Tigers Feast on Panthers

Written by: Dave Fegley on Saturday, October 1st, 2016. Follow Dave Fegley on Twitter.

Garcia finishes with 200 yards rushing

There were a lot of footballs being kicked in the first half of Friday night’s rainy game at Alumni Stadium in Milton. Southern Columbia’s kicker Elijah Hoffman kicked six successful extra points and then kicked off after each of the scores which included four touchdowns from halfback Gaige Garcia. On the other side, Milton’s punter had to punt five times on the Black Panthers eight first half possessions. The other three times they had the ball their drives ended in lost fumbles. Southern’s punter didn’t get to put his foot on the pigskin. For the third consecutive week, Milton hasn’t forced the opposition into punting a single time. With all of that being said, it’s no surprise that the Tigers were able to devour the Black Panthers 56-0 to move to 6-0 on the season.

The goal for the Tigers coming in was to take care of business early in order to get the starters out of the game as soon as possible.  They were able to do just that. “We wanted to stay healthy knowing that the Montoursville game next week is a big one. Unfortunately, we lost Hunter Thomas a couple of weeks ago and hope to have him back soon,” said Garcia who finished with 200 yards on just eight carries for an average of 25 yards per touch. In the first quarter, the freshman scored on rushes of 10 and 39 yards to give the Tigers an early 14-0 advantage. Senior Nic Fetterman tacked on the third touchdown of the opening quarter on an 18-yard run up the middle untouched to make the score 21-0.

Southern Columbia would equal their first quarter scoring output in the second quarter. Garcia started it with a one yard carry. Halfback Thomas Manley, who is Thomas’ replacement in the backfield, scored next on a 7-yard carry behind the solid blocking of the offensive line. “We started off really well with our running game. Our goal was to execute the game plan and to get ready for next week,” said offensive lineman John Stabinski. With 5:22 left in the first half, Garcia finished off his impressive performance with an 83-yard run to make the score 42-0 at the half on his final carry. It was his fourth touchdown against a Black Panthers depleted defense. “The line gave us some really nice holes to run through. Hopefully our running game is able to stay as good as it has been for the rest of the season,” Garcia said.

The Tigers added a seventh rushing touchdown in the third quarter and an eighth in the fourth. Ty Roadarmel scored both of them on carries of two and nine yards respectively. “We were hopeful that the starters would take care of business to get the backups and younger kids some reps. The starters got the job done in the first half allowing us to rest them for the rest of the game,” said Southern coach Jim Roth. The only area that the Tigers struggled with at times was trying to work in the passing game. Throwing the ball is a phase that the coaching staff wants to keep in place to give the offense balance from here on out. “With the weather conditions and not knowing how long the starters would play, we wanted to throw the football early. That’s the one area that we could have executed better in,” Roth said. Quarterback Stone Hollenbach threw his first interception of the season in the first half while trying to find an open receiver in the end zone.

Next Friday, the Black Panthers travel to The Silver Bowl to take on the Mount Carmel Area Red Tornadoes. MCA is coming off of a much needed win at Danville. The game of the week in the conference, and arguably across the state, will be the undefeated Tigers traveling to take on undefeated Montoursville. Last season, the Tigers defeated the Warriors in a playoff thriller by a score of 56-50 in the district championship.

SCA: 21-21-7-7 = 56
MIL: 0-0-0-0 = 0

SOUTHERN COLUMBIA (6-0)

RUSHING:

Gaige Garcia 8-200, 4 TDs; Thomas Manley 4-65, TD; Nic Fetterman 3-35, TD; Ty Roadarmel 8-52, 2 TDs; Preston Zachman 1-25; Nate Crowl 5-24; Stone Hollenbach 2-13; Justin Derk 1-6; Cole Potter 3-24

PASSING:

Stone Hollenbach 5-12-1, 101 yds

RECEIVING:

Cam Young 1-54; Julian Fleming 2-17; Nic Fetterman 1-16; Anthony Scicchitano 1-14

1st DOWNS: 19

PENALTIES: 8-55

MILTON (0-6)

RUSHING:

Mason Whitmyer 12-35; Eric Wilt 11-19; Quaylin Rice 3-12; Michael Young 2-6; Jalil Garrison 4-4; Phil Davis 2-(-22)
PASSING:

Phil Davis 5-15-0, 98 yds

RECEIVING:

Jalil Garrison 4-56; Alex Garcia 1-42

1st DOWNS: 8

PENALTIES: 6-42

Milton stats provided by the Press Enterprise

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One Response to “Tigers Feast on Panthers”

1. Tyler Hazlett says:
   October 1st, 2016 at 4:43 pm

   Dave,

   ANY CHANCE OF SEEING THIS GAME against Montoursville on PCN? I am back home in the Altoona Area, and they want to see our Freshmen Phenoms. Big Football Area back here, who like to know what is going on across the state.