Tigers Take Full Control of PHAC Division 2

Tagged under: District 4, Gameday Hub, News

Dave Fegley | September 23, 2023

Southern handled Danville 40-17

With nine seconds remaining in the first half, Southern Columbia led Danville 14-7. The Ironmen were hoping to start the third quarter with the opportunity to tie the game. That didn’t happen because Isaac Carter, who was named SCA’s 2023 Homecoming King earlier in the day, made a 28-yard field goal to give the Tigers a 17-7 lead at the break.

It was a chip shot for the Tiger senior who had enough of his right leg on it to be good from more than 50 yards out. More significantly, it was a three-point score that the six-time defending PIAA champions haven’t had in more than half of a decade in helping his undefeated squad knock the Ironmen from the unbeatens with a 40-17 final score.

“I was focused on making that because I knew it was basically halftime and would give us an extra cushion,” said Carter who also had two sacks in the win, including a safety to put an exclamation point on the victory, as a defensive tackle. “The goal is to score touchdowns, but when you play against a good opponent, every point matters.”

Former all-stater kicker Elijah Hoffman made two of his program single-season record 13 field goals in Southern’s 48-0 PIAA Class 2A state championship win over Wilmington in 2017 and a FG has not been made in the Tiger program since then.

That victory started the current streak for the Tigers who are hoping to add on to their already state records this season of winning a 14th PIAA Championship, seventh in a row, and making it for a ninth straight year.

Coming into week five, Southern was ranked No. 1 in the state in 2A and Danville was No. 4 in 3A.

The Tigers were once again dominant on defense, sending the Ironmen backwards on basically every play they tried on the ground, but the offense had some issues despite the win over a very good opponent.

“Our inexperience showed again up front. We knew coming in that there could be some issues going against their experienced front. They are very active and aggressive. We expected to see that eight-man front and that’s what we got,” Southern coach Jim Roth said. “Even though we won, the coaching staff saw a lot of mistakes that we don’t want to see going forward.”

In total, Southern committed 11 penalties, put the ball on the turf five times (two resulting in turnovers), and they were still able to win in convincing fashion to get revenge on Danville who won last season’s matchup.

“In the second half we were able to open up more running room with our blocking, and eventually we pulled away. This was a nice win overall that our players were really looking forward to,” said Roth who will be inducted in the SCA Athletic Hall of Fame on Sunday.

In last year’s meeting, Southern was without two all-state players. Garrett Garcia missed the entire season with a knee injury, and Wes Barnes played less than half of a quarter before sustaining an elbow tear that sidelined him until the playoff run.

On Friday, Madden Patrick was out for Danville. The junior quarterback had thrown for over 1,000 yards and 17 touchdowns through the first four games.

Thrown into the fire was Ironmen sophomore Carter Raup who threw for 229 yards, most of which came on two long touchdowns.

“When a kid has to step in to replace your starting quarterback, that is a tough task in itself. Add in the fact that it was against a defense as good as Southern’s and it makes it that much tougher. I have to give Carter Raup credit. He gave it his all,” Danville coach Carl Majer said.

Although the Ironmen were able to connect on a 69-yard TD toss to Aaron Johnson and an 83-yarder to Cameron Kiersch, the Tigers completely stopped the run.

Southern’s defensive unit only allowed two runs for minimal gains and the rest went backwards. In the end, Danville had negative-54 yards on the ground.

Kiersch’s score cut the Danville deficit to 24-14 midway through the third quarter, and then two huge plays over the next 30 seconds of gametime put the Tigers back in full control.

Louden Murphy, who along with Carter Madden scored two touchdowns in the win, returned the ensuing kickoff 96 yards to the end zone. On the first Danville play of the next drive, Brayden Andrews intercepted Raup and took it back 35 yards for the pick six to make the score 38-14.

“Having that kick return and then Brayden Andrews with the pick six right after, that really deflated them. We were in control before that with how good we were playing on defense, but it definitely made us feel more comfortable,” said Murphy.

Danville (4-1) will head to Bucknell University next week to take on Lewisburg. In addition to Raup’s two passing touchdowns, Garrett Hoffman made a 43-yard field goal in the loss.

“A loss is a loss. We will learn from this. We have to put this behind us and move forward. I was happy with the effort, but we made some mistakes that hurt us. Southern had a very good team, and they showed it with the way the controlled us,” Majer said.

The Tigers, Ironmen, and Loyalsock Lancers were the three teams coming into the season that were the heavy favorites to win what is known as the toughest division in the PHAC in Division 2.

With Southern (5-0) beating both of those 3A ranked schools, and Lewisburg last week, the Tigers have just two remaining games in the division to wrap up their 33rd league title in the program’s history.

Next week, the Tigers will travel to Montoursville, who had a rare bye this week after Bald Eagle Area dropped them from their schedule over the summer, and then SCA will return home the following week to host Central Columbia in their final divisional game of the regular season.

“We want to win the division outright. It doesn’t matter who is on the schedule, we go into each game like it is a championship regardless of our opponent,” said Carter Madden.

Southern Columbia 40, Danville 17

DAN — SCA

First Downs: 5 — 16

Rushes-yds: 14-(-54) — 50-225

Passing yds: 229 — 69

Total yds: 175 — 294

Passing (C-A-I): 13-24-2 — 3-7-0

Penalties: 5-37 — 11-90

Fumbles-lost: 0-0 — 5-2

DANVILLE (4-1): 7-0-10-0 — 17

SOUTHERN (5-0): 7-10-21-2 — 40

SCORING PLAYS

1^st Quarter

S — Louden Murphy 4 run (Isaac Carter kick), 3:35.

D — Aaron Johnson 69 pass from Carter Raup (Garrett Hoffman kick), 2:35.

2^nd Quarter

S — Carter Madden 7 run (Carter kick), 11:13.

S — Carter 28 field goal, 0:09.

3^rd Quarter

S — Madden 3 run (Carter kick), 7:07.

D — Cameron Kiersch 83 pass from Raup (Hoffman kick), 5:43.

S — Murphy 96 kick return (Carter kick), 5:28.

S — Brayden Andrews 35 interception return (Carter kick), 5:13.

D — Hoffman 43 field goal, 3:32

4^th Quarter

S — Safety, 5:04.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Southern: Louden Murphy 14-93, TD; Garrett Garcia 18-92; Carter Madden 13-42, 2 TDs; Anthony Martino 1-1; Jack Biermaas 1-0; Joey Williams 1-(-1); Team 2-(-2). Danville: Aaron Johnson 1-1; Cameron Kiersch 1-0; Bo Sheptock 3-(-6); Carter Raup 3-(-8), Team 6-(-41).

PASSING — Southern: Blake Wise 3-7-0, 69 yds. Danville: Carter Raup 13-23-2, 229 yds, 2 TDs; Aaron Johnson 0-1-0.

RECEIVING — Southern: Murphy 1-37; Jake Hoy 1-31; Garcia 1-1. Danville: Cameron Kiersch 2-93, TD; Aaron Johnson 3-80, TD; Gabe Petrus 3-34; Cole Duffy 3-16; Sheptock 2-6.