CATAWISSA RR - South Williamsport's Dominick Bragalone had a ton of yards, as usual, but Southern Columbia won the District 4 Class A title, as usual.
Bragalone, South Williamsport's junior tailback who entered Saturday's district championship game with 2,940 rushing yards, added 326 to his total but the Tigers' Adam Feudale and his teammates matched him yard for yard and were never in trouble, winning their 22nd district title in 23 years, 47-21.
Southern (12-0) will play District 2 champion Old Forge (11-1) next week at a District 4 site, likely Shamokin. South Williamsport finished the season 10-2.
Feudale ran for 221 yards on just 11 carries, added 95 yards on kick returns and a 23-yard pass reception for 339 all-purpose yards, and the Tigers bolted to a 47-7 lead late in the third quarter. Southern (12-0) finished with 521 total yards but had 501 yards on just 39 offensive snaps with 2:05 left in the third quarter.
Bragalone had touchdown runs of 87 and 92 yards in the second half, the former against Southern's first team, but his 300-plus yards were amazingly not much of a factor.
"Bragalone's a good back and they're a very good team," said Southern head coach Jim Roth. "I thought our first guys would do a little better
job against him, but they have four Ls (losses) in the two years, and they're all to us. They've beaten everyone else."
As good as Bragalone was, Southern's overall offense was better. The Tigers averaged more than 13 yards per play in the first half, and that average was brought down considerably by three pass incompletions.
After the Mounties had a nice drive on their first possession, a fumble recovery by Cody Pavlick was followed by a 60-yard run by Feudale on his first carry. He scored on a six-yard run to cap a five-play, 84-yard drive.
Quarterback Nick Becker connected with Luke Rarig for a 35-yard touchdown pass after a 40-yard run by Feudale to finish a four-play, 83-yard drive.
Matt Lupold ran 31 yards for a touchdown to end a four-play, 51-yard drive, making it 21-0, and Nate Hunter scored on a five-yard run, set up by a 32-yard Feudale run, to make it 28-0 with 6:22 left in the half.
The downer on that play was that Hunter injured his knee and may be questionable for next week.
Bragalone then ripped off a 50-yard run and scored from 14 yards out, but Blake Marks scored on a 10-yard run with 1:43 remaining in the half.
Becker and Rarig connected for a 27-yard pass on the first series of the second half, and Feudale's 43-yard run put the game into the mercy rule.
"We've talked about guys stepping it up now that the second season's here and Adam has really taken that to heart," Roth said. "He's played his best football the past couple of weeks."
Game Summary
S. Williamsport 0 7 7 7 - 21
S. Columbia 14 21 12 0 - 47