Troy Snaps Southern’s Streak

Tagged under: District 4, Gameday Hub, News, Playoffs

Dave Fegley | November 9, 2024

Trojans roll over Tigers 69-28

Prior to kickoff, Troy’s cheerleaders held up a sign for the Trojans to run through. Due to the high winds, that never happened as it ripped.

It said “Believe The Hype” and although the Trojans didn’t break through the banner, they showed their belief early on.

The top-seeded Trojans handled the Tigers 69-28. From the start, the Trojans were ready and executed when they needed to in the District 4 semifinal meeting.

“We have been very versatile all year and gave them a lot to look at. The option is our bread and butter and we beat them with it. We are blessed to have a great group of kids,” said Troy coach Jim Smith. “Southern is the standard of success, and unless a private school that recruits goes on a long run, no other program will ever go on a run as successful as Southern has had. I mean they won seven straight state championships. They have won eight of the last nine and the other was a state runner-up finish. Simply incredible.”

Looking at the total yardage, it was more even than the score showed. Troy accumulated 415 yards of offense, and Southern had 346 yards. Those numbers are misleading as the Trojans racked up a ton of yardage on special teams.

“They made the big plays in the game, and we weren’t able to find a way to contain them at key parts. They are a very good team,” Southern coach Jim Roth said.

It took all of just 12 seconds for Troy to take command as Lincoln Chimics returned the opening kickoff 83 yards for a touchdown.

The Trojans had a second kickoff return for a score toward the end of the first half, had a pick six on defense, and recorded a safety on a special teams blunder by the Tigers.

“It feels great. It’s so much better than you would expect because they ended our season the last two years, so just to get this win feels so good,” said Chimics who also scored on a 36-yard halfback pass to make the score 19-0 with 4:33 left in the first half. “This adds more fuel to our fire and drives us to work even harder moving forward.”

That was the first of five combined touchdowns in the final five minutes before the break. Southern’s Caden Hopper and Ayden Hockenbroch each scored for the Tigers on short runs as the 14-time state champs went into halftime trailing 32-14.

Mason Smith, the son of Troy’s head coach, returned a kickoff 94 yards to the house following SCA’s initial touchdown.

“We have had a lot of success on special teams all year. This is incredible to finally beat them. This is what we have worked for,” Smith said. “We take as much pride in special teams as we do on offense and defense. In this win, we made a lot of big plays.”

Hockenbroch scored on a 46-yard scamper down the Tiger sidelines with 8:43 remaining in the third quarter to cut the deficit to 32-20.

“For as bad as we looked at times, we were in a position at that point to make a comeback, but then they took control for good,” Roth said.

By the time Brayden Andrews, who surpassed the 1,000-yard rushing mark, scored for Southern late in the game, the Trojans had already let the accomplishment sink in.

“Our line did a great job up front. We were really physical and won the battle up front,” said Troy senior quarterback Evan Woodward who rushed for 144 yards as he executed the veer option offensive attack effectively throughout the win.

Brendan Gilliland added 91 rushing yards for Troy (12-0) and scored three times against Southern (7-5).

“The key was having different guys make plays throughout the game. We were able to do that in a variety of ways,” Woodward said.

Southern’s Dominic Fetterolf closed out his career as the school’s all-time leading tackler and is on his way to being a serious consideration as a four-time all-state selection. He would become the fourth Tiger to ever earn that recognition.

“I grew up excited to play as a Southern Tiger and to be coached by the best coaching staff there is,” said Fetterolf. “We had a lot of success and in addition to winning the state championships, I learned a lot as a man. I’m going to miss it.”

Historic Win

The win for Troy means that a team not named Southern Columbia will represent the East in the PIAA final for the first time in 10 years.

The loss for the Tigers is their first since 1990 against a Northern Tier challenger. Southern had previously won 31 in a row against the NTL since a 14-6 loss to Canton 34 years ago.

This was also the first victory for Troy in seven attempts against Southern all-time.

“We will let this settle in and enjoy it. We can go back after the season and reflect on how big this win is, but we still have to focus on the rest of this season,” said Smith who’s squad will take on Warrior Run in next Friday’s District 4 final.

The Tigers seven wins are the lowest total since 1986 when Southern finished 6-5-1, and it’s just the fourth time in Roth’s 41 years that the juggernaut of a program didn’t reach the 10-win mark.

“I want the seniors to know that despite the season ending sooner than we all hoped, they were part of something the past few years that not too many people have experienced,” said Roth. “Now, hopefully the underclassmen let this sink in and come back hungry next year.”

The 69 points that the Tigers allowed are the most points ever given up by the Pennsylvania power dating back to the start of the program in 1963.

“It’s a tough way to end the year. Definitely wasn’t the outcome we expected. We felt we would be much more competitive against them. Credit to them though,” said Roth who closes the season with a state-record 506 wins.

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