Southern Columbia looks like the top of Class A
Written by: Dave Fegley on Saturday, September 21st, 2013. Follow Dave Fegley on Twitter.
Tigers will most likely claim top spot after victory
CATAWISSA— The Southern Columbia Tigers (4-0) came into this week ranked #2 in the state for Class A. When the new rankings come out, the Tigers will most likely move up to the top spot after the Clairton Bears, who had the nation’s longest winning streak at 66 games, lost 42-24. The Tigers definitely proved tonight that they are for real after defeating South Williamsport (3-1) in dominant fashion at Tiger Stadium. The Mounties were actually ranked #9 in the state at Class A, but the Tigers easily won in mercy rule fashion by a score of 48-14. The Tigers had plenty of success both on the ground and through the air. “The thing we have going for us right now is we have four running backs we are using and mixing in Nick [Becker] throwing the ball, you can tell when they get the ball they are hungry,” said Tigers coach Jim Roth.
The Tigers actually got stuffed on 4th down to start the game, but that was about the only highlight for the Mounties defense all night. The Tigers defense answered right back when senior Garett Sosnoski forced a fumble and recovered it himself with 5:29 remaining in the first quarter. The Tigers got possession at their own 37 yard line, and on the first play Adam Feudale took it 22 yards into South Williamsport territory. After three more runs, Nick Becker found a wide-open Luke Rarig in the end zone for a 23 yard score to put the home team up 7-0 with 3:58 remaining in the first.
The rest of the first half finished on a pattern. The Mounties were forced to punt on their final four possessions of the half, and the Tigers scored a touchdown on each of their final four possessions of the first half. “I was pleased with the defense again. It was the second week in a row where I thought our defense looked real strong against the run and we didn’t really give them anything through the air either,” said Roth.
The Tigers second score was set up when Becker connected with Zach Tillett for 41 yards to put the ball inside the five. From there, Nate Hunter took it in to make the score 14-0. Becker found Blake Marks out of the backfield for a 9 yard touchdown pass for the Tigers third score. Then Becker hooked up with Rarig for another touchdown pass, this one from 10 yards out, and with 9:44 left in the half the Tigers were in command 27-0. “Nick has been placing the ball perfectly for me and all I have to do is stick my hands out to get it,” said Rarig.
Rarig then returned a punt for a touchdown on the Tigers next possession, but it got called back because of a holding penalty. “Luke is doing a tremendous amount of work when you think about it. He plays both ways and he is our kicker and returner on top of it. If he gets hurt it would basically be like losing three guys,” said Roth about his junior playmaker. The Tigers were marched back to midfield, but it only took one play to score the final touchdown of the half because Feudale busted through the defense and took it in from 51 yards to make the score 34-0 at the half.
Matt Lupold and Blake Marks each had a rushing touchdown for the winners in the second half which gave each of the Tigers four starting running backs a rushing score on the night. Feudale lead the charge with 112 yards rushing on only seven carries. The Mounties scored both of their touchdowns in the second half against the Tigers backups. Dominick Bragalone scored both times. His first one was a 31 yarder and the other was from 80 yards out. He was the leading rusher on the night with189 yards on 24 carries.
Now, the Tigers dangerous offense will go on the road to take on Muncy and SCA will probably be ranked #1 in the state as they try to remain undefeated for the year. South Williamsport will host Warrior Run to try and get back on the winning track next week.
SCA: 7-27-7-7 = 48
SW: 0-0-7-7 = 14
SOUTHERN COLUMBIA (4-0)
RUSHING:
Adam Feudale 7-112, TD; Nate Hunter 6-59, TD; Blake Marks 7-62, TD; Matt Lupold 5-17, TD; Brad Noll 2-17; Matt Jeremiah 6-21; Steve Toczylousky 1-12; Nick Becker 1-12; Billy Marzeski 2-11; Jacob Potter 3-6; Jared Torres 1-4
PASSING:
Nick Becker 6-8-0, 109 yds, 3 TDs
RECEIVING:
Luke Rarig 4-59, 2 TDs, Zach Tillett 1-41; Blake Marks 1-9, TD
1st DOWNS: 20
PENALTIES: 8-71
SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT (3-1)
RUSHING:
Dominick Bragalone 24-189, 2 TDs; Kyle Betz 2-4; John Peters 3-4; Matt Boone 2-(-16)
PASSING:
Matt Boone 5-9-0 48 yds
RECEIVING:
Riley Hengler, 4-58; Jon Pulizzi, 1-(-10)
1st DOWNS: 7
PENALTIES: 7-46
Final South Williamsport stats courtesy of Damien Scoblink (Press Enterprise)
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October 1st, 2013 at 7:39 am
I think all the boys want to play teams like MCA, Danville etc, the competition is what they want, blowouts against undermanned or down year teams is not a true test of just how good you are. But we don’t make the schedule. it is made for us. Heck if we had to play every team that thinks they are better than us, the season would be 3 games per week for 6 months.
September 25th, 2013 at 9:13 am
you’re being funny and you know it so its not worth my time. So if you want to make a big deal about the way something is said. Maybe you haven’t heard people talk before and state it that way. I’ve heard many coaches in interviews say we like to play the Danvilles and the Mt. Carmels and so on. It’s just a way of speech saying they want to play those calibre type teams. But what you’re doing is taking this discussion off topic over something so little. This will be the last post on this conversation.
September 24th, 2013 at 10:16 pm
So they don’t play multiple teams from different counties? Why did you pluralize all of their names?
September 24th, 2013 at 8:44 pm
jiveturkey, your name says it all, you just wasted your breath on a nonsense post. if you actually have a comment to add to the discussion feel free to state it, otherwise don’t waste our time.
September 24th, 2013 at 7:34 pm
Brian, how many teams do they play from Danville, Selinsgrove, Mount Carmel, Loyalsock, and Montoursville each year? I noticed you made each of them plural, so it must be a whole lot. I was curious how many games Southern plays each year? Gotta be some kind of rule about not playing 30-40 games per year.
September 22nd, 2013 at 9:00 pm
Nick…glad to see you’re so smart. Also great English grammar in that post. In case you missed it, TYLER BOYD IS GONE! If he didn’t go to Clairton, they wouldn’t have a single title. The rest of the team just relied on how good he was. In the 2011 state title game, the rest of the team would have lost to SCA by 3 TDs if Boyd wasn’t on the team.
September 22nd, 2013 at 5:58 pm
The season is young and there is alote of teams that r out there so don’t get too cocky and even with that lost Clairton still will be state champs
September 22nd, 2013 at 12:37 pm
I agree with you Paul…regardless of who is better, they all can be proud to be able to say they wore a Tiger uniform!
September 22nd, 2013 at 9:28 am
Let’s stop comparing this years team to past. Each years team need to be proud if their accomplishments and how well they represented the Tiger reputation. If this year we make it all the way to be the last ones standing, the SCA name will be held just as high as in the past!
September 21st, 2013 at 7:46 pm
Listen…I want to be as non-homer as I can. I’m a southern fan and go every game…I think SCA will go to the title and win just because the rest of the state is weak compared to years past. The Tigers have a solid team, but Becker is no Brad Fegley. Feudale is no Tyler Levan. Hunter is no Matt Moore. And Rarig is no Keith Day. But the state isn’t as good as it was in 2011 and that is why I think the Tigers can be the top dogs this year because the class A level is weaker
September 21st, 2013 at 7:31 pm
Last year things looked great until the selinsgrove game then something happened to the energy level of the team. I said after the MCA game SCA would make it to hershey, but then after week 8 i said SCA wouldn’t get by Dunmore. This year i won’t make a prediction but i think this SCA team has a better chance than last years team and the 2010 team.
September 21st, 2013 at 7:28 pm
Its not SCAs fault D4, if you know anything of D4 football you know that SCA wants the top competition in D4 to prepare them for states. Thats why they play the danvilles, selinsgroves, mcas, loyalsocks, montoursvilles, year after year. Unfortunatley Hughesville made the dumb decision to go back to HAC II, which forced SCA, being the smallest school in HAC II, back to HAC III, which requires them to play those league games against Muncy, South, Montgomery, etc. They still kept MCA and Selinsgrove on their schedule. As for beating up on extremely inferior opponents MCA isn’t inferior and South was supposed to be the #9 team in the state. SCA will roll through the regular season and D4 to matchup with D2. I’m not saying it will be easy but to me this team is better than the team that lost to clairton because they have more speed and depth.
September 21st, 2013 at 5:38 pm
It’s tiresome hearing all about SCA every week scoring 40+ against extremely inferior opponents. They may be the team from the east this year. I agree with you Brian. In fact that’s exactly my point.
September 21st, 2013 at 5:35 pm
The Southern team that made the state championship 2 years ago would beat this years southern team by multiple touchdowns, I will give you that. So I’m certainly not saying that this is the one of the best southern teams of all time by any means. However, if southern stops Buckley then Dubmore will lose to them by 3 scores
September 21st, 2013 at 3:29 pm
Said the same thing last year… And in 2010… What’s different this year?
September 21st, 2013 at 3:12 pm
D4? You are wrong if you don’t think southern is mailing it to Hershey. No one is beating them in the east…period!
September 21st, 2013 at 1:51 pm
how about you wait until the game is played first D4.
September 21st, 2013 at 11:25 am
Top of class A in D4… Will lose to D2 champ again.. Class A is not the same with teams like Dunmore dropping from AA
September 21st, 2013 at 12:24 am
I agree with Dave Fegley. I’m a South Williamsport fan and found out tonight that Southern is clearly the best team in District IV at any of the three levels. They could win the A, AA, or AAA district titles with relative ease. Now with Clairton getting upset, the Tigers have to be ranked #1 no doubt. The only potential blemish I could see would be if the Tigers suffered an injury to Feudale, Hunter, or Rarig which probably won’t happen with how well the o-line blocks!