Tigers Headed Back To Hershey
Written by: Dave Fegley on Saturday, December 12th, 2015. Follow Dave Fegley on Twitter.
Southern Columbia downs West Catholic in Eastern Final
By: Dave Fegley (Twitter: @DFegs9)
The majority of the time in the game of football, the team that commits the least amount of turnovers and penalties usually wins. When the differential is as great as it was in Southern Columbia’s 34-19 victory over West Catholic in the PIAA Class AA Eastern Final, the winning coach had a lot to be pleased about. “We talked coming in about how important it was going to be to keep our head in the game and not worry about how the other team would act. The discipline of executing your plays goes right in hand with the discipline of your behavior, and I think we did a pretty good job with both,” said Jim Roth who will be coaching in his 14th state championship game next Saturday as the head coach of the Tigers.
West Catholic turned the ball over seven times (five interceptions and two fumbles) compared to only one interception thrown by Southern. The Burrs committed 11 penalties, including four personal fouls, compared to just one Tiger penalty. One of those Burrs penalties wiped away a 52 yard first half touchdown pass that could have put them in front heading to halftime. On half of the Burrs penalties, their secondary inexplicably turned to the Tigers sideline and tried pumping up an SCA crowd that probably outnumbered the West Catholic crowd by a ratio of 25 to 1, which got the Tiger faithful even more excited. There wasn’t an explanation given as to what they were trying to accomplish, but the Tigers thrived off of their crowd support which has supported them all season long. “Our fan support has been awesome. Everyone comes out to support us and it really gets us pumped up,” said Tiger leading rusher Hunter Thomas who finished with 113 yards on 14 carries.
The game started in West Catholic’s favor as their play-maker, senior Craig Jones, received the opening kickoff. The wide receiver took the kick 86 yards to the end zone to put the Burrs in front 7-0 just like that. “I think we used that as motivation because it had us mad early on. Special teams are a big part of games, and they were able to take advantage right away,” said Southern starting quarterback Nick Becker. The Tigers were then forced to punt on their opening possession, giving the Burrs offense a chance at taking an early two score lead. The Burrs drove down the field behind both the arm and legs of their senior quarterback, Josh Evans, setting the ball inside the Tigers 20. “They had some phenomenal receivers so our secondary had to focus on making some plays. Our defensive line was able to get pressure on their quarterback and rush some of his throws,” said Tiger cornerback Cam Young. One of those heavy pass rushes resulted in Young picking off a pass and giving his team the ball back at their own 12 yard line.
Southern was able to pick up 20 yards on a screen pass and two first down via the run which set the ball near midfield. Then the Burrs committed two costly penalties on back to back plays with the first one being a pass interference and the next a late hit. Becker took advantage three plays later by finding Blake Marks for a 21 yard score to tie the game up at 7-7. “West Catholic was switching up their fronts early on and it took us a little to get adjusted to it. I think we started to wear them down as the game went on just based off of the fact that they were huffing and puffing at the end of our longer drives,” said four year starting lineman Josh Yoder. West Catholic was also called for an encroachment penalty the play prior to the touchdown pass.
Evans, who finished with 277 yards passing, started to heat up again on the next drive finding his three favorite targets Jones, Amadou Barry, and Jameer Bryson for first down receptions. Barry then got behind the secondary and caught a 22 yard touchdown pass to put the Burrs in front 13-7 after a missed PAT. Southern would take the lead on the next possession with the big play coming on a 31 yard run by Thomas. “This is the best feeling ever, and I wouldn’t want to be playing for another team in the state. This whole community is like a big family. I’m emotional because this means so much to this team and I have never been a part of this before,” said Thomas who became the 22nd back in school history to go over 2,000 career rushing yards for a career earlier this postseason. Becker finished off the drive with a three yard keeper and after Tyler Keiser’s extra point, the Tigers would go in front 14-13.
On the first play of West Catholic’s next drive, Evans found Jones for a 52 yard touchdown, but the score was negated after an illegal shift penalty. The drive ended when Gabe Delbo recovered a fumble giving SCA the ball back at their 48 yard line. The Tigers used the tandem of fullback Jared Torres and Thomas on the next drive to put the ball inside the red zone. After a sack, the Tigers were forced with a 4th down from the 29 yard line. Becker was intercepted by Jones, but it ended up working in the Tigers favor. He caught the ball at the six instead of batting it down and giving the Burrs possession at the 29. The 23 yard difference proved to be pivitol as the Burrs took it down to the Tiger 18 yard line and threw an interception to Steve Toczylousky on the final play of the first half. “The game plan coming in was to not give up any big pass plays. We knew that we could shut down their run, but they had a lot of speed on the outside,” said Toczylousky who finished with two interceptions on the afternoon. The Tigers went in to the locker room with a 14-13 lead.
Both defenses traded stops to start the second half until Evans found Barry for a 33 yard strike to put the Burrs back in front 19-13 and that was the score heading into the final quarter, but the Tigers have a veteran coaching staff that had been in this position before. “These particular players haven’t ever been in this position obviously, but the staff has been here plenty of times before. Our coaching staff is the ‘over the hill bunch’. Mike Johnston is the only one not retired and he has to change after school. The rest of us can come to practice ready to go,” said Roth joking around about his staff after the win. “John Marks is younger too, but he just plays on his farm all day. (Andy) Mills just retired, (Don) Traugh and (Roger) Nunkester are retired, and I’m retired from teaching but still the AD. We’ve played in 14 of these Eastern Finals before this one, and the majority of our staff has been on board for all of them.” he said.
The Tigers rallied behind the advice and strategies from their coaches and outscored West Catholic 20-0 during the final quarter. Becker scored the first one on a five yard run and then Marks, who was battling through a dead leg, followed on the next drive from 12 yards out putting the Tigers up 27-19. “I have a kidney pad and it kind of dug into me, and I couldn’t really run full force after an earlier run. Then to add insult to injury I got kneed in the calf later,” said Marks. The senior captain finished with 92 yards on the ground putting him over 1,000 on the year. “I’d have negative a million yards if we still were able to win. Negative a million would probably force us to lose, but the point is we just care about winning the games at this point. Nothing else matters,” he said.
The biggest play of the game may have come on the ensuing kickoff. Keiser’s kickoff was a line drive that smacked off of one of the West Catholic up men and ricocheted back to Southern’s kickoff team where Nic Fetterman was able to fall on it. “I wasn’t expecting it. The kick was supposed to be deep, but instead it hit the guy in front of the line. As soon as I saw it hit him and come my way I just jumped on it,” Fetterman said. Becker scored six plays later on an 18 yard keeper, extending the Tiger lead to 34-19 and putting all the momentum on their side. “It’s an incredible feeling and I’m really at a loss for words right now. With all of the support we get from our families, friends, school, and the community as a whole, there is nothing like having the opportunity to play in front of so many supporters like we have at Southern,” said Becker.
Marks put the icing on the cake or in this case, the Hershey kisses in the air by intercepting two passes over the final four minutes to end any potential comeback bid by West Catholic. “I think I was due to have a pretty good game, and I’m just happy I was able to put the best I had to give on the line to help this team win,” Marks said. The Tigers kept the ball on the ground to run the clock down to end the game. After the final horn sounded, the Tigers could officially mark a date on the calendar next Saturday to make a trip down the Hershey Highway to Chocolate Town, USA for the first time since 2011. The Tigers will take on the Aliquippa Quips who have an identical 15-0 record. The Quips will enter as the #1 ranked team in the state, but the Tigers aren’t worried about rankings. “We have the philosophy of letting the doubters be doubters. We have put in the time and effort to get to this point, so we don’t care what others think. We just want to reach our ultimate goal and that is winning a state championship,” SCA captain Gabe Delbo stated.
The Tigers will try to achieve that goal with kickoff against the Quips set for 12:00 next Saturday afternoon. This will be familiar territory for both of these historic programs. Aliquippa will be making their sixth trip to the state final with wins coming in 1991 and 2003. The Tigers will make their record 14th appearance, and try and extend their current state record of overall state championships victories from six to seven with gold trophies coming in 1994 and 2002-2006. “It’s historic since it will be our first state championship game at the Class AA level after we had so much success dominating in Class A from 1994 to 2011. It’s also the last year that the PIAA will have four classifications, so that’s an added incentive to want to come out on top next week,” said Toczylousky. Southern Columbia & Aliquippa are the only two PIAA programs with more than 90 all-time playoff victories, each with 92, so next week’s winner will have the overall lead for the state of Pennsylvania.
SCA: 0-14-0-20 = 34
WC: 7-6-6-0 = 19
SOUTHERN COLUMBIA (15-0)
RUSHING:
Hunter Thomas 14-113; Blake Marks 12-92, TD; Jared Torres 13-56; Nick Becker 8-50, 3 TDs; Nic Fetterman 4-11
PASSING:
Nick Becker 6-12-1, 96 yds, TD
RECEIVING:
Blake Marks 2-36, TD; Hunter Thomas 2-23; Jared Torres 1-20; Garrett Henry 1-17
1st DOWNS: 22
PENALTIES: 1-15
WEST CATHOLIC (10-5)
RUSHING:
Josh Evans 11-68; Supreme Kemp 4-22; Sharif Fennell 7-17; Craig Jones 2-6; Ociele Miller 1-2
PASSING:
Josh Evans 18-29-5, 277 yds, 2 TDs
RECEIVING:
Amadou Barry 6-118, 2 TDs; Craig Jones 4-63; Jameer Bryson 2-58; Ahmad Kent 2-10; Tahj Powell 1-18; Supreme Kemp 1-8; Josh Holsopple 1-6; Sharif Fennell 1-(-4)
1st DOWNS: 22
PENALTIES: 11-107
Burrs stats provided by Tim Hare (PE)
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December 14th, 2015 at 7:57 am
To Brian all 3 concussion didn’t happen when the kids was making tackle two came on offense and one came on a block in the back get your facts right before you speak on them
December 14th, 2015 at 1:27 am
11 penalties for 107 yards. And the numurous unsportsman call,It is a reflection on the coaching staff. It has nothing to do with geography.There were some very fine athletes on WC, but the lack of disipline showed itself over again. Coach, part of your responsibility is to maintain the integrity of sportmanship and build young men characters, this isnt the NFL where behavior gets you noticed.
Roll on SCA!!!
December 13th, 2015 at 3:25 pm
I was at the game and no one tried to intimate SC players. That’s a lie. Additionally, if you watch the film one of the concussions was a result of a block in the back, which drove a kid into a knee. You don’t know anything about the “those kinds” of kids. Please be careful when you are talking about children. The Butrs lost because SC was better period. Good luck to SC.
December 13th, 2015 at 3:16 pm
WC just could not cope with the Wing-T and then as the game wore on they just got winded. You could tell they just gave up on the last drive. I’d be surprised if SCA doesn’t beat the Quips by at least two scores. They’re vastly overrated.
December 13th, 2015 at 2:41 pm
Kyle
Please tell me you comment is dripping with sarcasm…otherwise I’m am at a total loss for words about your Alaquippa comments.
December 13th, 2015 at 2:33 pm
West Catholic is a much better team than Aliquippa. The Tigers should beat the Quips by 4-5 touchdowns. Aliquippa had an easy regular season schedule and should have lost their last 3 playoff games. This will be the Tigers easiest state championship season schedule ever, and ironically it is at the AA level when the others were at A.
The Tigers had 9 cupcake regular season games (Selinsgrove was only tough one) and besides that flukish game by Montoursville, they will have an easy road to winning another state championship. Both of the Catholic schools the Tigers have played the last 2 weeks aren’t at the caliber of traditional powerhouse catholic schools of the past and the Quips are extremely overrated.
December 13th, 2015 at 2:25 pm
I agree with Brian, the Burrs lost the game due to being unsportsmanlike. Not their lack of excellent players.
December 13th, 2015 at 2:02 pm
What an exciting game to listen to on the radio. It was obvious that West Catholic had more raw talent & great speed than the Tigers. I believe that this game was determined by team dicipline, great coaching and pure GUTS! Congratulations to both teams, and thanks for some fantastic football.
December 13th, 2015 at 1:42 pm
Jinx is referring to my comment about being glad that southern won the game so that the east didn’t have those type of players representing in hershey. that comment was removed apparently. i’m saying the state doesn’t need players that taunt, get so many unsportsmanlike penalties, show poor sportsmanship by undressing on the field and taking pads off, and complaining when officials call penalties on them. In my opinion if west catholic had discipline they would’ve won that game going away because they have so much talent. However, they were more interested in taunting and dancing on the field. I also read that their coach said 3 players left the game due to head injuries. I think the coach should teach proper technique of tackling instead of having his players dive helmet first into legs. I hope none of those injuries are severe.
December 13th, 2015 at 11:28 am
Wortham got injured at practice either Thursday or Friday however they didn’t elaborate as to what type of injury it was. Jinx what are you talking about, don’t see any comments like that?
December 13th, 2015 at 11:27 am
@Fly By Night
What you are saying is that if those two kids play, West Catholic doesnt have seven turnovers, 11 penalties, & make the idiotic mistake of trying to intimidate Southern Columbia?
December 13th, 2015 at 8:53 am
Stanley
I agree. Tho I think the quips are the favorite by no means are they unbeatable. And certainly southern can win especially if they force turnovers like they did against West. I see a close game either way.
December 13th, 2015 at 4:33 am
@Brian,
This season nobody can say this is an unbeatable Aliquippa team. But if that gets your boys pumped for the game who am I to disagree?
December 13th, 2015 at 2:15 am
Those Type of players? Please explain
December 13th, 2015 at 12:57 am
I’ve seen West Catholic play four different times this season and they made dumb penalties and plays in those other games just like they did today. The cockiness shown by the players for WC was childish. I agree that the Burrs were just getting the Tiger crowd more excited. If I’m Coach Fluck in that situation, I’m pulling the players off the field if they are trashing the other team’s sidelines especially when it is just fueling their fire. Also, the Burrs players were changing their Twitter profiles to fit southern I was told. Came back to bite them. Don’t need to provide bulletin board material to your opponent at this point in the season.
December 13th, 2015 at 12:50 am
Brian,
There is one exception for the Tigers. Nobody that graduated in 2010 had anyone in a game. I was reading the article from last week on SCA and it said at the end about it. Now the Tigers can add a few more years onto that streak. Congrats to them on a hard fought win!
December 13th, 2015 at 12:45 am
Anybody know what the deal was with Calil Wortham not playing for the Burrs? Not having him was a huge loss for West Catholic. Him not being suited and then Craig Jones going down with that 4th quarter injury was the difference in the game. With those 2 fully healthy, who knows what it could have been. The Tigers were all healthy and that seemed to be the reason that they came out on top.
December 12th, 2015 at 10:40 pm
Double Side note…. Since 1994, every graduating class from Southern has had a football player play in at least 1 state championship game.
December 12th, 2015 at 10:38 pm
Side note… In 1988, Berwick beat what everyone thought was an unbeatable Aliquippa team. In 2000, Mt. Carmel beat what everyone thought was an unbeatable Aliquippa team. 2015 Southern Columbia has a chance to do the same, beat what everyone thinks is an unbeatable Aliquippa team. Shout out to the 1994 season where Southern, Mt. Carmel, and Berwick were all state champions.