Southern Columbia head coach Jim Roth has said since the preseason that he has been impressed with his offense. Clearly any football fan can say the same thing as the Tigers are the third highest scoring team in the entire state. For the last three weeks, the defense has actually been probably even more impressive. “It seems that our defense is definitely playing at a higher level than they were earlier in the year,” said Roth. Southern (5-0) dominated Muncy (4-1) on both sides of the ball and recorded a 55-13 victory. The Tigers defense held the Indians to minus-4 yards rushing in the first half. Add on the five sacks, three interceptions, and a blocked punt and that sums up the performance by the black and gold defense. The offense scored 41 of their 55 points in the opening half as well to show the crowd that they are worthy of the #1 ranking in the state.
Muncy won the opening toss and kicked off to Southern. On the Tigers opening drive, sophomore quarterback Nick Becker hooked up with his favorite target, junior Luke Rarig, three times for 60 yards. The final completion was a six yard strike to put Southern on the board 7-0 with 9:39 remaining in the first quarter.
Southern’s defense forced Muncy to punt on their opening possession. Chase Tillett was able to slip through the line and block the punt which gave the Tigers the ball at the Indians five yard line. From there, Blake Marks took it in on the ground to make the score 13-0.
The Tigers defense came up big again on the next series and forces a punt after Rob Delbo sacked Muncy quarterback Anthony Barberio. After a short punt, the Tigers drove the ball 39 yards and running back Matt Lupold finished things off from three yards out to make the score 20-0 with 3:12 left in the opening quarter.
The second quarter scoring started off with Marks scoring his second touchdown, this one a nine yard receiving score to put the team up 27-0. The next scoring drive for the Tigers was set up by an interception from linebacker Garett Sosnoski. “On my first interception Cody Pavlick made a nice play and tipped it and I dove to make the pick,” said Sosnoski talking about his first of two interceptions on the night. It only took the SCA offense three plays to score again. Nate Hunter got the call and took it off tackle from three yards out to extend the lead to 34-0 with 9:58 left in the half.
Sosnoski had his second interception on the following series. “Our defensive line has been playing really good and put a lot of pressure on the quarterback,” said the senior. The Tigers took over after the pick at their own one yard line. On the first play, the Tigers main offensive weapon, Adam Feudale, took the carry 64 yards and then Lupold got the nod to score the final touchdown of the half from five yards out. The halftime score was 41-0 in favor of the #1 ranked team in the state. “The offensive line has blocked well and there are still ways for our offense to improve even more,” said Feudale.
The second half featured a lot of the reserves for each team after Feudale made it 48-0 on a 68 yard touchdown scamper. The Tigers extended their lead to 55-0 after Billy Marzeski scored on a nine yard run that was set up by a Blake Marks interception. Teddy Clark and Manuel Ramos each had a rushing touchdown in the final quarter for Muncy to make the final score 55-13. Southern Columbia is home next week against Selinsgrove for homecoming and alumni night as they look to take another step forward to make a deep push in the playoffs.
Southern: 20 21 14 0 — 55
Muncy: 0 0 0 13 — 13
First
quarter
SC — Luke Rarig 6 pass from Nick Becker (Rarig kick), 9:36
SC — Blake Marks 6 run (kick failed), 7:20
SC — Matt Lupold 3 run (Rarig kick), 3:12
Second
quarter
SC — Marks 9 pass from Becker (Rarig kick), 11:26
SC — Nate Hunter 2 run (Rarig kick), 8:56
SC — Lupold 5 run (Rarig kick), 4:59
Third
quarter
SC — Adam Feudale 68 run (Rarig kick), 9:20
SC — Billy Marzeski 9 run (Rarig kick), 7:19
Fourth
quarter
M — Teddy Clark 16 run (Joe Titman kick), 7:43
M — Junior Ramos 60 run (kick failed), 4:12
SC M
First downs 14 12
Rushing-yds. 34-308 27-140
Passing 7-9-0 12-23-3
Passing yds. 125 200
Total yds. 433 340
Fumbles-lost 2-0 2-0
Penalties-yds. 1-10 3-22
INDIVIDUAL
STATISTICS
RUSHING — Southern Columbia: Adam Feudale 9-169, TD; Blake Marks 5-50, TD; Nate Hunter 5-42, TD; Billy Marzeski 3-14, TD; Matt Lupold 4-13, 2 TDs; Brad Noll 2-7; Matt Jeremiah 2-7; Steve Toczylousky 1-5; Sami Abdul 2-1; Nick Becker 1-0. Muncy: Junior Ramos 7-100, TD; Teddy Clark 8-39, TD; Dakota Nixon 5-25; TJ Moyle 2-9; Anthony Barberio 6-(-33).
PASSING — Southern Columbia: Becker 7-9-0, 125 yds., 2 TDs. Muncy: Barberio 11-21-3, 173 yds.; Jeffrey Fry 1-2-0, 27 yds.
RECEIVING — Southern Columbia: Luke Rarig 4-67, TD; Feudale 1-35; Zach Tillett 1-14; Marks 1-9, TD. Muncy: Maurice Brown 6-70; Clark 3-45; Ken Koch 2-76; Eli Warnick 1-9.
Muncy stats- courtesy Damien Scoblink (PE)
3 responses to “Tiger defense looking very impressive”
Brian,
You are certainly correct. I agree with that statement for teams that don’t have enough. I feel bad for those schools too because they are clearly at even more of a disadvantage. However, Muncy had enough players that they could have given backups more time
Steve T, do remember some of these very small schools like montgomery and muncy, etc. have very few players. Montgomery only dress 18 players i believe this year. I’m sure Muncy has more than that but many of these smaller schools don’t have enough players to sub everyone out.
It’s a shame that when Southern pulls their starters that other teams keep theirs in against the Tiger backups. For one, it makes the stats look like the opponent actually moved the ball on the SCA defense, but in reality the opponents keep in their starters against the SCA 3rd & 4th string players. If your starters can’t do anything against the Southern starters, then put your backups in when Roth puts in his. That is a pet peeve I have had for many years now. As the article says, Muncy had negative yardage in the opening half. Give your backups a chance if your starting unit is that bad!