Delaney’s Three Touchdowns Lift Mount Carmel Past Southern Columbia in 27-26 Thriller

MOUNT CARMEL-For 48 thrilling minutes, Southern Columbia and Mount Carmel took fans from both teams on a roller coaster ride that could rival anything the Bloomsburg Fair has to offer. In a game that fittingly deserved a drama-filled ending, it delivered. Jaylen Delaney came through with multiple heroic plays on a exhilarating final drive that resulted in Delaney scoring the game-winning touchdown with 1:13 left, and the Red Tornadoes made one last defensive stop, preserving a memorable 27-26 win at the Silver Bowl.

“It was an incredible game to be a part of,” Mount Carmel coach John Darrah said. “Again, it’s kind of like a blur, everything that happened, but we’re the one standing at the end, so it feels good.”

Mount Carmel (6-0) looked like it was doomed with just over two minutes remaining. Delaney slipped on a third down play for a 7-yard loss, setting up a 4th and 12 at the Mount Carmel 29. With no choice but to go for it due to only having one timeout left, Delaney, who completed just one pass for two yards before the final drive, ran around for what seemed like an hour. Through all the chaos, he amazingly found Mikey Higgins for a 21-yard gain to keep the Red Tornadoes’ chances alive.

“We were supposed to go on a double snap count, and our center snapped it on the first go,” Delaney said. “So it was kind of a risky play from the beginning, but I knew I had to make a play. I trusted my guys in front of me on the O-line, the guys running the routes, and they made a play for me when I needed it the most.”

Two plays later, Delaney’s feats continued. Southern looked to blow a coverage in the secondary, enabling Aidan Brokenshire to get wide open. The junior tight end found himself in a race to the end zone, where got knocked out of bounds at the Southern 2-yard line. On the next snap, Delaney crossed the goal line for the eventual winning points.

“I told our guys all week, don’t blink, and I thought we did exactly that,” Darrah said. “You know, the start of the game was rough I thought. And on that fourth down, it seemed like all hope was lost, and somehow we pulled it out there. Great play by those guys, and we got it done.”

Southern (5-1) found itself trailing 14-7 at halftime, but as they have so many times in the past, the Tigers got it rolling as the game progressed, thanks in large part to Grady Garcia. Behind an offensive line that took control, Southern put together three well-executed, time-consuming drives that were at least ten plays in length. Garcia scored from four yards out to tie the game at the 6:20 mark of the third quarter, only to have Delaney answer it with a 92-yard house call on the ensuing kickoff. Ayden Hockenbroch would administer a counterpunch of his own when he converted a 4th-and-inches into a touchdown on a 2-yard quarterback sneak. However, the a high snap on the extra point caused it to fail, keeping the Mount Carmel lead at 21-20 late in the third quarter. Garcia capped off a 13-play drive with a 20-yard sprint to pay dirt, giving Southern a 26-21 lead with 4:36 left in the game. Garcia finished with 145 yards on 24 carries and added a 65-yard TD reception that opened the scoring.

“Overall, I told our team that the positive from this is we showed a lot of character, because we dominated the second half,” Southern coach Jim Roth said. “We controlled the line of scrimmage, dominated the second half. It looked like we had them stopped and the game won, and they convert on a fourth-down play. Then we have a breakdown in coverage for them to put it in the end zone, tough way to lose.”

Delaney tallied 94 yards on 12 carries to go with two rushing touchdowns. His first score came on a 4th-and-1 play, where he broke through the middle and was off to the races on a 64-yard run, tying the game at 7-7. He also intercepted a pass in the second quarter in Mount Carmel territory to stop a Southern drive. The turnover was cashed in for points thanks to Mikey Higgins plowing his way from 1-yard out to finish a 13-play, 60-yard drive. Delaney also added a 55-yard kickoff return in the second half. At one point, Southern ran 22 consecutive plays in the third quarter. Mount Carmel made the most of its 11 second-half plays, as Delaney completed both pass attempts on the final drive for 67 yards.

“If you don’t know about Jaylen Delaney, you know about him now,” Darrah said. “Just a phenomenal guy. Made plays in every phase of the game tonight, and just really proud of him. I’m still glad he’s on our team.”

With all three timeouts left and taking over at its own 18, Southern had hopes of putting together a game-winning drive of its own. Hockenbroch completed three consecutive passes, two to Jace Malakoski, and one to Blaise Kissinger, that totaled 37 yards. But a false start put Southern behind the chains with under a minute left. Hockenbroch ran for nine yards to Mount Carmel 41, then on 4th-and-6, his pass fell incomplete, setting off a celebration on the home sidelines.

“Going into this game, they gave us a pretty good beating last year, and in past years in the playoffs,” Delaney said. “This game is very special to me and very special for our team. I’m excited to win and go celebrate, but we gotta go get prepared for Montoursville tomorrow.”