Montoursville advances to district final
By Dave Fegley (Twitter: @DFegs9)
After the first seven weeks of the regular season, the Montoursville Warriors were sitting at 3-4 in serious jeopardy of missing the playoffs. Now, a little over a month later, they are headed to the District IV AA Championship after upsetting the top-seeded and undefeated Southern Columbia Tigers. “I have been asked a lot what we have done to change things up, but honestly the answer is nothing. We have just simply gotten better. We have a very young team, and at first the game was too fast for a lot of the guys. As the season has moved along, our guys have settled in and played better with more confidence,” said Montoursville coach J.C. Keefer after his team’s 26-14 victory at Tiger Stadium. This will be only the second time since 1990 that the Tigers won’t be the champions of District IV after winning 22 of the last 23 district crowns.
Southern coach Jim Roth challenged his team after last week’s victory and the Tigers weren’t able to make the plays when they needed to in order to win and advance. “You have to give Montoursville a lot of credit because they made the plays when they needed to. I was disappointed that we weren’t able to match them in terms of physical play better. There were too many times where we needed to sustain a long drive and make plays. We weren’t able to do that, and on the flip side they did it,” Roth said. The Tigers were also hampered with turnovers and penalties throughout the night. Southern turned the ball over three times and got called for 11 penalties in the loss most of them coming when they had chances to score.
The scoring started on Friday night with 11:50 remaining in the second quarter. Montoursville’s Wyatt Entz scored on a seven yard run after catching a 20 yard pass three plays prior from quarterback Brycen Mussina. Southern was able to block the extra point to keep the score at 6-0. The Warriors defense forced a three-and-out on the next possession. Nick Becker was back to punt for the Tigers, but after a high snap over his head, that resulted in a rushed punt, Montoursville took over at the Tiger 42. Entz caught a 29 yard pass from Mussina on the second play of the drive, and on the next play junior running back Keith Batkowski scored on a 13 yard run to put the Warriors up 13-0.
Southern was able to answer on the following series. Steve Toczylousky caught a 33 yard pass from Becker which took the ball into Warrior territory. A few plays later, Matt Jeremiah rushed for 29 yards and then Becker scored from a yard out to cut into Montoursville’s lead at 13-7. Both teams traded stops to finish out the first half, and Montoursville went into the break with a touchdown lead. “Our defense has been consistently making stops the last couple of weeks. To hold a team like Southern to only one touchdown in a half really shows how good our defense is,” stated Keefer.
The second half started off sloppy for both teams. Only a minute into the third quarter, Montoursville fumbled giving the Tigers good field position. The drive didn’t last long as the Tigers gave the ball back on the next play with a fumble of their own. Mussina was intercepted on the next play by Southern’s Billy Marzeski which caused the third consecutive turnover in three plays. Southern had a nice drive going deep in Montoursville territory, but the Warriors forced a fumble and Andy Biber recovered at the 14 yard line which kept the Tigers from potentially taking the lead. “We made a lot of mistakes and you can’t expect to win ball games when you do that against a quality team,” said Roth.
Montoursville used a combination of the pass and the run to drive down the field on the ensuing possession. The Tigers defense came up with a third down stop making it fourth and six at the 24 yard line. After a timeout, Montoursville made a gutsy call that turned out to be the play of the game. The Warriors called a draw play, and Batkowski took the handoff up the middle for a 24 yard score to put his team up 19-7 with just under three minutes left in the third quarter. “The offensive line has been doing it all year. Without them I wouldn’t have the opportunity to make plays. We played against one of the greatest teams out there, but that didn’t stop us from coming in here and getting the win,” said Batkowski who finished with 150 yards rushing to go along with his two scores.
Southern wasn’t able to do anything on their next possession, but they got the ball back after forcing a three-and-out on the next drive. Becker completed passes to multiple receivers to help move the ball, but Southern turned the ball over on downs after Montoursville’s defensive line overpowered the Tigers line on fourth down forcing an off-balanced fourth down pass attempt. Montoursville took over and was able to sustain a long drive to eat up clock. Mussina connected with Curtis Miller for a long 62 yard pass to give the Warriors first and goal at the three. Southern’s defense held and forced a fourth down at the two yard line. Montoursville made another great call by faking the run and having Mussina complete a touchdown pass to his tight end Mitch Rothrock to make the score 26-7 late in the fourth and put an exclamation point on the win. “It was a great play call by coach because they were expecting us to pound the ball. We faked the play-action which sucked their defense in, and Mitch was wide open so I just had to make the throw and he caught it,” said Mussina who is the son of former MLB star pitcher Mike Mussina.
With just under three minutes remaining Becker, who threw a career high 36 times, lead the Tigers down the field through the air and he hit Mike Klebon for a seven yard touchdown to make the score 26-14. The Tigers were then able to recover an onside-kick and had one final chance at a miracle comeback, but Becker was intercepted with under a minute to play by Jake Strassner.
The Tigers season comes to an end at 11-1 after winning the Heartland Conference championship in the regular season. The Warriors will go on to face backyard-foe Loyalsock next Friday night in the district championship game. “We are just going to try and keep doing our thing. We’re not going to worry about the guys on the other side because we just need to focus on doing our jobs, and that’s how it’s supposed to be done,” Mussina said.
Note:
Impressive Start: Southern Columbia finished its first season at the Class AA level by winning 11 games and allowing the least amount of points in the district during the regular season. They also won more games than any other team in the conference by the Mercy Rule.
Injury Bug: The Tigers lost their top overall player and top four rushers as well. Returning all-state receiver and corner, Luke Rarig, tore his ACL in week one. He led the Tigers in every receiving category last season, and was their leader on the defensive side of the ball as well. Their top returning rusher from last season, Blake Marks, was only able to play half of this season after suffering an upper body injury in the summer and then tearing his knee up during the season. Hunter Thomas, who led the division in yards per carry, broke his leg late in the regular season to end his season. Brad Noll missed half of the season with an MCL tear, and he was another starting running back for the Tigers that had big play capability. The Tigers leading rusher this season, Matt Jeremiah, was hampered with a lower leg injury causing him to miss time as well throughout the season including the second half against Montoursville. Three of the starting offensive lineman for the Tigers suffered injuries causing them to miss at least a game apiece.
Senior Stars: The biggest surprise for Southern was senior linebacker Billy Barnes. The wrestling standout moved to Southern late in the summer and didn’t decide to play football until just before the first practice. He hadn’t played football since 8th grade, but led the Tigers defense from game one. Barnes, a Bloomsburg University wrestling recruit, led the Tigers in every major defensive category. Unofficially he finished the season with 106 tackles, six sacks, and four interceptions (two returned for touchdowns). Senior captain, Trent Donlan, was also a huge part of the Tigers success. The lineman started every single game, 54 in total, from his freshman year when the Tigers made the state championship until the end of his career on Friday night against Montoursville. “It was a fun ride. We might not of been able to accomplish the ultimate goal of every Southern team of winning a state title, but being able to play for the best program in the state and helping add to the legacy was a real honor,” said Donlan.
SCA: 0-7-0-7 = 14
MON: 0-13-6-7 = 26
SOUTHERN COLUMBIA (11-1)
RUSHING:
Matt Jeremiah 12-87; Steve Toczylousky 5-31; Billy Marzeski 5-15; Billy Barnes 6-12; Brad Noll 2-11; Nick Becker 8-34, TD; Jared Torres 2-9;
PASSING:
Nick Becker 19-36-1, 162 yds, TD
RECEIVING:
Mike Klebon 4-32, TD; Brad Noll 2-17; Steve Toczylousky 6-73; Cameron Young 2-23; Billy Barnes 1-1; Jake Ryan 1-11; Billy Marzeski 3-15
1st DOWNS: 20
PENALTIES: 11-70
MONTOURSVILLE (8-4)
RUSHING:
Keith Batkowski 24-150, 2 TDs, Josh Dinges 6-30; Wyatt Entz 6-18, TD; Curtis Miller 2-5
PASSING:
Brycen Mussina 5-11-1, 124 yds, TD
RECEIVING:
Wyatt Entz 3-60; Curtis Miller 1-62; Mitch Rothrock 1-2, TD
1st DOWNS: 14
PENALTIES: 7-70
Montoursville Stats provided by Damien Scoblink (PE)
6 Responses
Warriors#1, just so you know pretty much 100% of the skill positions were on the sideline for SCA. The entire backfield for a good part of the 2nd half were all backups. The wide receiver was a backup. I know montoursville had to deal with injuries too but I will take a guess it wasn’t the important pieces to their offensive weapons. I won’t go as far to say that SCA would’ve mercy ruled Montoursville but I would be willing to say SCA would be 2 TDs better. I think this SCA had the best chance to do something in states if healthy. Unfortunately we’ll never know now. Both teams played with the guys they had and yes montoursville was the better team that night.
@ MCA FAN, Yes Southern was missing some allstate players, and with them playing it may have been a CLOSER game, but what you didn’t know was Montoursville was playing without 3 starting players as well. Standout receiver/HB/OLB Nolan Ott out with a MCL tear, 6’4″ 255lb TE Nick Crist(Rothrock was his backup) out with a MCL tear, and Kyle Lynch LB (2nd most tackles for the Warriors) out with an upper body injury. So be mature with your comments…Mercy Rule the Warriors…I think not. How about it was a great game between two storied programs in district 4, and the better team won that night. Enough with the excuses they both had missing key players.
Being a MCA fan, but also following southern closely I find the tigers would have mercy ruled Montoursville with all 3 players healthy. Brain, You cant expect Becker to put up bigger numbers when he’s missing 2 potential all state caliber players (marks and rarig) and another tremendous athelete (Thomas). Not to many players can out jump and catch marks and rarig in the receiving game.
Yes Becker had more rushing TD’s this year. He did improve in that area but he was subpar in passing compared to last year. It was the lack of consistency in the passing game that didn’t allow SCA to overcome their injuries. Yes, I do give kudos to the kids who filled in for the injured players. However, come playoff time a team can’t win when they have so many of their skilled positions missing. Yes, most teams would be happy with an 11-1 record, however, that’s what separates the consistent successful programs and those that have one or two really good years. Nothing here says anything about being unthankful just states the truth.
Some of you SCA fans are hysterical. Most teams would be thrilled to have a year like SCA did. 11-1 is a great season, and you beat the team that won the 3A district championship! I am pretty sure if you check his stats, Becker had more rushing yds and rushing TDs this year over last. Yes the top offensive players were out but those KIDS did a hell of a job despite the injuries. Honestly, I hope the players don’t feel like they have to live up to your expectations and some of the other crazies. Luckily, not all of the SCA fan base is so unthankful. Happy Thanksgiving!
You summed it up in your injury bug. A team can’t win in the playoffs when they’re using their 4th, 5th, and 6th running backs. Plus their WR/DB was out all year. There’s no other team who had to play without its 4 best offensive weapons. The other problem was the QB, no offense, but he was less than mediocre this year. I thought I’d see a big improvement from last year and its seems like he regressed in passing. I don’t know how he got 1st team HAC II because I didn’t see him play at that level at all this year.