: NIsportsSouthern romps to 3rd straight victory
Published: November 7, 2009
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share this| Friday, November 6, 2009 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | OT | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southern Columbia | 7 | 13 | 18 | 0 | - | 38 |
| Milton | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 0 |
MILTON - Southern Columbia 38-0 victory over Milton in Friday night's regular-season finale went about as expected.
Milton is, simply put, a bad football team.
So, for a measure of the Tigers' being playoff ready, it pays to look deeper at their recent body of work.
Since putting a bigger scare than anybody else has been able to all season into Selinsgrove in Week 7, Southern hasn't been challenged.
Not by Central Columbia. Not by Mount Carmel. And, certainly not by the Black Panthers.
So, taking all that into consideration, it would be
fair to issue a warning to the remainder of the District 4 Class A field that the Tigers, who will either be the No. 2 or No. 3 seed, are much closer to their normal selves than they are to the team that was struggling along with a 3-4 record after seven games.
"If we continue to build off what we did in the second half of the season, we can do some things in the playoffs," Tigers' coach Jim Roth said following the easy shutout over Milton. "Most likely, it looks like we'll be playing Bloomsburg, and that's certainly a game we've been playing to have a shot at. Things have fallen into place as far as that goes."
The Milton victory was built on the elements that have been typical to Southern's long-term success.
The ground game was brutally effective - accounting for 386 of the team's 441 total yards - with both halfback Tyrell Thomas (9 carries, 119 yards) and fullback Jake Morton (12 carries, 155 yards) going over the 100-yard mark.
The defense was its equal, allowing Milton 91 total yards and three first downs, and accounting directly for four points with a pair of safeties.
"Our offense has become more consistent," Roth said. "Our defense is consistent.
"We have enough talent to make a playoff run. The key was to get in, and now we're in."
Southern scored only once in a sluggish first quarter, a 24-yard pass from Jake Townsend to Billy Shoop, but second quarter scores on a 1-yard run by Morton and a 49-yard punt return by Alex Fidler opened things up and put the Tigers firmly in control.
In the third, Thomas had a 1-yard scoring run, Townsend scored on an 11-yard run and Southern added two safeties on bad snaps by the Milton center in shotgun formation near the goal line.
"We feel good about our consistency right now," Roth said. "The guys are more confident now, more comfortable with their roles."
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