Stairway to Seven

Tigers demolish Quips in state title

By: Dave Fegley (Twitter: @DFegs9)

Southern Columbia has made it a point to get to the 16^th rung on their schedule ladder since the opening game this season. Their ultimate goal was to win a state championship, but they were focused on taking it one step at a time. “After being away for a few years since 2011, this group wanted to get back to that point again. They played as a unit and didn’t care who got the credit. The seniors did an outstanding job of helping to keep the guys focused until they reached their ultimate goal,” Southern head coach Jim Roth said. The Tigers not only got to the final rung, but they also took the seventh step to become the PIAA leader in State Championship victories with their 49-14 Mercy Rule slashing of Aliquippa at Hershey Park Stadium on Saturday afternoon. “We did it. Getting to finish out our career like this, there’s just nothing better,” said senior Gabe Delbo who was a leader in helping the team stay focused in getting to the next rung on the ladder each week. Southern Columbia and Berwick were tied with six state titles for the Pennsylvania lead, but now the Tigers have seven all to themselves.

The game couldn’t have started much worse for the Tigers though. The Quips got the opening kickoff and drove down the field. A 41 yard pass play from Sheldon Jeter to Jassir Jordan set up a one yard score from University of Pittsburgh recruit Kaezon Pugh to put Aliquippa in front 6-0. The Quips got the ball back on the ensuing kickoff when Blake Marks fumbled trying to fight for more yards. After starting at the 37 yard line, the Quips drove the short field with the biggest gain coming on a pass interference penalty against Southern cornerback Billy Marzeski. Two plays later, Jeter threw a pass into the end zone trying to put his Quips up by two scores early on. Marzeski came up with the play of the game by intercepting the pass at the goal line and took it out to the 35. “Well you see I was upset after getting that pass interference penalty and I wanted to make up for it. On that pass the wind seemed to take it, and I was able to get under it to make a play,” Marzeski said.

Southern used a 15-play drive to go 65 yards to take the lead. Nick Becker converted a fourth and short on a keeper and hit Marks on a fourth down completion to keep the drive alive. Fullback Jared Torres scored on the final play of the drive from three yards out and Tyler Keiser’s extra point gave the Tigers a 7-6 lead after the opening quarter. “The offensive line was solid again in this game. They have done a nice job all season and are the reason we were able to have all this success,” Torres said about the consistent play of Aaron Kroh, Andrew Bell, Dale Houser, Josh Yoder, Gabe Delbo, and Garrett Henry all season long.

Marzeski came up with a key stop on the next kickoff making Aliquippa start the drive at their own 14. Delbo had a third down sack forcing a punt, but the Tigers were forced to punt on the following drive. Jeter was forced out of the pocket on the second play of the drive and tried throwing the ball away. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t get enough on the ball and Steve Toczylousky intercepted the pass giving the Tigers a short field to work with. Becker scored on a fifteen yard keeper around the end to put his team up 14-6. “This team wasn’t really coming at us very hard which gave us an opportunity to push them off of the ball. We were able to set up some good blocking and it ended pretty well for us,” Houser said.

Marzeski was back at it again on the following possession. This time the senior intercepted a pass at the Quips 36 yard line and took it back for a touchdown. “I was trying to score on my first interception, but their #33 was standing in front of me. I tried to run him over and that didn’t work out very well. This time the wind took the ball and blew it right into my hands. I just caught it and ran that sucker into the end zone. I felt like a million bucks, my team felt like a million bucks, and it really seemed to kill any chance of them gaining back momentum,” said Marzeski about his second interception that put SCA up 21-6. The senior picked the right day to have the game of his life. “The surprising thing coming in was seeing that Billy Marzeski was third on the team in tackles. He’s a real good defensive ball player, but at times he would get down on himself this year. In this game, to his credit, he picked it right back up and had a really solid game on defense helping us win,” defensive coordinator Andy Mills said.

Aliquippa gained back some momentum on a perfectly executed hook-and-ladder play. Jeter hit Canard Tates who pitched it to Jordan, and he was able to outrun the Tiger defense for a 44 yard touchdown to shrink Southern’s lead to 21-14 with just 1:39 left in the half. That was plenty of time however for Southern’s offense to answer the call. With 23 seconds left before heading to the locker room, Becker scored on a 30 yard run to extend the lead back to two touchdowns at 28-14. “The senior class came together as a team and helped out the younger guys. We didn’t really have any superstars this year, but we had guys that were willing to do what it took to win each week. They didn’t care who got the credit and each week it seemed like different players stepped up in different situations,” Roth said.

Southern was forced to punt to start the second half after a three and out, but Ross Crowl sacked Jeter early in the next possession causing him to lose the football. Delbo pounced on it giving the ball back to the Tigers at their 40. Becker found an open Marks for a 49 yard completion that setup a Torres one yard touchdown extending the lead to 35-14. The Tigers defense forced another punt on the next possession. The Quips tried a fake, but it didn’t work out as the punter slipped before being able to make any move. “Our coaches came up with a great game plan to shut down their offense. We thought that we played against some better backs coming in earlier in the season than the guys they had. I think they were over hyped and we used that as motivation,” said Southern linebacker Austin Knepp.

Hunter Thomas scored on the next drive on a one yard plunge, and he then scored the game’s final touchdown from 10 yards out after Marks came up with a fumble recovery. After Keiser’s seventh PAT, the Tigers put the Quips in the Mercy Rule at 49-14. The defense forced another turnover on the following drive, and Southern Columbia had to take just one victory kneel down to give Southern Columbia a Mercy Rule victory in a dominant defensive fashion. “This is just indescribable for us. There have been so many great teams that came before us. The 2006 team was the last team to win a state championship. The 2011 team got us back on the map by getting the school back to Hershey. Now this year we were able to win not only a state record seventh title, but we were able to do it for the first time at the Class AA level,” Toczylousky exclaimed.

Just how dominant of an effort was it by this Tiger defense? Well, the seven turnovers they forced set a new PIAA State Championship game record. “Our game plan was to just go out with our base defense. There wasn’t really anything different that we did in this game. At practice we just kept going over their plays to show our guys what they were likely to do in different scenarios and formations. Our guys went out focused and played well,” Mills said. The offense wasn’t too far behind the dominance of the defense. Just take the game’s final extra point from Keiser as an example. That kick, which was ironically the seventh one, also set a PIAA Class AA State Championship game record.

The Tigers will graduate 25 seniors going into next season. The group went an incredible 40-0 throughout their careers in the regular season, and they’ve become so close over this four year journey together. “We are like a family. All of us are so close, and it’s just amazing that I got to share this experience with them,” said Marks who finishes his career with 2,558 rushing yards putting him 13^th on the all-time list. The senior also caught 61 passes which puts him fourth all-time. “There’s no better feeling than this. We did this as a team and everyone contributed. Going 16-0 and winning a State Championship, it really is a dream come true,” said Becker who graduates at the top of the record books in career passing yards, touchdown passes, completions, and his career 57.1% completion percentage is third all-time behind Brad Fegley’s 60.0% and Dan Latorre’s 57.5%. Toczyslousky finished his career with 14 touchdown grabs putting him in a tie at the top. Heading into next year, the Tigers know that they will need more players to step up to fill the many positions that will be lost to graduation. “We are going to graduate a lot of great players, and we definitely will need players to step up and try to fill roles. This group was great to play with,” Thomas stated. The junior heads into next season with 2,286 career rushing yards and needs 33 receptions to set a new school record, currently held by Colby Snyder, for catches in a career. For now, the Tigers will relax and enjoy the accomplishments that the 2015 group accomplished. “The kids had fun this year and when you see the kids develop friendships and bond together as a team, that’s really what it is all about,” said Roth who now has 381 career victories and is on pace to one day set the state record for coaching victories.

SCA: 7-21-7-14 = 49
QUIP: 6-8-0-0 = 14

SOUTHERN COLUMBIA (16-0)

RUSHING:

Jared Torres 14-55, 2 TDs; Nick Becker 11-88, 2 TDs; Hunter Thomas 16-56, 2 TDs; Blake Marks 9-21

PASSING:

Nick Becker 6-8-0, 82 yds

RECEIVING:

Blake Marks 3-64; Hunter Thomas 2-2; Steve Toczylousky 1-16

1st DOWNS: 14

PENALTIES: 7-60

ALIQUIPPA (15-1)

RUSHING:

Kaezon Pugh 19-109, TD; Kiyon Fooks 5-20; Thomas Perry 1-9; Sheldon Jeter 8-6; Jelani Solomon 1-2; Larry Walker 1-0; Eli Kosanovich 1-(-3); Jassir Jordan 2-(-4)

PASSING:

Sheldon Jeter 6-10-3, 98 yds, TD

RECEIVING:

Jassir Jordan 4-89, TD; Kiyon Fooks 1-6; Thomas Perry 1-3; Conard Tate 1-0

1st DOWNS: 11

PENALTIES: 5-49