on October 13th when the Red Tornadoes pulled off an upset.
Last year, Mount Carmel won the regular season meeting before Southern got revenge, winning their 30th District 4 title, on their way to a PIAA record 13th state championship.
The Tigers (10-1) are looking to repeat that same scenario this season.
“Everyone on our team wants this second chance. Last year Mount Carmel beat us in the regular season before we went out and dominated them in the playoffs. We are hoping to do the same thing this year,” Wise said. “They have talent and showed us it in the regular season, but I am confident that we will come out hungry next week.”
Last November’s playoff meeting was played on a snow-covered field inside of The Silver Bowl. Next week, Southern will be the home team as the higher seed.
On the other side of the District 4 Class 2A bracket, top-seeded Troy will host Line Mountain.
“From here on out, every team is a quality team. Troy is undefeated, and Line Mountain has had a good season,” said Mills. “That side of the bracket isn’t our focus though. Right now, we are focused on Mount Carmel. Our kids want to play better next week than they did a few weeks ago.”
Southern Columbia 62, North Penn-Mansfield 20
NPM — SCA
First Downs: 9 — 17
Rushes-yds: 19-47 — 38-383
Passing yds: 212 — 117
Total yds: 259 — 500
Passing (C-A-I): 14-38-2 — 4-4-0
Penalties: 2-10 — 9-85
Fumbles-lost: 3-1 — 2-2
NP-Mansfield (4-7): 0-0-8-12 — 20
Southern Col. (10-1): 22-34-6-0 — 62
SCORING PLAYS
1st Quarter
SC — Garrett Garcia 20 run (Carter Madden run), 10:38.
SC — Kyle Christman 75 pass from Blake Wise (two-point failed), 8:44.
SC — Louden Murphy 8 run (Garcia run), 0:00.
2nd Quarter
SC — Dominic Fetterolf 58 interception return (Isaac Carter kick), 10:33.
SC — Garcia 33 run (Carter kick), 7:33.
SC — Christman 37 interception return (Carter kick), 6:38.
SC — Murphy 36 run (Carter kick), 4:33.
SC — Jack Beirmaas 24 run (kneel down), 1:24.
3rd Quarter
NP — Cooper Shaw 18 pass from Karson Dominick (Shaw pass from Dominick), 9:16.
SC — Brayden Andrews 17 run (kneel down), 3:46.
4th Quarter
NP —Shaw 2 run (two-point failed), 11:54.
NP — Dominick 45 pass from Shaw (two-point failed), 10:26.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — Southern: Louden Murphy 5-82, 2 TDs; Garrett Garcia 4-72, 2 TDs; Carter Madden 5-61; Joey Williams 9-56; Brayden Andrews 4-43, TD; Jack Beirmaas 2-32, TD; Gavin Brown 4-18; Ayden Hockenbroch 3-12; Blake Wise 1-5; Parker Pesarchick 1-2.
NP-Mansfield: Cooper Shaw 7-33, TD; George Perry 8-16; Luke Kreger 3-2; Karson Dominick 1-(-4).
PASSING — Southern: Blake Wise 4-4-0, 117 yds, TD. NP-Mansfield: Karson Dominick 13-36-2, 167 yds, TD; Cooper Shaw 1-2-0, 45 yds, TD.
RECEIVING — Southern: Kyle Christman 3-108, TD; Jake Hoy 1-9. NP-Mansfield: Luke Kreger 4-107; Cooper Shaw 7-54, TD; Karson Dominick 1-45, TD; Gabe Bellows 2-6.
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