SCHUYLKILL HAVEN -- Mike Kogut kneeled down and took a deep breath near midfield, thankful this one was finally over and his team was the survivor.
What Kogut, a former standout at Mount Carmel and now Tri-Valley head coach was fearful might happen -- a shootout with perennial state power Southern Columbia -- actually did happen in the fourth quarter. But the Tigers never found an answer for the Bulldogs' explosive offense and because of it Tri-Valley is a win from the state title game.
Tri-Valley rolled up 481 yards offensively against a Southern defense that had been playing lights out over the last month and a half. In the end, it was the Bulldogs' defense that made the last stop of the game, forcing Southern out of field goal range in the final seconds to a win wild 35-32 shootout at Schuylkill Haven's Rotary Field in the PIAA Class A quarterfinals.
"You never want to get into a shootout with a team like Southern Columbia, but I was confident with the way our offense was playing," said Kogut, whose team is now 10-4 and will meet the winner of today's Bishop McCort-Millersburg game in the Eastern Final next week. "We challenged our kids, especially our offensive linemen. We wanted to run the ball and our offensive line really showed up."
The loss ended Southern's, the six-time state champion, remarkable turnaround. The Tigers had won six games in a row since starting the season 3-4, but never found an answer for the Bulldogs.
"You can't give up 35 points and expect to win, it's that simple," said Southern Columbia coach Jim Roth. "I never thought we'd have that much trouble with them. They had us on our heels and were able to really run the ball on us."
The Bulldogs ran for 312 yards, including 206 from Wyatt Straub and at least 50 from both fullback Brandon Auman and quarterback Matt McGinley. But it was Straub who did the most damage, despite not getting into the end zone. He took over in the fourth quarter, moments after it looked like his lone mistake of the game might haunt the Bulldogs.
Tri-Valley rallied from a 17-7 deficit early in the third quarter when its defense forced three consecutive three-and-outs. The Bulldogs scored on back-to-back possessions to rally for a 21-17 lead and were about to go up two scores when Straub fumbled the ball away on the first play of the fourth quarter, giving the Tigers the ball near midfield with a chance to take the lead.
But Southern went three-and-out and Straub broke loose. He carried on four consecutive plays, including a 42-yard burst, before the defense sucked up to make the stop and McGinley took an option in from 15 yards out.
That's when things really started to get interesting. Southern raced down the field on just two plays with Jake Morton, who ran for 190 yards, cutting through the middle for a 40-yard TD run to get the Tigers within 28-24 with 7:54 to play.
"Our kids have really grown mentally this year," said Kogut. "Even when we were down 17-7, I felt like we were OK. We just had to answer."
The Bulldogs responded to Southern's answer with one of their own, again riding Straub. He carried the ball on five of six plays, again pulling in the defense, allowing Bryn Bowman to sneak behind the defense for a 21-yard TD catch to make it 35-24 with four minutes left.
Southern again answered quickly. Morton tore through the middle for 30 yards before Jake Townsend found Tim Benner in the end zone for his third TD pass of the game. Morton ran in for two to get the Tigers within a field goal at 35-32 with a little more than three minutes to play.
Roth opted to go for the onside kick, even with three minutes left and a couple of timeouts. After the Tigers were called for offsides on the first one, Matt Hoffman pounced on the short-sided kick, giving the Tigers a chance to win.
"There was just no way we were going to stop them," Roth said of kicking the onside kick so early. "We had no confidence that we would stop them. We played better defensively against Selinsgrove."
Southern moved the ball into Tri-Valley territory, getting the ball to the 24 before a holding call -- the second big penalty of the game to cost Southern -- and a sack took them out of Bryan Snyder's field goal range. On fourth-and-long, a Townsend pass was just out of the reach of Benner on the sideline, ending the drive.
The Tigers led 10-7 at the half, but could have gotten more. Townsend sneaked in from a yard out to seemingly give Southern a touchdown lead in the final minute. But the referee ruled that Townsend was pushed into the end zone by the running backs, negating the TD and the Tigers had to settle for a Snyder field goal and four points that looked huge after the game.
In the wild second half the teams combined for 50 points and 528 yards.
"You can't expect to win a lot of football games when you play defense that way," said Roth.
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