South Defense Dominant in Victory

By: Dave Fegley (Twitter: @DFegs9)

SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT— District IV has some of the best football programs in the state when considering the success over the years. With that, a lot of rivalries are generated. Look at Southern Columbia-Mount Carmel Area, Selinsgrove-Shikellamy, Loyalsock-Montoursville, Bloomsburg-Central Columbia, & Towanda-Troy just to name a few. From September to some hope December, these teams are competing against each other to try and become the leader of the pack. However, one Friday night each summer in June, these players become teammates to try and prove that they are the better half of the district. “It was a great experience getting to be with these guys for a whole week. During the season you are rivals, but for this week you get to meet so many great guys. I didn’t like many during the season, but now this week was fun getting to play with your competitors,” said Brady Chappell of Milton who was named the game’s MVP in helping to lead his South squad to a 34-12 victory over the North in the 24th Annual District IV All-Star Game held at Rodney K. Morgan’s Stadium that is run by the Lions Club.

The game didn’t start off the way the South had planned however. The North recovered the opening kickoff that was botched by one of the South up-men and was recovered at the 42 yard line. The North side marched down the field 41 yards, but it was that one yard they needed that ultimately was a game-changer from the opening three minutes of the game. The South defense forced a goal-line stand that prevented the North from getting a quick touchdown. “I think that was the biggest play of the game. If they score and get the momentum early like that, you don’t know what is going to happen,” stated Jim Keiser of Danville who was the head coach for the South squad. The South offense couldn’t get anything going off of that momentum on their initial possession being forced into a 3-and-out. “We try and make the offense as simple as possible for them to learn it quickly, and the guys are intelligent so they pick it up pretty easily,” said Keiser when asked about the difficulty of only having a week to prepare for the game.

The North actually struck first late in the opening quarter as Jersey Shore’s Jordan Tawney hooked up with his high school teammate Troy Rowan on a two yard pass. “We needed to make some adjustments early on in the game, and once our defense got it going the adrenaline started to flow and we started to gain momentum from there,” said Southern Columbia’s Robert Delbo who will play at East Stroudsburg Univeristy. Unfortunately for the North team, that was the last time they would see the end zone until the final two minutes of the game. “Our whole defense played great tonight. I had a fun time playing with all these guys,” said all-state defensive lineman Jake Klinger of Central Columbia. Just before the final horn sounded in the opening quarter, Weston Baylor of Danville found Zack Sauers of Mifflinburg open for a 27 yard completion to make the score 6-6 after one.

The second quarter started with another defensive stop by the South giving their offense good field position. Behind their gigantic high school offensive line, the team marched down the field and Chappell kept a keeper around the end from five yards out to give the South a 12-6 lead that they would hold onto for the remainder of the night. “I think we did a good job of giving our quarterbacks time in the pocket and they both made some nice plays,” said Josh Tripp of Southern Columbia who was one of the offensive lineman that created loads of time for the quarterbacks to engineer drives. Tripp will suit up for the reigning PSAC Champion Bloomsburg University Huskies next fall along with three other offensive lineman Travis Krall of Milton, Jake Hare of Shikellamy, and Danville’s Blake Remensnyder.

With less than a minute remaining in the first half, Chappell completed two passes for 66 yards down to the three yard line. From there, Southern Columbia fullback Adam Feudale ran up the gut to give his team a 19-6 lead heading to the locker room. “It was great to be able to play behind basically a college offensive line. They averaged 6’5” and 275 pounds, that is what you call a Division 2 o-line,” said a satisfied Chappell.

The South defensive came out after halftime just as dominant as before the intermission, and forced on the punting unit early in the 3^rd quarter and the offense drove down the field behind the arm of Danville’s Weston Baylor. The only miscue of the drive happened to be a ball that hung up in the air for a second too long and was picked off by Malik Wilson of Williamsport in the end zone. Both teams traded possessions for the rest of the quarter and the score remained 19-6 entering the final quarter.

Only eight seconds in to the quarter, Chappell connected with Garrett Kemberling, who played at Shikellamy, for a 28 yard touchdown strike behind the North secondary. That score extended the South lead to 27-6. There was a three play stretch in the middle of the fourth quarter that resulted in three straight interceptions. Montoursville cornerback, Alex Erb, picked off a pass to try and give the North some momentum, but on the very next play Southern Columbia’s two-time all-state linebacker, Cody Pavlick, batted down a ball and intercepted it. Not to be outdone, Wilson came up with his second interception on the very next play.

With 3:39 remaining in the contest, Baylor found Lewisburg’s Ben Frankel in the corner of the end zone to put the South up 34-6. “I just saw him standing down there wide open, so I threw it to him and he made the catch,” said Baylor as he took off his Danville helmet for the final time. Then, over a three minute span Danville’s Zack Kozick intercepted the North’s quarterbacks twice to put an exclamation point on the victory for the South defense. “The defense was stout. They were very aggressive and quick to the ball. They played the way we expected them to judging by their performance in practice,” said a very pleased coach Keiser.

The North gave their fans something to cheer about late in the game on a perfectly executed halfback pass from Montoursville’s Cameron Ott to Rowan who ended up being the game’s leading receiver with eight receptions on the night and both of the North’s touchdowns. The South got the ball back and let the clock run out as they celebrated a 34-12 victory in their final high school game. “My last game during the season was a loss, so it was nice to go out here and end the high school career with a win,” said Klinger who will join four of the offensive lineman at Bloomsburg University next year as a defensive lineman.

Regardless of the final score, all the players and coaches from both teams seemed to have a ton of fun prepping for the game, at the banquet held the night prior, and of course during the game. “It was a lot of fun the whole time this week. By the end of the game some of us even played different positions. A couple of the lineman tried to convince the coaches to let us play quarterback or running back, but we only got in at tight end,” said a joking Tripp who earned a spot on the all-state team in his senior campaign.

On top of Chappell getting the overall MVP (a rushing touchdown & a passing touchdown), each team had an offensive and defensive player of the game chosen. The North’s defensive award went to Utoafili Agae-Naipo from Jersey Shore who finished with five tackles, a sack, and a fumble recovery on the opening kickoff. Rowan was the easy choice for the offensive player of the game for his side due to scoring all 12 of his team’s point. The South defensive player of the game was a tossup with so many solid performances. Hughesville’s Jacoby Forseman took home the award with six tackles including his biggest one being an assist on that goal-line stand early on in the game. Baylor received the offensive award for the South after throwing two touchdown passes and 110 yards. “It’s going to be hard to not suit up with high school teammates next year, but some of us are going on to play college ball because we aren’t ready to give up football yet,” said Delbo who speaks for players on both teams who will go on to the collegiate level and try to make an even bigger name for a district that has produced a bunch of college athletes at all different levels all across the landscape since it’s creation.

This officially brings an end to the play of the 2013 football season in District IV that was capped off by Southern Columbia, Troy, and Jersey Shore claiming the crowns in each of the three classifications that make up the district (Williamsport is the only AAAA school and they play for another district title). In just 63 more days, it will be time for the schools to continue to make a name for District IV during the 2014 football campaign. Are you ready for some (more) football?

South: 6-13-0-15 = 34

North: 6-0-0-6 = 12

SOUTH

RUSHING:

Adam Feudale (Southern Columbia) 10-42, TD; Sam Dressler (Danville) 9-48; Cory Warford (Line Mountain) 8-38; Isaiah Croll (Danville) 6-29; Weston Baylor (Danville) 3-4; Brady Chappell (Milton) 1-5, TD

PASSING:

Brady Chappell (Milton) 5-7-1, 113 yds, TD; Weston Baylor (Danville) 7-13-2, 110 yds, 2 TDs

RECEIVING:

Garrett Kemberling (Shikellamy) 3-55, TD; Ben Frankel (Lewisburg) 3-43, TD; Greg Shultz (Milton) 2-49; Evan Tanner (Shikellamy) 2-42; Zack Sauers (Mifflinburg) 2-34, TD

NORTH

RUSHING:

Cameron Ott (Montoursville) 9-21; Jordan Tawney (Jersey Shore) 7-43; Jermaine Brooks (Wellsboro) 4-1; Utoafili Agae-Naipo (Jersey Shore) 3-2; Cody Bradley (Jersey Shore) 1-1; Jed Wright (Troy) 9-51

PASSING:

Jordan Tawney (Jersey Shore) 9-17-1, 82 yds, TD; Jed Wright (Troy) 3-11-2, 39 yds; Cameron Ott (Montoursville) 1-1-0, 27 yds; TD

RECEIVING:

Troy Rowan (Jersey Shore) 8-94, 2 TDs; Phil Krizan (Loyalsock) 1-14; Isaac Foust (Williamsport) 2-10; Jermaine Brooks (Wellsnboro 1-2; Utoafili Agae-Naipo (Jersey Shore) 2-28