ALMEDIA -- Southern Columbia coach Jim Roth thrives on perfection. Winning five consecutive PIAA Class A state titles does that to a person.
After last weekend's close nonleague win over Clarion, Roth wasn't happy with his team after it rushed for a lot of yards but passed for very few.
With only one week left in the regular season and the playoffs quickly approaching, Roth felt better about his team as Southern's passing attack fell back into form to result in a 42-18 victory over Central Columbia Saturday at Blue Jays Stadium.
Ted Heitzman threw for 173 yards on 12-of-14 passing and had four touchdowns for No. 4-ranked Southern (8-1, 5-1 CSC-II). Three of Heitzman's touchdowns went to Colby Snyder.
Last week, the Tigers threw for only 18 yards.
"The combination of Central's run defense and (us) just wanting to work the passing game a little bit more, and (the passing attack) really kind of fell into place for us today," Roth said. "With the scheme Central was running, I think it made it a little bit tougher for them to cover the pass."
Aaron Farnsworth caught the first touchdown pass from Heitzman. He caught the 14-yard pass along the back end line, giving the Tigers a 7-0 lead after the first quarter.
Snyder caught all three of his touchdowns in the second quarter to build Southern's lead to 28-6. His TD catches were for 3, 29 and 31 yards, respectively.
An 80-yard kickoff return by Central's Jake Machinski was sandwiched between all of Southern's scoring in the second quarter, as Andrew Wimble later scored on a 25-yard run with 27 seconds left in the second quarter to give the Tigers a 35-6 halftime lead.
"Our guys were on and we executed the passing game in the first half," Roth said. "Heitzman threw the ball very well and Snyder and Joey Admire caught the ball."
Despite what Central (1-8, 0-5) did along the defensive front by moving around six and sometimes seven people in the box, Southern managed to run for 170 yards in the game, but it took 40 carries to do so.
The defensive efforts by Central and injuries to Southern starting guards Justin Knoebel and Mike Joseph, plus other personnel changes, slowed the Tigers' running game down at times, especially in the second half.
"We had a couple of younger guys up front. We were playing Brad Witcoskie for the first time at tackle, and we had John Lamb and Adam Wittenrich, who aren't regular starters, playing at guard for us," Roth said. "So we did have some inexperience there, and that probably had something to do with it."
Steve Roth ran for 59 yards and Wimble finished with 56 yards to lead the Tigers' efforts on the ground.
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