By Brian Holtzapple
MOUNT CARMEL -- To have a legitimate shot at making the District 4 Class A playoffs, Southern Columbia needed to beat Mount Carmel, which was also fighting for its playoff life, in Friday night's Heartland Athletic Conference Division II matchup.
And in order to get the win, Southern coach Jim Roth knew his team had to have a good passing day from junior quarterback Jake Townsend and control the line of scrimmage with its running game.
Like a pizza guy, the Tigers delivered.
Townsend threw two touchdown passes in the first half, and Southern's ground game took care of the rest in the second half as the Tigers came away a 31-20 win at the Silver Bowl.
"This is what we needed to do if we were going to have a legitimate shot at doing something in the playoffs," said Roth. "We needed to elevate our play, and play well at the end of the year. Since the Bloomsburg game (a 27-24 loss in week six) we've done that.
"As long as we take care of business next week (the Tigers play at Milton), we have an opportunity to have a first-round home game," added Roth. "At one time during the season that looked out of the question."
Southern (5-4, 4-2 HAC-II) opened up a 17-0 lead in the first half behind Townsend's two touchdown passes and a 42-yard field goal by B.J. Snyder.
Townsend threw a 54-yard strike to Jared Hallick for the first score, and he had a 27-yard pass to Billy Shoop, the latter coming with just three seconds left on the clock.
"That score at the end of the first half had to be back-breaker for Mount Carmel mentally to see that happen," Roth said. "It was one of Jake's better games, certainly as far as throwing the ball."
In the second half the Tigers' focused shifted to running the ball as they tried to sit on that 17-0 lead and eat up as much of the clock as possible.
Mount Carmel (5-4, 4-1) interrupted that plan as Tyler Karycki's 41-yard touchdown run midway through the third quarter cut Southern's lead to 17-6.
The Red Tornadoes continued to make things interesting in the fourth quarter as Jacob Kleman caught a 12-yard scoring pass from Eddie Stewart and Justin Pellowski ran for a 12-yard score.
However, the Tigers added a pair of touchdowns of their own in the fourth on a one-yard run by Jake Morton and a 10-yard run by Tyrell Thomas.
"The thing that pleased me overall was the way the kids hung tough when we had a little momentum shift in the third quarter," Roth said.
"The way we were able to go at them and physically run the ball right at them late in the game when they had 11 people up tight, that's a great sign," Roth added. "That's something we haven't done enough of the last couple of years against quality teams. Had we not done that in the second half, the outcome could've been different."
Townsend finished with 129 passing yards and Thomas piled up 149 yards on the ground on 23 carries. Morton added 48 yards on 16 carries.
"Tyrell has come on in the last couple of weeks. It's just a matter of him getting more comfortable with what he's doing," said Roth. "There's a number of people who we feel have stepped up since the beginning of the year, and that's what we want to see."
