SUNBURY – With a trip to the District 4 Class AA playoffs already wrapped up, the Southern Columbia Area Tigers entered their regular season finale just needing to pick up a victory and keep momentum rolling into the post season.
The visiting Tigers did just that by picking up a 42-14 road victory over the Shikellamy Braves.
Despite a few early mistakes, Southern Columbia’s speed and athleticism was no match for a short-handed Braves team that was looking for a rebound after facing undefeated Mount Carmel last week.
Shikellamy’s best chance to take control of the game came early on the first drive of the game after the Braves won the opening coin toss and elected to receive. A quick three-and-out seemed to put an end to the drive early at the Braves’ own 20-yard line, but a Southern Columbia blocked punt was muffed by a member of the receiving team and the Braves fell on top of the ball at their own 33-yard line to retain possession.
The Braves weren’t able to do anything following the fortunate bounce and punted away to the visiting Tigers. It took Southern Columbia just three plays on offense to open the game’s scoring. On a first-and-10 Southern quarterback Blake Wise dropped back and hit a wide-open Braeden Wisloski for a 45-yard catch and run.
“I was happy with my performance tonight,” said Wise following the game. “Especially following the Mount Carmel game. I feel like that wasn’t a true showing of my actual skills. A lot of mistakes were made, so it feels good to come out here tonight and go a perfect five-for-five.”
The Shikellamy offense attempted to answer but was stuffed following just one first down on an eight-yard reception from quarterback Lucas Wetzel to running back Luke Snyder.
Southern took control from there, scoring on three consecutive possessions while the Braves’ offense did not produce a first down the rest of the half.
“Southern is an outstanding football team. They’ve got a lot of speed and a lot of strength.” said Shikellamy coach Jim Keiser. “We have a great group of young men that despite being 1-9 this year never gave up in any football game they played in. They played hard all year.”
Another Wisloski touchdown – this time on the ground – as well as a pair of rushing touchdowns by junior running back Carter Madden put the Tigers up 28-0 with 8:29 remaining in the first half.
Shikellamy’s defense made a stand on the next Southern Columbia drive, forcing a Wisloski fumble and recovering in plus territory with the potential to score.
On the night, the Shikellamy defense forced five fumbles and were able to recover three. The offense did not turn the ball over at all in the game.
Despite the plus field position, the Braves turned the ball over on downs and Wisloski redeemed himself, ripping off a 51-yard run on the next play from scrimmage and plunging in from five yards out on the ensuing play for his third touchdown of the night.
With the Tigers in control and the mercy rule in play, the visitors received the second half kick and were able to extend the lead to 42-0. An extended eight-play drive was capped off by a rushing touchdown from freshman running back Brayden Andrews who showed flashes of Gavin Garcia in his number five uniform. Andrews had runs of six, 23 and 25 yards on the drive with the 25-yard carry ending up in the endzone.
Those would be the last Southern points scored on the night as the Shikellamy offense found a way to kick things into high gear.
Following the Andrews touchdown, the Braves went on a sustained drive of their own. The Braves pieced together a seven-play scoring drive that was started when Chase Morgan took the kickoff return all the way from his own four-yards line to the Tigers’ 24-yard line for a 72-yard return.
Seven plays later senior quarterback Ethan Turber-Ortiz found Luke Snyder in the corner of the endzone for a 20-yard touchdown reception on third-and-17.
Shik scored again in the fourth quarter after recovering another fumble in plus territory. This time Turber-Ortiz took care of things himself, rushing in a one-yard score to make it a 42-14 game.
Unfortunately for the Braves, it was too little too late as the Southern Columbia Area Tigers took the 42-14 victory, ending the Braves’ season with an overall record of 1-9.
“I love those kids,” said Coach Keiser of his graduating senior class. “I’ve been with them for three years now and they gave us everything they had. We’re finally starting to see a little bit of light coming around the corner with this program and it’s because of guys like those. The junior high kids that are coming up have seen the work ethic and their attitude and I think that’s what’s going to change the program around.”
Meanwhile, the victory gave Southern Columbia a regular season record of 7-3 overall as the team preps for a tip to District 4 Class AA playoffs.
“With the playoffs in front of us we wanted to come out and take care of business,” said Tigers’ coach Jim Roth. “To be honest, for a team that only has one win I was impressed when we watched the film on Shikellamy especially last week against Mount Carmel. They played hard and did some things that made it hard for Mount Carmel to move the ball against them, so we’re happy to be able to finish off strong and improve in some areas where we need to.”
The Tigers will likely host a playoff game next week.
“I thought both sides of the ball performed well tonight,” said Roth. “We also get our outstanding running back and linebacker Wes Barnes back next week. He practiced this week but did not play tonight. Getting him back for the first round of playoffs will be a big boost for us both on the field and psychologically.”
Southern Columbia 42, Shikellamy 14
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Southern Columbia 21 14 7 0 – 42
Shikellamy 0 0 0 14 – 14
First Quarter
SC—Braeden Wisloski 45-yard reception from Blake Wise (Isaac Mikel-Carter PAT Good), 7:26.
SC—Carter Madden 37-yard run (Mikel-Carter PAT Good), 4:47.
SC—Wisloski 57-yard run (Mikel-Carter PAT Good), 1:45.
Second Quarter
SC—Madden 2-yard run (Mikel-Carter PAT Good), 8:29.
SC—Wisloski 5-yard run (Mikel-Carter PAT Good), 3:26
Third Quarter
SC—Brayden Andrews 25-yard run (Mikel-Carter PAT Good), 5:37
Fourth Quarter
S—Luke Snyder 20-yard reception from Ethan Turber-Ortiz (Nick Koontz PAT Good), 11:46.
S—Turber-Ortiz 1-yard run (Koontz PAT Good), 6:52.
TEAM STATISTICS SC S
First downs 9 5
Total yards 347 82
Rushes-yards 30-260 27-41
Yards passing 87 41
Passing (comp.-att.-int.) 5-5-0 6-17-0
Fumbles-lost 5-3 1-0
Penalties-yards 5-50 4-38
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING—Southern Columbia: Wisloski 5-124 2TD, Andrews 5-42 TD, Madden 2-39 2TD, Jack Biermass 5-35, CJ Swank-Dworchak 5-16, Louden Murphy 3-13, Brady Arnold 3-(-1), TEAM 2-(-8). Shikellamy: Isaac Schaffer-Neitz 15-44, Turber-Ortiz 3-11 TD, Derek Turber-Ortiz 2-9, Mason Rebuck 1-0, Snyder 2-(-1), Lucas Wetzel 2-(-10), Chase Morgan 2-(-12).
PASSING—Southern Columbia: Wise 5-5 87 yards, TD. Shikellamy: E. Turder-Ortiz 2-4 24 yards, TD; Wetzel 4-13 17 yards.
RECEIVING—Southern Columbia: Wisloski 1-45 TD, Kyle Christman 2-25, Jacob Hoy 1-13, Murphy 1-4. Shikellamy: Snyder 3-31 TD, Rashawn Martin 1-5, Dominic Angelillo 1-4, Schaffer-Neitz 1-1.
