By Brian Holtzapple
BLOOMSBURG -- The old adage that it's not how you start it's how you finish certainly describes Southern Columbia's season in 2009.
A year full of adversity provided doubts whether the Tigers could extend their streak of 19 consecutive appearances in the District 4 Class A playoffs.
Now the only question that's left is if Southern can win its second district title in a row.
Behind 134 yards rushing and two touchdowns from junior fullback Jake Morton, the Tigers punched their ticket into the district final by beating the Bloomsburg Panthers 28-6 in Friday's semifinals.
Southern coach Jim Roth, the mastermind behind 17 District 4 titles and five state championships, called Friday's win in the rematch with Bloomsburg one of the biggest victories in his career.
"It's one of the more impressive wins that we've had, considering a good amount of our starters didn't practice all week due to illness," said Roth, whose team fell to Bloomsburg 27-24 in week seven.
"For the players to come out and play this way is a tribute to their toughness and their courage to gut it out against a good team and turn around the fortunes they had the first time."
Now Southern will play for its 18th district title on Friday against nemesis Line Mountain. The Eagles beat the Tigers in the district final two years ago to end their streak of consecutive district titles at 16.
"It seems like our yearly district game against Line Mountain. It's become a pretty common experience," said Roth.
One of the players that didn't practice much because of illness was Morton, and he really had to carry the load in the game for Southern (7-4) as sophomore halfback Tyrell Thomas didn't play due to disciplinary reasons.
The Tigers only led 7-0 after a back-and-forth first half when Tim Benner caught a 52-yard TD pass from Jake Townsend with just under 7 minutes left in the half.
All of that changed early in the second half when the Tigers' first two possessions of the third quarter were capped by short TD runs of 1 and 4 yards by Morton to culminate into a commanding 21-0 lead with 3:30 remaining.
Bloomsburg (6-5) got on the board at the end of the quarter on Blake Rankin's 38-yard run, but freshman Jake Becker later sealed the deal for Southern.
Becker, a back-up tight end, caught a 15-yard pass from Townsend as time expired in the third.
"The goal is not just to get into the playoffs. Right now it's a district title that's in front of us. That's the goal," Roth said. "If we can accomplish that, we're looking at turning a season that was really in doubt into one with a lot of success.
"This season is as rewarding as some of the years where we've run the table. We started with a lot of young kids, we had some adversity and we lost some games early."
