SCA is at the top of District IV yet again
Written by: Dave Fegley on Sunday, November 17th, 2013. Follow Dave Fegley on Twitter.
By: Dave Fegley (Twitter: @DFegs9)
CATAWISSA— Dominick Bragalone came into Saturday’s District IV title game needing just 60 yards for 3,000 on the year. He picked up those yards and plenty more, but him and the other members of the South Williamsport Mounties (10-2) football team are going to have to ‘brag alone’. The rest of the district should be bragging about the Southern Columbia Tigers (12-0) as they went on to win their 22nd District IV A championship in the last 23 years which is a record that will almost certainly stand forever. “It’s a great accomplishment to be the district champion, but we have a bigger goal in mind,” said Tiger fullback Adam Feudale who was probably even a little more impressive than Bragalone on the night. The two backs, who each will be in the all-state hunt, combined to rush for over 550 yards. Bragalone finished the game with 330 yards on 30 carries which comes out to 11 yards per touch. Feudale picked up 223 yards on just 11 carries and that is good for over 20 yards per carry and nearly doubling Bragalone’s output. “The line picked it up a lot from last game. I said before the game that we needed to step it up as an offensive unit and they did tonight,” Feudale said. “I thought all five of them (Donlan, Tripp, Yoder, Reynolds, & Stanishefski) did a good job of blocking and giving us the momentum we needed.”
South Williamsport received the opening kickoff and had a solid drive going thanks to a 23 yard run on Bragalone’s first carry of the game. They had the ball inside the red zone, but Bragalone fumbled on his fifth carry of the drive and Southern’s Cody Pavlick recovered the football at the 16 yard line. “I think that was a big play for the team when we got the fumble recovery. It seemed to get the momentum going for us and we played intense football for the rest of the game,” said Pavlick. On the Tigers first play, Feudale took a handoff off the end and raced 61 yards down the sideline. After a couple of more plays, he finished off the drive from six yards out to put his team up 7-0 with 5:59 remaining in the first quarter.
Southern forced a punt on South Williamsport’s next possession giving the Tigers the ball at their own 18 yard line. On the second play of the drive, Feudale had another long run of 40 yards and that put the ball at the 35 of the Mounties. The next play, Nick Becker connected with his favorite receiver, Luke Rarig, who broke a tackle and took it in to the end zone to give SCA a two touchdown cushion after one quarter. “I thought a positive sign was the way Becker carried himself tonight. After not having a real good game last week, he seemed to have more confidence and that was a good thing to see,” Southern head coach Jim Roth said.
In the second quarter, Matt Lupold added another touchdown to the scoreboard for the Tigers on a 31 yard run off tackle. Nate Hunter, who left the game due to an apparent knee injury, scored with 6:22 remaining in the half to put Southern up 28-0. “The one question mark right now for us will be the status of Nate Hunter who left the game with a leg injury,” said Roth.
Bragalone got the Mounties on the board with a 14 yard run on the next series, but Southern answered right back. Feudale returned the kickoff to the Mounties 46 yard line and then had the big play of the drive catching a 23 yard screen pass. Blake Marks finished off the drive with a 10 yard run to give the Tigers a 35-7 lead heading into the locker room at half.
On the first drive of the second half, Becker found Rarig again for a 27 yard touchdown catch. That score gave the Tigers over 600 point for the year, which made them just the 6th team in school history to accomplish that remarkable feat. Unfortunately for the Tigers, Rarig missed the extra point which the Tigers needed to put the game into the mercy rule. Two drives later, Feudale solved that problem and scored from 43 yards out to put the game into the mercy rule at 47-7. That also gave the starters an opportunity to rest after compiling 503 yards on 39 offensive plays as a starting unit. The only negative from the Tigers starting offense was holding on to the football at times. Becker fumbled the ball twice and both were recovered by the Mounties. Feudale also fumbled once, but one of his own teammates recovered that fumble. “That’s something we have to stress and be more aware of. It’s kind of uncharacteristic for us because we didn’t seem to have a problem with it all year, but the last couple of weeks we have and we need to clean that up heading into next week,” Roth stated. Bragalone scored the final two touchdowns of the game on SCA’s backup units. Both of them were long runs of 87 and 93 yards making the final score 47-21 in favor of the Tigers.
South Williamsport ends their season at 10-2 with both losses coming to the top ranked Tigers. Southern will head into next week’s state playoffs against an Old Forge team that upset Dunmore. Last year the Tigers lost to Dunmore in the first round of the state playoffs. This year, Southern will have the home field advantage with the game probably either going to be at Shamokin or Central Columbia next Friday night.
SCA: 14-21-12-0 = 47
SW: 0-7-7-7 = 21
SOUTHERN COLUMBIA (12-0)
RUSHING:
Adam Feudale 11-223, 2 TDs; Nate Hunter 4-26, TD; Blake Marks 6-27, TD; Matt Lupold 7-79, TD; Brad Noll 3-16; Matt Jeremiah 4-14; Steve Toczylousky 1-; Nick Becker 2-11; Billy Marzeski 3-10
PASSING:
Nick Becker 6-9-0, 118 yds, 2 TDs
RECEIVING:
Luke Rarig 5-95, 2 TDs, Adam Feudale 1-23
1st DOWNS: 21
PENALTIES: 4-36
SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT (10-2)
RUSHING:
Dominick Bragalone 30-330, 3 TDs; John Peters 5-16; Matt Boone 3-2
PASSING:
Matt Boone 2-9-0 22 yds
RECEIVING:
Riley Hengler, 1-17; Riley Thomas 1-5
1st DOWNS: 11
PENALTIES: 8-65
Final South Williamsport stats courtesy of Damien Scoblink (Press Enterprise)
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November 20th, 2013 at 4:36 pm
The piaa also forces some schools to report at a higher classification if they are combined. Thus teams like North Penn-Blossburg report as AA. They combine kids from Mansfield, Libery & North Penn high schools, even though they are lucky if they have 90 boys grades 9-12 in all 3 schools combined. Look at it this way, last time Aliquippa won AA title they had a senior class of 39 boys. Southern could report as AA, win district title, then report as AAA, win that title & probably be only school to win district titles in 3 classifications.
November 20th, 2013 at 4:17 pm
Old Forge who? sorry just a little humor from back when they chanted overrated and had Henry Who signs during their 16-0 state championship year his senior year. I think this might be the toughest state playoff game until hershey. I think the winner of this game goes to hershey. Steel High down the road could be a good one for either team, but over the past few years I’ve felt the top 2 teams in the east have been SCA and the D2 team. It’s a shame they have to play in the first round of states. SCA by 13 but its close until 4th quarter.
November 20th, 2013 at 11:43 am
Anyone have thoughts on the upcoming game? Old Forge?
November 20th, 2013 at 8:29 am
Correct Lance, always amazes me to hear people say” man play up if you so good” PIAA makes the rules and your conference makes the schedule with who you play, not the individual school. Yes your class goes by male enrollment numbers. That is why Col-Mont Vo Tech is AAA.
November 19th, 2013 at 7:40 pm
Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn’t the piaa set what class you are in by student enrollment? And why would any school play in a higher class if they don’t have the students to pull from.
November 19th, 2013 at 5:51 pm
Apparently there are two Glenn’s commenting here. I had commented on the article from the Williamsport paper. In no way do I wish to diminish the accomplishments of Mr. Bragalone. I had stated that he is a SUPERB back. I do however, wish to point out the outstanding night that Feudale had since he generally does not get the gaudy numbers & press that goes with it.
As far a moving up and playing with the ‘big boys’ is concerned, I don’t see Berwick playing in the AAAA classification. Likewise, teams like Bloomsburg bounce back & forth between A & AA as their numbers permit. I didn’t hear the same calls for Clairton to move up. Dunmore used to be AA and are now A. Why should the expectations for SCA be different?
November 19th, 2013 at 10:30 am
…as stated below…move up and play with the big boyz and avoid all this yards padded vs subs gobb-le-gook…what else is there to accomplish in “A”…man up!!! George Curry is a mastermind motivational legend and will always rise to the top in any conversation for years and decades to come…
November 19th, 2013 at 9:30 am
Brian, is he the only kid in the history of the PIAA to get 30 carries per game? 3 kids have run for more yards in a season in the history of the PIAA, 3! Why can’t you guys be happy that you won, and let the kid enjoy what he accomplished. Is it because you think you should have won 47-0 and he ruined it? I know nothing about either one of these teams, but I’m gonna follow these 2 backs to see who goes where. When the kid from the other team goes to a better college program, should I talk smack? NO, because they’re kids. Be happy with what you have, not bitter about what you don’t.
November 18th, 2013 at 8:48 pm
At the game Saturday, starters were put back in during 3rd & 4th quarters to stop Bragalone from scoring, forces the 3 and out and then subbed again only to have South run up the stats with those 2 long runs against the reserves. At the game and saw it along with many others.
November 18th, 2013 at 8:27 pm
Glenn, Bragalones 87yd TD run and 93yd TD run was both against the backups. Roth actually put his starters back in between those 2 runs. Bragalone didn’t do anything that series and they had to punt, after SCAs backups punted Roth put his subs back in again but Bragalone stayed in and got his 30th carry of a game.
November 18th, 2013 at 7:24 pm
Um, how many times has Fuedale been invited to Penn State because they are interested in recruiting him? As far as Bragalone gaining most of his yards against Southern’s back-ups, in one article Coach Roth stated Bragalone did it against his starters in the 4th quarter. That being said, what Coach Eiswerth did against Montgomery was rediculous and most of the SWA fans I talked to were disgusted by it.
November 18th, 2013 at 6:21 pm
hey Jive just so you know, Bragalone is a back that gets 20-30 plus carries every game and the coach keeps him in to pad his stats so he looks better than he actually is. don’t get me wrong, this guy is a big guy and very good, but he shouldn’t be in when his team is up by 35 against the other teams backups.
November 18th, 2013 at 4:03 pm
I love reading the SCA comments every week. I don’t have a clue who this Bragalone cat is, but you guys sure are trying to keep him down. Over 3000 yds and you people act like he is a bum, why? Because he doesn’t play for your team? Our guy would have had 5000, really? Never been done in PIAA, NEVER! Closest was Barkett with over 4100. I’m sure he was overrated too, right? This isn’t the NFL, let the kids be kids….. Oh, and I have a correction. Tyler, it’s dummy not dumby.
November 18th, 2013 at 11:13 am
…exactly…a want to be…nuff said….
November 18th, 2013 at 10:48 am
Moving up to AA does not make any sense in Jim’s world.
November 18th, 2013 at 9:09 am
…time to move up in class and start playing with the big boys…it will pay off during recruiting season…a lot of talent getting over looked at the moment…think about it and look at the big picture…
November 17th, 2013 at 11:17 pm
I agree with this article completely…Feudale was the better back. Also, the comments everyone is making I agree with too. This is why SCA is always better because they care about winning. It seems other schools are more worried about stats. Who cares about stats, the only stat that really matters is wins & losses. SoCo is dominating that category and no one else is even close! Also I love the part in this article that I didn’t catch until reading it closer in the first paragraph is says ‘brag alone’ when talking about Bragalone….very well written and that was a creative comment!
November 17th, 2013 at 11:13 pm
Whoops! I made myself look like a dumby…you are right I meant yards but calculated it in feet terms! My fault, I will admit that…my point though is Feudale would have 5,000 yards. Ya and I read that sun-gazette article and that Masse guy that wrote it must not have been at the game because clearly the article made Bragalone out to being an all-star when in reality they gave him the ball every play…and I have to make a correction. Ceejay, it’s “rooting” not routing!
November 17th, 2013 at 6:29 pm
Lol…1,706 yds in a mile, I think you are thinking feet Tyler but we get your point. Nonetheless, let’s remember these are kids no matter who we are routing for…..TIGERS!
November 17th, 2013 at 6:04 pm
Great job Tigers, it takes a team to do what SCA has done for years. One player does not make a team, South will see that when their lone play make goes after next season. The yards stats are impressive for their back, but against weaker opponents in the mercy rule mean nothing to real stats against quality teams. His stats were bolstered against SCA in both games against our reserves. That’s coaching and that’s why they are roller coasters everywhere but Southern Columbia.
November 17th, 2013 at 4:56 pm
@Tyler…5000 yards=1 mile ??? Math dummies??
November 17th, 2013 at 4:08 pm
I agree with some of what you say Tyler. Bragalone’s numbers are so ridiculously inflated because of their coach. I mean when you’re mercy ruling Montgomery, who has 17 kids on the team, and you take out your starters, only to put Bragalone back in when Montgomery gets the score under 35 points so he can pad his stats, that’s where i draw the line. The first time SCA played South, Bragalone had about 80yds at half, but ended up well over that after SCA subbed. In the end, SCA dominated them and is moving on. South gets to go home and get ready for winter sports. Yes, D4 is down this year, but I wouldnt say Danville is overrated and Loyalsock was no slouch or was Montoursville. Danville and Montoursville had the injury bug hit them. I think D4 AAA is the weakest, D4 AA the most competitive, and SCA the most dominant. Time to gear up for the Old Forge “Henry Who”s.
November 17th, 2013 at 4:06 pm
If you read the Williamsport Sun Gazette, you would thought that Bragalone single handedly crushed the Tigers. The fact that the Tigers won the District 4 title was a mere footnote in the article. Bragalone is without a doubt, a superb running back, but I thought that Feudale’s performance last evening greatly outshined that of his counterpart.
November 17th, 2013 at 3:11 pm
I agree with Tyler 100%. After watching the game last night and reading all the local papers today, this is by far the best wright up.
November 17th, 2013 at 2:36 pm
This article is greatly written to show multiple things. The main thing it shows is that Bragalone got most of his yardage against the tigers backups. Also, Feudale is head and heals above Bragalone. Don’t get me wrong, 3K is a great year, but if Feudale was left in every game to play against jv teams and got the ball as much, he would have probably ran for a mile this year (over 5,000 yards for any math dummies). It also shows why South will never catch SCA in terms of competing because they only rely on one kid and just develop him. The Tigers work on their entire team throughout the course of the year and have about 15 different weapons that they could rely on. Until this changes, SCA will probably win another 15-20 titles in a row. Again I want to stress that 3,000 yards is outstanding, it’s not as impressive when you get the ball 30 times a game and do most of your damage against teams that have their 3rd string in games. Also, it is sad how bad D4 has become. To sum up this year in a few words, “Jersey Shore won the AAA title”…think about how embarrassing that is. Jersey Shore wouldn’t win a title in any other district in PA at any of the 4 classification levels. Next week, a AA winner will be crowned and it might be a northern tier team for gods sake in Troy or a very overrated Danville squad. Other than Southern, district 4 is an embarrassment this season