SHICKSHINNY – Friday’s regular season finale between South Williamsport and Northwest would determine who would be the third and fourth seeds in the upcoming District 4 Class A playoffs that start next week.
And while both teams entered with similar records – 5-3 for South Williamsport and 5-4 for Northwest – the result showed that there’s currently a pretty large gap between third and fourth place in District 4 Class A.
South Williamsport’s Amir Kemrer, who was coming off a two-game absence, ran for 260 yards and three touchdowns on just nine carries – an average of 28.9 yards per carry – and South racked up 416 yards on the ground in all to run away from Northwest and wrap up its regular season with a dominating 55-6 win over the Rangers.
“Amir is a guy who has worked hard, built his body up extensively from January on, and we’re watching him grow before our very eyes,” said South Williamsport coach Chris Eiswerth. “He has all kinds of potential. He had some growing up to do, but boy, you can see he’s a very talented young man.”
Kemrer out gained Northwest by himself, as the Rangers managed just 203 yards on the evening, with the majority of those coming in the second half after the game was already in the mercy rule.
“We’ve been playing some guys out of position and no matter what we did tonight, it didn’t go our way,” said Northwest coach Carl Majer. “South Williamsport is real good football team, so we just need to regroup and see what we can do next week. We’ve had some issues going on and our kids have been through a lot but they’re great kids, they work hard, never give up, and our time will come.
South Williamsport scored three touchdowns in the first quarter on its first three possessions, taking advantage of a pair of Northwest turnovers.
Dylan Scheller intercepted Carter Hontz on the first play from scrimmage of the game, his first of two picks on the night, giving the Mounties the ball at midfield. They needed just four plays – all runs – to find the end zone on a 37-yard run by Caden Harris.
South Williamsport forced a three-and-out on the Rangers’ next drive, and then Kemrer went to work, racking up 58 yards on a pair of rushes, the latter of which was a 49-yard touchdown run to cap a three-play drive and put the Mounties up 14-0.
Northwest then lost a fumble in its next drive to give South the ball back at the Mounties’ 42. Once again, South took just three plays to find the end zone, as Kemrer burst through a hole for a 34-yard gain, and two plays later, Radley Knapp found Landyn Gephart over the middle in the end zone for a 25-yard touchdown pass.
Northwest put together a good-looking drive toward the end of the first quarter and into the second, as the Rangers converted a fourth and a third down, but Hontz’ pass on a fourth-and-4 from the South 30 was dropped by Derek Dietz in the end zone to stall that drive.
Taking over possession at the Northwest 30, the Mounties ripped off two long runs – 32 yards by Ryan Casella, and then 37 by Kemrer, and Knapp capped the drive with a one-yard touchdown to put the Mounties up 28-0 at the 9:12 mark of the second quarter.
Kemrer got loose again later in the second quarter as he ripped off a 67-yard touchdown run for a one-play drive to put South up 35-0 with 3:55 left in the half.
“We’ve kind of been cooking the stew all year,” said Eiswerth. “We started the year with a lot of guys that needed to learn how to play varsity football but they really played well tonight and it’s gratifying because they really worked hard in the offseason. We’ve been making careless mistakes, some careless penalties but we played pretty mistake-free for the most part. I thought we were very physical defensively and were really solid in all three phases.”
South’s defense kept the Rangers off balance for most of the night, as Hontz completed just 3-of-18 passes on the evening as the Mounties threw off the timing between Hontz and his receivers, forcing him to rush several throws and breaking up several passes with tight coverage in the secondary. Northwest managed just 86 yards in the first half, and 203 for the game.
Kemrer, who averaged 26 yards per carry in the first half, tacked on a 52-yard touchdown run for his third score of the game on the first play from scrimmage of the second half to put South up 42-0. That was his final carry of the night, and he finished the evening averaging 28.9 yards per carry on the night.
Northwest avoided the shutout late as second-string quarterback Jace McCoy found Randy Moyer in the end zone with :07 left in the game.
Despite the sour ending to its regular season, Northwest will play next week, as the Rangers will be the fourth seed and will take on either Muncy or Canton, who were separated by mere percentage points heading into Week 10 and both won rivalry games on Friday. Regardless of the result, Majer believes the extra week of practice and game will be invaluable as he builds his program in this, the first year of his second stint as head coach at Northwest.
“I think it’s crucial. You’ve got to get your team knowing how to play in the postseason,” said Northwest coach Carl Majer. “You’ve got to get the team knowing how to win again and winning helps tremendously but when teams lose, it’s hard to break that losing streak, so every game that you can play and make a positive and see and play against a good team – your team sees how much better you need to be and you’ve got play the best to be the best.”
South Williamsport, as the third seed, will face the other team of Canton and Muncy that doesn’t end up with the top seed. The Mounties lost a lopsided game to Canton but were narrowly defeated by Muncy earlier this season.
South Williamsport 55, Northwest 6
South Williamsport (6-3) 21 14 14 6 – 55
Northwest (5-5) 0 0 0 6 – 6
First quarter
10:18 – (S) Caden Harris 37-yard run (Rieppel kick), 4-50, 1:33
8:30 – (S) Amir Kemrer 49-yard run (Rieppel kick), 3-61, :49
5:44 – (S) Landyn Gephart 25-yard pass from Radley Knapp (Rieppel kick), 3-58, 1:28
Second quarter
9:12 – (S) Radley Knapp 1-yard run (Rieppel kick), 3-70, :27
3:55 – (S) Amir Kemrer 67-yard run (Rieppel kick), 1-67, :10
Third quarter
11:31 – (S) Amir Kemrer 52-yard run (Rieppel kick), 1-52, :29
4:47 – (S) Ryan Casella 1-yard run (Rieppel kick), 6-45, 3:29
Fourth quarter
2:14 – (S) Jonah White 55-yard fumble return (run failed)
:07 – (N) Randy Moyer 8-yard pass from Jace McCoy (pass failed), 4-60, 2:07
Statistics
S N
First downs 18 10
Rushes-net yards 39-416 30-113
Passing yardage 44 90
Passing 3-6-1-0 8-25-1-2
Fumbles-lost 1-1 2-2
Penalties-yards 3-20 0-0
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — South Williamsport: Amir Kemrer (9-260-3), Ryan Casella (8-68-1), Radley Knapp (4-(-8)), Evan Barry (4-(-5)), Caden Harris (3-44-1), Chase Beck (3-15), Garrett Cooley (3-13), Logan Ball (2-5), Kaiser Kistner (1-15), Tadd Lusk (1-10), TEAM (1-(-1)); Northwest: Carter Hontz (11-36), Trevor Dietz (6-41), Jacob Bobersky (5-20), Adam Chonko (5-8), Derek Dietz (1-4), Cole Hudack (1-2), Jace McCoy (1-2)
PASSING — South Williamsport: Radley Knapp (1-3-25-1-0), Tadd Lusk (2-3-19-0-0); Northwest: Carter Hontz (3-18-28-0-2), Jace McCoy (5-7-62-1-0)
RECEIVING — South Williamsport: Chase Beck (2-19), Landyn Gephart (1-25-1); Northwest: Andrew Bonczewski (2-48), Trevor Dietz (2-19), Hunter Gmiter (1-9), Randy Moyer (1-8-1), Adam Chonko (1-6), Thomas Bierly (1-0)
