CATAWISSA RR - Sooner or later, Southern Columbia's missing firepower was going to hurt the Tigers.
Sooner or later, Southern was going to play a team too good.
It happened Friday, when the Tigers failed to take advantage of some early threats and were subsequently outplayed by Montoursville, 26-14, in a District 4-AA semifinal at Tiger Stadium. The Tigers finished the season 11-1, and Montoursville, which won for the seventh time in eight games, will take an 8-4 record into the final next week against Loyalsock, which downed Towanda 50-21 in the other semifinal.
Southern was deep into Montoursville's territory on its first two possessions but came away empty both times, with a missed field goal attempt and then a stop on downs. After the latter, Montoursville drove 66 yards in 10 plays to take a lead on a seven-yard run by Wyatt Entz, and little went right the rest of the game for Southern.
"You would think," Southern head coach Jim Roth said when asked if he thought the entire game might have been different if the Tigers had scored one or both times.
Keith Batkowski carried the ball 26 times for 158 yards and two touchdowns, and quarterback Brycen Mussina threw sparingly but effectively, completing 5 of 11 passes for 122 yards, including a killer 62-yard gain with the game in doubt, for Montoursville.
"We just looked at this as another opportunity to get the seniors another game," Batkowski said. "Southern Columbia is one of the great teams around, but it didn't matter who it was."
"I don't think we were as physical
as we needed to be against a good team," said Roth. "We either couldn't stop them when we had to or keep moving the ball consistently when we had the ball. Give them credit. They outplayed us."
Still, Southern fans had to be thinking 'What if?' in a season during which three top-caliber skill players - Luke Rarig, Blake Marks and Hunter Thomas - go down with season-ending injuries.
"That made it tougher, no question about it," Roth said. "It's never a good thing when you're moving people around late in the season to spots they're not familiar with. One of the things we said last week was that we needed to step it up and play better, and obviously we didn't do that."
An uncharacteristic mistake by the Tigers enabled Montoursville to take a two-touchdown lead. A high snap over punter Nick Becker's head resulted in a punt of minus-17 yards after Becker scrambled around. Mussina threw a 28-yard pass to Entz on the next play, and Batkowski scored on a 13-yard run to make it 13-0 with 9:08 remaining in the half.
Southern bounced back with an eight-play, 76-yard drive, capped by a one-yard plunge by Becker after a 29-yard run to the three by Matt Jeremiah.
The second half started with a crazy series of turnovers on three straight plays, traded fumbles and an interception by Southern's Billy Marzeski. That set up the game's turning point. Southern drove from its 40 to the 15, but backup fullback Jared Torres lost a fumble back to Montoursville. Southern forced a punt but couldn't advance the ball, and then the Warriors' line then took over. Montoursville drove 72 yards in seven plays, the last a 24-yard run on a fourth-down draw by Batkowski for another two-touchdown lead.
"In high school football, if you force teams into 10, 12, 15-play drives, sooner or later something's going to happen, a turnover or something," Montoursville coach J.C. Keefer said. "To go up two scores at that point was huge."
Southern drove to Montoursville's 37 but was again stopped on downs, and Mussina found Curtis Miller behind Southern defenders for a 62-yard pass to the three, setting up a two-yard touchdown pass to tight end Mitchell Rothrock, again on fourth down.
"We told Mitchell you're going to play every down, and if you block your tail off, we'll get you a touchdown," Keefer said.
Southern scored a cosmetic touchdown on a seven-yard pass from Becker to Mike Klebon with 1:11 to play, and got the ball back with an onside kick but Jacob Strassner intercepted a Becker desperation pass at the goal line to clinch the game.
Game Summary
Montoursville 0 13 6 7 - 26
Southern 0 7 0 7 - 14
M - Wyatt Entz, 7 run (kick blocked)
M - Keith Batkowski, 13 run (Nick Russo kick)
SC - Nick Becker, 1 run (Tyler Keiser kick)
M - Batkowski, 24 run (run failed)
M - Mitchell Rothrock, 2 pass from Brycen Mussina (Russo kick)
SC - Mike Klebon, 7 pass from Becker (Keiser kick)
M SC
First downs 16 20
Rushes-Yards 42-194 43-189
Passes 5-11-1 19-36-1
Passing Yards 122 176
Total Yards 316 365
Fumbles-Lost 1-1 3-2
Penalties 7-70 11-71
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
RUSHING: Montoursville - Batkowski 26-158, 2 TDs; Josh Dinges 4-26, Entz 7-21, 1 TD; Curtis Miller 2-5, team 1-0, Mussina 2-(-16). Southern Columbia - Jeremiah 13-86, Billy Barnes 6-11, Steve Toczylousky 6-36. Becker 9-22, 1 TD; Billy Marzeski 5-14, Brad Noll 2-12.
PASSING: Montoursville - Mussina 5-11-1, 122 yds., 1 TD. Southern Columbia - Becker 19-36-1, 176 yds., 1 TD.
RECEIVING: Montoursville - Entz 3-58, Miller 1-62, Rothrock 1-2, TD. Southern Columbia - Toczylousky 6-73, Klebon 4-32, 1 TD; Marzeski 3-16, Noll 2-19, Jacob Ryan 1-11, Barnes 1-1.
INTERCEPTIONS: Montoursville - Jacob Strassner. Southern Columbia - Marzeski.