By Scott Dudinskie
COAL TWP. — Despite what the 60-7 score may imply, Northwest Area did stop Southern Columbia on occasion Friday night.
Amid a torrent of first-half Tiger touchdowns, the District 2 champion Rangers forced a punt, their first minor victory of the game.
The punted ball, however, was inadvertently touched by a Northwest player and recovered deep in Rangers territory, leading to a quick Southern score.
It happened twice, actually. That’s right. On a night when the six-time state champions could seemingly do nothing wrong, the Tigers couldn’t even give the ball away.
Jake Morton ran for four touchdowns, all in the first half, and his fullback understudy Tyler Levan rushed for three more as Southern cruised in the first-round Class A state playoff game at Shamokin’s Kemp Memorial Stadium.
“Everything fell into place,” said Morton, a junior who totaled a game-high 97 rushing yards in the first half. “We were playing good, almost errorless football.”
The Tigers (9-4), who were in danger of missing the playoffs after a 3-4 start, will next play the winner of tonight’s game between District 1 champion St. Pius X and District 11 champ Tri-Valley.
Northwest (9-4) won the first district title in school history a week ago after several runner-up finishes. However, the Rangers, playing in the All-American Conference, didn’t face near the level of competition Southern had and they were clearly overmatched from the start.
Northwest went nearly three quarters before recording its initial first down. The Rangers had minus-19 yards at halftime as only five of the 22 offensive plays they triggered gained positive yardage.
The Tigers finished with a 398-49 edge in total yards.
“You’ve got to take your hat off to Southern. They’re a great football team,” said Northwest coach Carl Majer, a former linebacker who held Berwick’s career tackles record. “Nobody likes getting beat like that, but ... it was a great learning experience for our program and coaching staff.”
Southern scored with little resistance on its first five possessions. The Tigers’ average starting field position on the four scoring drives that began in the first quarter was Northwest’s 21.
A bad punt snap on Northwest’s first series gave Southern the ball at the 21. Morton scored four plays later.
An interception by Jared Hallick was returned 21 yards to the Rangers 10. Morton scored on the second snap.
And a mishandled option pitch late in the quarter put Southern on the 8 and allowed Morton to score just two seconds into the second quarter.
“The field position helped us a lot, and our execution was good,” said Morton. “We knew it was big for our line to block well.”
The first punt mishap occurred a series after Southern’s Billy Shoop hauled in a 29-yard touchdown pass from Jake Townsend for a 34-0 lead. Tim Benner’s punt was on the verge of being downed when a Ranger got too close. A scramble ensued and Southern recovered the ball at the Northwest 25. Morton ran for 11 and 12 yards on the three-play drive.
Southern got the ball at midfield following a punt with 1:48 to play in the half, and Levan bolted for a 30-yard TD and a 48-0 halftime lead.
“We just couldn’t get anything going in the first half,” said Majer. “I said all week long we’d have to play mistake-free football, and we just didn’t.”
Northwest inexplicably had a similar punt mishap early in the second half, giving the ball back to Southern at the 14 to set up Levan’s second score.
The Rangers got their only first down (and points) on the ensuing drive when Jeff Moss chucked a 60-yard pass down the middle of the field to Steve Merth on a third-and-10 play.
John Voyton led Northwest with 2 rushing yards. The Rangers had minus-18 yards on 15 runs.
“I felt that we maybe could get an edge up front in the line,” said Tigers coach Jim Roth, “but I didn’t foresee the way we would control things on both sides of the ball. I didn’t think it would be this easy.”
