CLARION — What makes great teams great is that they don’t settle for less than their best, even in victory.
That was certainly the case for the Southern Columbia Tigers on Friday night.
Despite Southern’s 19-6 non-conference win at Clarion (3-5), Tigers coach Jim Roth was anything but pleased.
“We didn’t feel that we played near the same level as we played last week tonight,” Roth said. “We shouldn’t have had that type of letdown at this point in the season. Over the years, we have always prided ourselves in peaking at the right time, playing our best football in the second half of the season and into the playoffs. With this game at the point of the season, it is just not acceptable for us to come out and play the way we did tonight.”
Southern Columbia, which beat Clarion, a District 9 school located about an hour east of the Ohio line on Interstate 80, 35-0 last season, trailed 6-0 at the end of the first quarter thanks to a 27-yard run by the Bobcats’ Jon Kemmer — who finished with 20 carries for 86 yards — with 48 seconds left in the quarter.
But the Tigers (7-1) responded with a 5-play, 65-yard drive on their ensuing possession, taking a 7-6 lead on a 14-yard Ted Heitzman run and a Bryan Snyder extra point 44 seconds into the second quarter.
“You don’t want to play from behind,” Roth said. “You want to answer when something like that (Clarion’s TD) happens.”
Southern expanded the lead to 13-6 at halftime when Steve Roth — who finished the game with 10 carries for 104 yards — scored the first of his two touchdowns on a 44-yard run with 4:26 left in the half.
The Tigers pushed the lead to 19-6 on the opening drive of the second half — a 6-play, 73-yard drive — that ended on Roth’s 15-yard scamper.
Clarion’s last real hope to score came early in the fourth quarter when it twice had the ball inside the Southern 26-yard line. But Adam Bevevino fumbled the ball at the 17, and then after Clarion recovered a Roth fumble at the SC 26, Andrew Wimble picked off a Bevevino pass at the 1-yard line.
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