Unhappy Tigers Still Victorious

Passing game comes alive for SoCo

When a program has established itself as the most dominant one in the state over the past two decades, it comes with almost flawless expectations. A week ago, Southern Columbia came out of the locker room on fire and put the Mount Carmel Area Red Tornadoes on the back burner and into the Mercy Rule by scoring on every drive. This week, the Mercy Rule still was put in place during the Tigers win at Hughesville, but the results were drastically different. The Tigers, who have now won a program-record of 45 straight regular season games, almost seemed defeated after another victory. “We lost our focus tonight for sure. The attitudes were different after halftime compared to last week. Our mentality didn’t seem to be the same and it showed even in a win,” said Tiger two-way lineman Andrew Bell. SCA moved to 4-0 on the season, but a 28-0 halftime lead was trimmed down to 35-19 by the game’s end. “I wasn’t happy with the consistency of our running game. When you coach long enough, you can pick out the times and tell when you’re not playing the way that you’re capable of playing. Give Hughesville credit though because they certainly didn’t give up,” said Southern coach Jim Roth after the team’s 16-point victory.

One of the bright spots that the Tigers did have on the field was the passing game. Sophomore quarterback Stone Hollenbach threw for a career-high 254 yards to go with three touchdown passes while connecting with six different receivers in the process. After starting the game off shaky and missing some wide-open receivers, he completed his final nine pass attempts. “I kind of thought we were going to throw the ball more this week. I didn’t get off to the start that I was looking for after missing some targets, but then I started to connect with the guys down the stretch,” Hollenbach said. His longest pass was a 66-yard touchdown to all-state senior halfback Hunter Thomas. It came just three plays after overthrowing him on the same route. Thomas finished the game as the team’s leading receiver with 99 receiving yards in the first half, but the senior’s night ended prematurely for the second time in three weeks. This time it was an apparent knee injury in the middle of the second quarter. “Our trainer doesn’t think it’s anything too serious, but we need to wait to get him looked at to know for sure,” Roth stated.

The Tigers defense set up the first score of the night when linebacker Anthony Scicchitano recovered a fumble at the Spartans 6-yard line. “I saw their back go in motion to the outside, so I knew I had to get wide. I got lucky because I was the closest one to the ball and was able to get on it. The goal is to get the ball back to the offense as quick as we can to give them a chance to score,” said Scicchitano. One play later, freshman Gaige Garcia scored on an outside hand-off to put SCA up 7-0 at the 6:14 mark in the first quarter. Thomas caught his long touchdown pass five minutes later to put his team up by two scores.

Southern was threatening to score early in the second quarter, but a miscue resulted in a fumble on an exchange inside the 5-yard line. The Tigers forced a 3-and-out on the following drive and got the ball at the 20-yard line after a short punt and return. Garcia added a second touchdown on a 13-yard carry to extend the lead to 21-0. Bell would recover a fumble on the ensuing drive, and Hollenbach threw a 27-yard touchdown pass to Julian Fleming with just 17 seconds left in the half to give the Tigers a comfortable 28-0 lead at the break. “We did not have a good game blocking up front without question. I thought the passing game was pretty solid though. I know some of the early passes Stone would like to have back that he missed on, but then he settled down and made plays,” said Roth.

The Spartans outplayed the Tigers in the second half by outscoring them 19-0 after Southern’s Cam Young caught a 6-yard touchdown putting the game into the Mercy Rule at 35-0. Hughesville quarterback Landon Henry was able to make plays with both his arm and legs after the break. He finished as the team’s leading rusher with 112 yards and added 165 through the air. “We need to improve all-around on defense. That starts with being more aggressive and executing our assignments,” Scicchitano said. Ryan McClain caught a 33-yard touchdown pass from Henry in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, Henry scored on a one yard carry and connected with Ori Shaner on a 55-yard strike on the final play of the game.

For the first time in quite a while, Southern’s offense failed to rush for over 200 yards as a team. The entire second half, Thomas had to watch from the sidelines on crutches. “This was definitely the line’s worst blocking game. Most of the yards that our backs got came after contact. We will fix the problems though and get back to the way we executed in the first three games,” Bell stated. Garcia was able to go over the 500-yard mark on the season through just his first four career games after finishing with a team-high 85 yards on the ground.

Hughesville will look to rebound next week against rival Loyalsock. The Spartans currently sit at 2-2 after starting 2-0. The Tigers travel home next Friday night to host Lewisburg. That will be Southern’s Homecoming as well as Alumni Night. Hollenbach is excited to take on his former Green Dragon teammates after moving from the district this past summer. “It will be a fun game and they have some talented athletes. I’m sure it will be weird at first, but I’m excited for it,” he said.

SCA: 14-14-7-0 = 35
HHS: 0-0-7-12 = 19

SOUTHERN COLUMBIA (4-0)

RUSHING:

Gaige Garcia 15-85, 2 TDs; Nic Fetterman 11-52; Tom Manley 3-19; Hunter Thomas 1-4; Stone Hollenbach 1-3; Nate Crowl 2-2; Ty Roadarmel 1-(-2)

PASSING:

Stone Hollenbach 12-17-0, 254 yds, 3 TDs

RECEIVING:

Hunter Thomas 3-99, TD; Cam Young 4-39, TD; Julian Fleming 1-27, TD; Gaige Garcia 2-45; Garrett Henry 1-42; Nic Fetterman 1-2

1st DOWNS: 16

PENALTIES: 4-35

HUGHESVILLE (2-2)

RUSHING:

Landon Henry 13-112, TD; Jase Wright 6-25; Ryan McClain 7-8; Julian Brehm 1-3; Gavin Steele 1-3

PASSING:

Landon Henry 8-15-0, 165 yds, 2 TDs

RECEIVING:

Jase Wright 3-24; Ryan McClain 2-35, TD; Ori Shaner 1-55, TD; Brenden Gardner 1-51

1st DOWNS: 10

PENALTIES: 7-44

Hughesville stats provided by Damien Scoblink (PE)