ALMEDIA – Having played their last game on Monday night due to the torrential rains last week that left their field unplayable last Friday, South Williamsport had to guard against coming out flat off a short week on Saturday afternoon at Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech.
The Mounties put that possibility to rest early, as South scored on all four of their first half possessions and on their first five overall and the Mounties improved to 4-2 on the year with a 40-8 win over the Rams.
“I thought our kids were very business-like offensively and did some nice things defensively,” said South Williamsport coach Chris Eiswerth. “We had a few chunk plays and I thought it was nice to spread it out a bit and get multiple guys touches.”
South Williamsport’s quick and explosive start put the Rams behind the proverbial eight-ball. The Mounties ran only 13 offensive plays in the first half, but scored four touchdowns and averaged over 18 yards per play, and gained more than 10 yards on nine of those plays.
“We need to tackle better,” said CMVT coach Mark Varner. “What it comes down to is some of these teams have speed that we can’t show the kids at practice. So, when they come out with these backs, we’re going to tackle them and they’re not there anymore. I think that’s something that has to get learned by reps, but we need to do a better job tackling. There’s no excuses to miss all these tackles and we need to be in the right place at the right time. We’re leaving our gaps early so we just need to keep practicing and getting better.”
After the Rams went four-and-out on their first drive after being stopped on a fourth-and-1 attempt, South Williamsport took two plays to score their first touchdown – a 23-yard run by Lane Lusk, followed by a 21-yard touchdown run by Clayton Swarthout, who touched the ball just twice but found the end zone both times and finished with 95 yards rushing.
CMVT then put together a drive that lasted nearly five minutes, but ended on an interception in the end zone, which was returned to the South 38-yard line. The Mounties then put together a five-play drive that was capped by a nine-yard touchdown run by quarterback Landon Lorson. Runs of 28 and 17 yards gave that drive a boost.
The Mounties took over at their own 44 on their next drive following their defense stopping the Rams on another fourth down attempt, and once again needed just five plays to get into the end zone, this time on a 15-yard pass from Lorson to Grant Bachman.
The Rams then held the ball for the next 7:05, driving from their own 21 to the South 24, but lost a fumble with under a minute to play. The Mounties took over at their own 26, and Swarthout burst loose for a 74-yard touchdown to make it 27-0 heading into halftime.
South put together their second five-play touchdown drive to open the second half and take a 34-0 lead. This one was capped by Jake Casella’s 15-yard touchdown reception.
As disheartening as those long plays were for CMVT defensively, the Rams had just as many encouraging signs on offense. For the second straight week, Toby Zajac topped the century mark as he rushed for 118 yards on 29 carries. CMVT had 15 first downs, just two fewer than the Mounties. The Rams also opened it up a little bit in the passing game, as Caden Long completed 10-of-15 passes for 88 yards, including six to Shane Tomlinson for 53 yards as Long put the ball in some tight windows to Tomlinson, who was decked immediately after catching a few of those receptions.
“It seems like I keep saying it, but we are improving every week,” said Varner. “Our passing game looked much better this week. When we’re mistake-free, we’re doing a lot of good things on offense. We’re adding stuff every week. Caden did a nice job and Shane made some nice catches in traffic.”
Tomlinson also scored CMVT’s only touchdown of the afternoon, as he ran it in from five yards out with 7:34 left in the fourth quarter. That capped a 15-play drive that took 8:35, the second straight week that CMVT put together a long scoring drive that took over half a quarter after having a scoring drive that took 9:34 last week.
The Rams held onto the ball for 29:45, more than 10 minutes longer than the Mounties, and that was despite committing four turnovers, although their defense also forced a pair of South Williamsport turnovers as well. That followed last week’s performance in which the Rams had over 35 minutes in time of possession.
“The offense is evolving. We can’t rely on Toby the whole game. Teams are definitely keying on him,” said Varner. “It’s a progression. As Caden gets more comfortable, we’ll keep adding. Shane did a great job as did our other receivers. Tommy (Bond) did a nice job at tight end, and Ethan Heverling had a nice catch on a post that moved the sticks.”
“Offensively, CMVT is really headed in the right direction,” said Eiswerth. “They’ve got some physical kids that made some great first downs. They’re getting better and have big kids working hard.”
South Williamsport 40, CMVT 8
South Williamsport (4-2) 13 14 7 6 – 40
Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech (0-6) 0 0 0 8 – 8
First quarter
9:09 – (SW) Clayton Swarthout 21-yard run (Lorson kick), 2-44, :31
2:07 – (SW) Landon Lorson 9-yard run (kick blocked), 5-62, 2:13
Second quarter
7:58 – (SW) Grant Bachman 15-yard pass from Landon Lorson (Lorson kick), 5-56, 2:19
:41 – (SW) Clayton Swarthout 74-yard run (Lorson kick), 1-74, :12
Third quarter
9:04 – (SW) Jake Casella 15-yard pass from Landon Lorson (Lorson kick), 5-54, 2:56
Fourth quarter
7:35 – (VT) Shane Tomlinson 5-yard run (Long run), 15-80, 8:35
1:13 – (SW) Kaden Shay 4-yard run (pass failed), 11-47, 6:22
Statistics
SW VT
First downs 17 15
Rushes-net yards 27-287 42-139
Passing yardage 68 88
Passing 5-8-2-1 10-16-0-2
Fumbles-lost 2-1 4-2
Penalties-yards 2-25 1-10
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — South Williamsport: Amir Kemrer (10-86), Lane Lusk (5-78), Caden Harris (3-21), Kaden Shay (3-(-2)-1), Clayton Swarthout (2-95-2), Rasheed Green (2-2), Landon Lorson (1-9-1), TEAM (1-(-2)); CMVT: Toby Zajac (29-118), Shane Tomlinson (5-18-1), Caden Long (4-(-3)), Mason Haught (3-7), Austin Molick (1-(-1))
PASSING — South Williamsport: Landon Lorson (4-6-46-2-0), Kaden Shay (1-2-22-0-1); CMVT: Caden Long (10-15-88-0-1), Toby Zajac (0-1-0-0-1)
RECEIVING — South Williamsport: Grant Bachman (3-31-1), Garrett Cooley (1-22), Jake Casella (1-15-1); CMVT: Shane Tomlinson (6-53), Tommy Bond (3-21), Ethan Heverling (1-14)
