Marks returned early to help fill void
By: Dave Fegley (Twitter: @DFegs9)
On Wednesday morning the Southern Columbia football team received word that their top player, senior Luke Rarig, would be lost for the season after an MRI revealed he tore his ACL. “I went in expecting the worst, and then if there was any other news I would have some hope, but I didn’t get better news,” Rarig said. “I need to now be a leader from the sidelines and will let the coaches know if I see things that can help the team,” said the former all-state specialist. On top of being an outstanding football player, Rarig’s top sport is track and he hopes to be back in time for the spring. “I want to try to get back to 100% as soon as possible. I won’t obviously be at my top speed, but I want to see how quickly I can get back into shape,” said a motivated Rarig.
As far as on the field, the Tigers took care of business Friday night by handling cross-town rivals Bloomsburg by a score of 47-0. “We made a lot of mistakes and obviously when you do that against a team like Southern, they are going to capitalize on them,” said Bloomsburg coach Mike Kogut. Southern forced three Bloomsburg fumbles in the first half and two of those were deep inside Southern territory when the Panthers were moving the ball and threatening to score. “I will give the kids a lot of credit for battling. I don’t think the score is indicative of how we fought for four quarters,” Kogut said. On top of forcing turnovers, the Southern defense held Bloomsburg’s starting running back Sam Miller to just three total yards on 11 carries. They also limited the Panthers to just six first downs on the night.
With the loss of Rarig, the Tigers got back arguably their second most explosive player in junior standout Blake Marks. “Originally I wasn’t supposed to come back until around week eight, but then it got shortened to week three for defense and week five for offense last month. However, Luke’s injury did have a huge affect and was the main reason I wanted to come back. I talked to my parents and they took me to see another doctor, and after getting examined he said I was fully ready to go,” Marks said.
The junior made an immediate impact by setting up the Tigers first touchdown of the night with a 37-yard reception from quarterback Nick Becker on his first touch that took the ball to the Bloomsburg 22-yard line. “My legs honestly felt like rubber on that catch. I don’t know if it was a little bit of nervousness or what. I was so wide-open, and then I kind of tripped myself up without even being touched,” said Marks with a laugh. Matt Jeremiah made sure that the Tigers scored by taking a handoff up the gut on the next play to put the Tigers up 7-0.
Marks would make an even bigger impact, the second time he touched the ball. This time the running back made sure he would find the end-zone and took his first carry of the year 58 yards into the end-zone to put the team up 14-0 to start the second quarter. “The line did a great job on that play. I don’t think any of their defenders even put a hand on me,” Marks said. “We are dedicating the rest of the season to Luke, so it was nice to get him the win,” said Marks after showing off his belt that he customized for Rarig with an “L.R. #2” writing on the end of it.
Steve Toczylousky caught a 27 yard touchdown pass in the middle of the second quarter to put the team up by three scores. “We’re certainly not going to be able to replace Luke, so it’s going to be more about rotating by committee. Toczylousky and Mike Klebon have some height to provide a taller target for us, and then Cam Young is smaller, but can provide us with speed,” said Southern coach Jim Roth. Young would show his speed late in the first half by returning a punt all the way to the 15 yard line that set up Marks’ second touchdown of the night from three yards out to give the Tigers a 28-0 halftime lead. “Even though Blake wasn’t able to do full contact stuff, he has been working with the team in drills for the past couple of weeks. He’s just an overall athlete, so I wasn’t overly surprised to see him make some plays like he did,” said Roth.
On the first play of the second half, Jeremiah scored on a 54-yard scamper behind some key blocks from the guys up front, and then Brad Noll tacked on a 51 yard touchdown run around the end later on in the quarter. That score put SCA up 41-0 and allowed the Tigers to rest their starters for the final quarter with the game being in the Mercy Rule. Backup fullback Sami Abdul scored the lone touchdown of the final quarter from 11 yards out to make the final score 47-0.
Bloomsburg will travel to Towanda next week to try and pick up their first “W” and the Tigers will stay at home to welcome a surprising 2-0 Shamokin Indians squad. “After hearing the scores both tonight and from week one, it already doesn’t make sense with some of the outcomes, so you can’t go into a game looking at the outcome from the previous week. It’s the way this game is at the high school level and really at any level for that matter, so we need to make sure to come out with the right frame of mind every week,” stated Roth. Next week will also be the annual alumni night for Southern at Tiger Stadium. The school’s football alumni association will honor the 2004 state championship team prior to kickoff, and the Tigers hope to keep on rolling to 3-0 during the celebration.
SCA: 7-21-13-6 = 47
BLOOM: 0-0-0-0 = 0
SOUTHERN COLUMBIA (2-0)
RUSHING:
Matt Jeremiah 7-87, 2 TDs; Hunter Thomas 5-50; Brad Noll 3-71, TD; Blake Marks 4-73, 2 TDs; Nick Becker 2-14; Jake Potter 1-16; Jared Torres 3-28; Justin Derk 2-5; Sami Abdul 2-24, TD; Nick Fetterman 1-(-2); Billy Marzeski 1-4
PASSING:
Nick Becker 5-13-0, 99 yds, TD
RECEIVING:
Steve Toczylousky 1-27, TD; Cameron Young 2-29; Blake Marks 2-43
1st DOWNS: 19
PENALTIES: 9-82
BLOOMSBURG (0-2)
RUSHING:
Coty Kashner 5-19; Evan Bond 3-12; Jahvel Hemphill 2-8; Sam Miller 11-3; Kevin Diehl 2-(-1); Lucas Oxenrider 1-(-20)
PASSING:
Bloomsburg: Kashner 5-9-0, 70 yds; Nick Anderson 3-7-0, 10 yds; Sam Miller 0-1-0
RECEIVING:
Brandon Breisch 4-31; Jahvel Hemphill 2-39; Sam Miller 1-8; Tommy Harrison 1-2
1st DOWNS: 6
PENALTIES: 2-15
Final Bloomsburg stats courtesy of Damien Scoblink (Press Enterprise)
3 Responses
@Matt K:
I don’t think you are trying to be a jerk and you are just honestly stating your opinion but I need to respond to your comments. I don’t feel Becker was lost on the field but it certainly was different for him without Rarig, every QB has their favorite receiver and this was the QB’s first game without him. Glad you saw him throw two nice passes but I have to ask if some of the other passes weren’t where they were supposed to be? Have you ever heard a TV commentator wonder why a receiver slowed up when they were running a route or the QB coverage wasn’t what it should have been? I’m not saying this was the case last night but is it a possibility? I guess according to you it is not a possibility because you are so full of yourself. Last I heard football was a team sport. Finally, to call a team comprised of high school kids a joke is completely unnecessary. I am old enough to remember a time when SCA didn’t win many games in a season.
You could tell that the QB Becker was certainly lost on the field without Rarig. He was forcing throws into double coverage and overthrowing other receivers. He did throw two nice balls to Tozy & Marks for big plays, but other than that it looked like the passing game needs some fine tuning now that Rarig will be in street clothes watching all year. Shouldn’t hurt too much because Tigers have a very easy upcoming 7 game stretch that shouldn’t have any challenges along the way. The only game that I felt could have been hard was MCA, but after reading what happened last night it looks like the Red Tornadoes are a joke.The final game of the regular season against Selinsgrove could be the best matchup in the State!
Without Rarig SCA won’t do much after districts if they even win districts. Rarig is just one player but he players bigger than one player on the field. He’s their WR, CB, Punter, Kicker, Return man and he excels at all positions so it’s like losing about 3 players. SCA is still a strong team but to win in states that will be a difficult challenge. Again, if they win districts that is.