If Southern Columbia had a "flat" game against one of its rivals, Bloomsburg, last week, it's probably a good bet the Tigers won't be flat tonight when they host another local rival, Shamokin.
Tiger coach Jim Roth says they better not be.
"You don't like to think that (being flat) would happen in a game against a team like Bloomsburg," Roth said of Southern's 32-20 win which, no matter how it looked, nonetheless ran their record to 7-0. "But in the last couple of years we've been pretty successful against them and that's maybe how this bunch of kids looked at it.
"It was a combination of things. Our kids didn't play their best game and probably took them a little lightly, and their kids maybe played their best game of the year, according to comments I read from Larry (Bloomsburg coach Larry Sones). You're never as mad as you are right after the game, but after looking at the film too, our execution and effort wasn't there like it should have been."
And Roth thinks Shamokin, even with its 2-5 record, is too good a team for the Tigers to let it happen again.
"I think they're definitely better than a two-win team," Roth says. "Even offensively, where I thought they haven't done so well, they look like a solid team. They run effectively, they throw effectively. Turnovers, and execution in certain spots has really hurt them. I think they're a solid team on both sides of the ball. I was pretty impressed when I got a chance to look at their offense. I knew their defense would make you earn what you get."
Roth was even impressed with the Indians' performance in their 35-14 loss to Lewisburg, when they tripled the Green Dragons' number of plays in the first half and only trailed 21-14 late.
"I didn't know a whole lot about the Lewisburg game," Roth says. "That's the only one scorewise where it looked like they had trouble and they were in that game."
Because Southern can be so dominant defensively against the run, opposing teams have been averaging 27 pass attempts per game against the Tigers, and Shamokin will likely approach that number. Quarterback Tucker Yost has thrown for almost 900 yards and five touchdowns against just two interceptions, and Zach Tillett and Sean McLaughlin each have 27 catches for more than 300 yards.