Mifflinburg Takes Down Montoursville 35-12, Wins First Outright District Title In School History (VIDEO RECAP)

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Davin Ridall | November 8, 2025

MIFFLINBURG – If you go and look back 23 years ago, the Mifflinburg Wildcats had completed a perfect 10-0 season which was good enough to be named District 4 champions without having to play in any kind of bracket. This year, Mifflinburg had their opportunity to win the district title outright for the first time in their school’s history, and that’s exactly what they did. In a somewhat sloppy game due to the less than ideal weather conditions, number one seeded Mifflinburg (10-2) was just too much for number two seeded Montoursville (9-3) as they took them down 35-12 on Friday night.

As kickoff neared closer and closer it became pretty clear that mother nature was going to play a factor in this game, as the rain had already been going steady for over an hour before the game and didn’t seem like it was going to let up any time soon. “Obviously we have worked with the conditions and the rain before, we’ve had our guys outside when it’s raining and stuff. The grass thing is probably new for most teams because most teams play on turf, not grass, but we have practiced a little bit on grass and did very well,” is what Montoursville head coach Joe Hanna said about the pre-game conditions.

“We certainly knew there was going to be a chance for rain, but offensively-wise, being an offensive guy it’s not going to change our plan, we’re going to continue to do what we want to do,” Mifflinburg head coach Cody Botts said about the conditions of the game.

The rain made it difficult for both sides to move the ball early on, as Montoursville went three and out on their opening drive while Mifflinburg’s offense struggled to get going on their opening drive. The Wildcats were able to make some steady progress, making it all the way down to Montoursville’s 33 yard line before facing a 4th and 9. With the conditions being how they were, they knew it was way too far to try a field goal, so they opted to go for it, however quarterback Chad Martin’s pass was intercepted by Montoursville’s Eli Eck, ending a somewhat promising drive for the Wildcats.

The rain began to ease up toward the end of the first quarter which is where we saw the first score of the game. On a 3rd and 10 from their own 29 yard line, Chad Martin dropped back and aired it out down the middle where he found Landen Murray, who got past the coverage of Cole Snyder, for a 71 yard score with just 43 seconds left in the opening quarter.

Montoursville did find an answer of their own early in the second quarter, as Montoursville’s Eli Eck connected with Jay Houseknecht from 48 yards out. The Warriors were unable to tie the game up however, as Chad Martin came through and blocked the extra point attempt keeping the Wildcats ahead 7-6

After forcing a punt on Mifflinburg’s next drive, Montoursville took over at their own 12 yard line with the rain coming down even heavier than before. This drive didn’t last long for the Warriors as on a third and long, Eli Eck rolled to his left and tried to make a throw back over to the right side of the field but was intercepted by Jackson Griffith at the 34 yard line, giving Mifflinburg a short field to work with. Only five plays later, Chad Martin took a quarterback keeper into the end zone from five yards out, extending the Wildcats lead up to 14-6 with four and a half minutes to play til halftime.

Mifflinburg had another shot at points late in the half after their defense forced a Montoursville punt near midfield, and Chad Martin as he has done so many times this year, put together a beautifully executed six play, 80 yard drive that was capped off with a second rushing touchdown by Martin with only 20 seconds left in the half.

“Obviously we’re just battling through the storm here, not the actual storm but just some adversity early,” [Cody] Botts said at halftime. “We can’t get behind the chains early, we had some penalties, some high snaps, all that stuff that hasn’t allowed us to move the ball down field.”

“We’ve got to take better care of the football, we can’t turn it over, we have to make them drive the field,” is what [Joe] Hanna said at halftime. “They had a couple big plays, we’ve got to kind of limit that and deal with the conditions on the field.”

Montoursville seemingly had found some rhythm on their opening drive of the second half. After starting all the way back at their own two yard line, the Warriors made it back to their own 30 yard line on a drive that so far had featured nothing but run plays. Their first pass of the drive did not go how the Warriors wanted it to, as Mifflinburg’s Jackson Marr read Eck’s pass perfectly by picking it off and returning it 30 yards all the way back to the end zone. “It was just so surreal, I just read it like a book and it was right there for me,” [Jackson] Marr said when asked about the pick six.

That pick six seemingly took the wind out of Montoursville’s sails, as it put the Wildcats ahead 28-6 halfway through the third quarter. “That play was huge, like I said our defense played lights out all year, they created turnovers. I know at one point we led District 4 in interceptions, so they just did a phenomenal job,” [Cody] Botts said when asked about that interecption.

The Wildcats found one more score in the fourth quarter on another quarterback sneak from Chad Martin, putting Mifflinburg ahead 35-6 with eight minutes to go in regulation and essentially sealing the victory for the Wildcats. Chad Martin accounted for four total touchdowns in the game, one through the air and three on the ground, which was a new career high in rushing touchdowns for Martin, his previous high being two in a game. “We just dominated the line of scrimmage, our lineman have worked their butts off all year and just absolutely proved it here, I mean three rushing touchdowns in a district championship game is huge,” Chad Martin said when asked about the rushing attack.

Montoursville eventually made it back to the end zone thanks to a five yard connection between Eli Eck and Kingston Fisher, which ended up being the last score of this contest, sealing a 35-12 victory for Mifflinburg and clinching their first outright district title in their school’s history.

“It’s obviously a surreal moment, it’s something that we talked about as a group. It was one of our main goals this year for a reason, we believed in this group and they believed in each other, they believe in us as coaches, they’re just a group that loves each other. All of this is because of their hard work and what they put in this program, so it’s a special moment, it’s obviously one of the best moments of my life,” Coach [Cody] Botts said after the game.

“We came into the offseason with a chip on our shoulder, we worked really hard this summer, we had a way higher attendance rate at summer lifts this year compared to last year. We just grinded every day to get here,” [Chad] Martin said after the game. “This group has been together since we were in flag football and we just trust in each other and we just worked hard every week to get here.”

Mifflinburg (10-2) with the win advances into the state bracket, where their first opponent will be against the District 2 champion Scranton Prep (7-5). The game will be played next Friday at 7:00 PM at a neutral site which is still undetermined at this time.

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