If there is one team in District 4 that seems to have improved most from the first week of the season until now, it's probably Montoursville, Southern Columbia's opponent in Friday's District 4 AA semifinals. The Warriors were 2-3 at the midway point of the season and have gone 5-1 since then.
But Warriors' head coach J.C. Keefer said he thinks his team has been getting better "every single week."
"We play a tough schedule and when you play the teams we play, with a young team early in the year, we were finding ourselves," Keefer said this week. "The line and the backs were learning where the holes would be. We had a first-year quarterback who took some time to put things together."
In fact, all of those first five games could have gone either way. The Warriors beat a good South Williamsport team 38-36, then had a letdown in a 19-10 loss to Lewisburg. They beat Mifflinburg in a wild game, 48-41, then lost by just a touchdown to unbeaten Jersey Shore, 27-21, before losing by two points to Shikellamy, 20-18. Since then, other than a 35-0 loss to Selinsgrove, they've outscored their five victims, 211-41, including a 38-27 win over Loyalsock and a 31-6 win over Lewisburg.
Sophomore quarterback Brycen Mussina has completed 111 of 229 passes for 1,606 yards and 17 touchdowns.
"Brcsen, at the beginning of the year, had some jitters, and it took him some time to realize how fast the game goes," Keefer said. "It took him a few games to get comfortable. We moved Wyatt (Entz) to wide receiver and gave him some guys to throw to. He's a heck of an athlete. He's very smart and a hard worker."
Mussina may not be a surprise to Keefer but tailback Keith Batkowski is. Batkowski has carried the ball 291 times for 1,784 yards and 16 touchdowns.
"Batkowski is probably, pound for pound, the toughest kid I've ever coached," Keefer said. "He brings
that wrestling mentality to the game. I knew he was a good player but I didn't think he'd be running up on 1,800 yards. He's got great vision and he's able to cut off pulling guards to make extra yards."
The Warriors gave up almost 29 points per game in the first five games, and have halved that to about 14 points per game in the six game since. But Keefer said his defense has been solid all season and that some of the point totals early were skewed by oddities.
"Mifflinburg is the only real shootout we had, and their offensive scheme for some reason always gives us trouble," he said. "Against Jersey Shore, a real good team, we gave up two late touchdowns. In the first game against Lewisburg, we gave up an interception for a touchdown, and Shikellamy scored two touchdowns on gimmick plays. So I think our defense has been solid all year. Our front four I think is the best in the area, we have a good linebacker and our secondary is solid."
But Keefer also knows his team will be up against a program, as opposed to a team, when it takes on the unbeaten Tigers. Keefer is familiar with Southern because the Warriors have traditionally scrimmaged Southern for some years.
"Jim (Roth) and I have become pretty good friends, and what really impresses me about them is that it's not easy to plug guys in when you have injuries like they've had," he said. "Last year we were 9-0 and lost Cameron Ott and some other guys. We got decimated and couldn't recover. A program like Southern's is able to because they have kids who come up through the system and they know what the goals and rules are.
"It's very difficult to go 10-0 and they've done it so many times. I would love to try and figure out how they're able to do that.
"I love the physicality of their team, how tough they are. There are no individuals with them. They're a team, a unit."