Southern Dominates in 39-14 Win Over Danville

Tagged under: District 4, Gameday Hub, News

Dave Fegley | October 10, 2026

Tigers respond following loss

A week after suffering a heartbreaking one-point loss to Mount Carmel, Southern Columbia responded with a dominant performance Friday night, rolling past Danville 39-14.

The defending state champions controlled the game from the start, building a 32-0 halftime lead while shutting down the Ironmen offensively. Southern finished with a 493-124 advantage in total yards, holding Danville without a first down and to negative-48 yards of offense before pulling its starting defense.

“I was very pleased with the response. I thought our starting defense played tremendous when they were out there and our offense executed,” Southern coach Jim Roth said. “As a coaching staff, we were hoping that the players would respond in the correct fashion after last week. The players showed a great response.”

Grady Garcia led the offensive attack, rushing for 161 yards and three touchdowns on 10 carries. His final score, a 70-yard run early in the third quarter, pushed the junior past 1,000 rushing yards for the second consecutive season.

“I don’t need any credit. All the credit goes to my linemen. Jaden Carter came in on offense and was a huge reason I scored on that long run,” said Garcia.

The run also came one play after Joey Williams reached a career milestone of his own. Williams gained seven yards to surpass 2,000 career rushing yards, becoming the 30th running back in Southern history to reach that mark a few weeks after Garcia made the list.

“That’s pretty awesome to be able to put my name in the history books with Grady and a lot of other great players from the past. That doesn’t really matter though. What matters is we won this game tonight,” Williams said.

Garcia opened the scoring with touchdown runs of 26 and 27 yards in the first quarter, with Gavin Brown adding a 10-yard score between them. Southern extended its advantage in the second quarter when Ayden Hockenbroch connected with Blaise Kissinger on a 24-yard touchdown pass before Williams scored on a 26-yard run.

Hockenbroch completed eight of 11 passes for 136 yards and a touchdown. Kissinger caught four passes for 77 yards, and added an interception, while Jace Malakoski added three receptions for 55 yards.

“If we are just running the ball, teams can just stack the box. When defenses have to worry about the pass, it just opens space all over the field for our offense to be more effective,” Kissinger said.

The first half also included a special occasion for Southern, which honored the 20th anniversary of its 2006 state championship team during halftime.

“It’s nice to have previous players come back and get recognized as a part of the success we have had in our program,” Roth said.

Danville finally found the end zone after Garcia’s third touchdown, as Jagger Simpson broke loose for a 64-yard scoring run late in the third quarter. Simpson added a five-yard touchdown in the fourth and finished with 85 rushing yards.

The Ironmen also struggled through the air, completing just two passes for minus-five yards while throwing two interceptions. Danville coach Shawn Sheptock credited Southern’s response following its loss the previous week.

“Our kids don’t quit, but obviously when you are playing against a Southern team coming off a loss, it is very difficult to compete,” Sheptock said. “They are a tremendous program regardless of when you play them, but you could tell they were upset after losing a heart-breaker last week.”

Despite the convincing victory, Southern (6-1) still has work to do before the postseason. The Tigers had three extra-point attempts blocked, an issue Roth said the coaching staff may need to address.

“We have to make a decision real soon with the playoffs approaching. We are at a point where we need to figure out if just going for two is the better option at this point,” Roth said.

Southern welcomes Milton next week before closing the regular season with two road games. Defensive standout Jaden Carter, who recorded a sack against Danville, said the Tigers have moved forward from the Mount Carmel loss and remain focused on their championship goal.

“I am not going to lie to you, we blew the game last week at Mount Carmel. There are no excuses. We don’t feel sorry for ourselves. The result was the result,” Carter said. “We can’t go 16-0 this year, but we can still go 15-1 and we can’t take Milton lightly despite them not being a very good team.”

The winning streak may be over, but Southern’s championship ambitions remain intact.