Becker and Thomas Impressive In Win
By: Dave Fegley (Twitter: @DFegs9)
Danville Area returned the opening kickoff across midfield and with a personal foul tacked on at the end, the Ironmen were in business at the Tigers 30 yard-line. Danville used their run game to take the ball near the end zone to set up a potential touchdown. Unfortunately for the Ironmen, they were stuffed at the 1-yard line on 4th and goal. From that point forward the Tigers cruised to a 46-0 victory to move to 4-0 on the year. “I don’t think we played our best football early. I have to give Danville credit because they came out and played inspired football to start the game,” said Southern head coach Jim Roth.
The Danville defense forced Southern to punt on the Tigers initial possession giving Danville another good starting field position. Southern’s defense came up big again thanks to a sack by linebacker Billy Marzeski after a hold against the Ironmen. The Tigers got the ball on their own 31 and used a combination of the pass and the run to lead to their opening score. “I think coach was taking it by year, and was seeing what would open up which lead to us mixing up the running and passing game,” said Tiger quarterback Nick Becker. After a pass from Becker to Blake Marks, and a long run by Matt Jeremiah, running back Hunter Thomas took it in from a yard out to give the Tigers a 6-0 lead with only a second remaining in the first quarter.
Becker then highlighted the second quarter with a 22 yard touchdown pass to Thomas on the first play of a drive to put Southern up 12-0. After Becker threw an interception to Danville’s Trent Hilkert on the Tigers next possession, he came back strong on the following drive with a 36 yard run to set up a Jeremiah TD. Becker would add a rushing touchdown before half to put the Tigers up 25-0 at halftime. “I think it’s important for our kids to come out each week and start off strong no matter who we are playing. The guys can’t get caught up in records because the bottom line is you need to come out and play your best football from the start,” said Roth.
On the Tigers first drive of the second half, Becker found Marks for a 49 yard touchdown pass that was nearly intercepted. “I saw their safety was slow coming across the field, so I threw it like a fade. Blake came off the field and said their kid had it and he took it out of his hands. I guess I got lucky after that acrobatic play by Blake,” said Becker. Lucky or not, Becker finished with three total touchdowns on the night. Thomas added his third on the next drive as well. He took the handoff on the first play of the next drive up the middle for a 60 yard touchdown run to put the game into the Mercy Rule at 39-0 after three quarters of play.
Marzeski scored on an 87 yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter to go along with his two sack performance on defense. That would be the only score of the final quarter to give the Tigers an impressive 49-0 shutout victory and their fourth consecutive Mercy Rule to start the year. The Tigers take their undefeated record to Central Columbia next week and the Ironmen will battle Mount Carmel Area at home.
SCA: 6-19-14-7 = 46
DAN: 0-0-0-0 = 0
SOUTHERN COLUMBIA (4-0)
RUSHING:
Matt Jeremiah 11-90, TD; Hunter Thomas 9-92, 2 TDs; Blake Marks 3-9; Nick Becker 3-41, TD; Jake Potter 2-12; Jared Torres 1-9; Justin Derk 2-6; Billy Marzeski 1-87, TD; Sam Abdul 1-1
PASSING:
Nick Becker 7-14-1, 141 yds, 2 TDs
RECEIVING:
Blake Marks 3-80, TD; Cameron Young 1-8; Hunter Thomas 1-22, TD; Mike Klebon 1-19; Steve Toczylousky 1-12
1st DOWNS: 15
PENALTIES: 2-30
DANVILLE (1-3)
RUSHING:
Trent Hilkert 11-24; Gannon Feldmann 2-1; Tom Brouse 14-21; Joe Strausser 3-8; Ryan Palm 4-13
PASSING:
Gannon Feldmann 2-5-0, 14 yds; Brenan Ryan 4-6-0, 46 yds
RECEIVING:
Adam Coppenhaver 1-13; Gabe Shope 1-8; Jeff Vitunac 1-5; Joe Strausser 1-6; Evan Hagenbuch 2-28
1st DOWNS: 4
PENALTIES: 5-45
