Sports
Tigers blast Bloomsburg
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| Julie Nicolov/Staff PhotoSouthern Columbia’s Sam Springer (15) follows the block of teammate Tyler Weaver as he picks up yardage during Friday night’s victory over Bloomsburg. Springer rushed for 160 yards and two touchdowns in the Tigers’ 55-14 victory. |
CATAWISSA R.R. — Not this year, folks.
BY CHUCK SOUDERS
SPORTS WRITER
chuck_s@newsitem.com
CATAWISSA R.R. — Not this year, folks.
If there has been a theme around Southern Columbia’s football team this week, if not this past year, it was that, and it was directed at Bloomsburg, 19-0 vanquishers of the Tigers in 2007.
This is 2008 though, and the Tigers showed Friday they are very serious about regaining their place as the top Class A football team in District Four, if not the state.
The Tigers (6-0) ran for 451 yards, did not commit a turnover and thoroughly manhandled a pretty good Bloomsburg team, 55-14, with all three of their starting backs running for at least 91 yards and scoring a touchdown.
Sam Springer carried 15 times for 160 yards and two touchdowns, Steve Roth gained 118 yards and scored three times, and Austin Carpenter added 91 yards and a touchdown.
“We were real fired up,” said Roth, who scored all three of his touchdowns in the first half as the Tigers rolled up 228 yards on the ground but only led 28-14 against the pesky Panthers (4-2). “In the three years I’ve been playing here, I haven’t seen the entire team as pumped all week for a game as we were coming into today.”
In fact, if there was a negative, it’s that the Tigers may have been a little too pumped. They were flagged for six penalties in the first quarter, mostly on illegal procedures when they reacted too quickly to the Panthers’ moving around a lot on the defensive front.
“That was a little bit of the adrenaline,” said Roth. “As a team, we didn’t expect them to jump around like that.”
“Sometimes when you get as excited to play someone as we were, you don’t know how kids will respond,” said Southern head coach Jim Roth. “That shifting around was something we hadn’t seen from them this year, but we have seen them do it before. We should have been ready for that.”
Those penalties were really the only negative to speak about though. Southern had a 7-0 lead with the game barely two minutes old when Steve Roth scored on a four-yard run after Bloomsburg coughed the ball up on a fumble at its 16 on its first series.
Southern got its second score on a 30-yard pass from Jeremy Campbell to Joey Admire, which pleased coach Roth.
“We’ve had a touchdown pass in every game but one,” he said. “Jeremy and Joe did a nice job on that play. They’ve been effective, and that’s good to know if we have to pump it up a few more times.”
Speaking of pumping it up, Bloomsburg freshman quarterback Blake Rankin showed he can do it, hitting Charles Franklin with a 78-yard bomb on the next series to cut the lead to 14-7.
But Southern’s unstoppable force came right back with a 12-play, 80-yard drive, capped by a three-yard run by Roth, who carried five times for 42 yards on the series.
The Tigers went 66 yards in seven plays on their next series, with Roth scoring on a 30-yard run.
But the Panthers showed their spunk again, with an 11-play, 71-yard scoring drive, with Rankin completing all three of his passes for 50 yards and getting help from a pass interference call. Rankin threw nine yards to McLaughin for a touchdown.
That gave Bloomsburg coach Larry Sones some hope.
“I thought we had something going there,” Sones said. “I thought stopping them on the first series of the second half was key but boy, boom-boom-boom, they just took it to us.”
Those three booms were the Tigers scoring on each of their first three drives of the second half.
Springer scored on an eight-yard run to cap a six-play, 65-yard drive, then did most of it on his own with a 59-yard touchdown run, and Carpenter got in on the action with a four-yard touchdown to end a short drive after Admire had a 23-yard punt return to Bloomsburg’s 24.
That last score put the game into the mercy rule.
Reserve Dan Garvine tacked on a one-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.
“I felt we could have done some things a little better, but when you’re running the ball like we were, you’ve got to be happy,” Jim Roth said. “They did a nice job getting back in the game and I was a little concerned at halftime, especially the way they can hit big plays. But our kids really came out and took it to them in the second half.”
Southern has another big test next week, playing at 5-1 Selinsgrove.
If there has been a theme around Southern Columbia’s football team this week, if not this past year, it was that, and it was directed at Bloomsburg, 19-0 vanquishers of the Tigers in 2007.
This is 2008 though, and the Tigers showed Friday they are very serious about regaining their place as the top Class A football team in District Four, if not the state.
The Tigers (6-0) ran for 451 yards, did not commit a turnover and thoroughly manhandled a pretty good Bloomsburg team, 55-14, with all three of their starting backs running for at least 91 yards and scoring a touchdown.
Sam Springer carried 15 times for 160 yards and two touchdowns, Steve Roth gained 118 yards and scored three times, and Austin Carpenter added 91 yards and a touchdown.
“We were real fired up,” said Roth, who scored all three of his touchdowns in the first half as the Tigers rolled up 228 yards on the ground but only led 28-14 against the pesky Panthers (4-2). “In the three years I’ve been playing here, I haven’t seen the entire team as pumped all week for a game as we were coming into today.”
In fact, if there was a negative, it’s that the Tigers may have been a little too pumped. They were flagged for six penalties in the first quarter, mostly on illegal procedures when they reacted too quickly to the Panthers’ moving around a lot on the defensive front.
“That was a little bit of the adrenaline,” said Roth. “As a team, we didn’t expect them to jump around like that.”
“Sometimes when you get as excited to play someone as we were, you don’t know how kids will respond,” said Southern head coach Jim Roth. “That shifting around was something we hadn’t seen from them this year, but we have seen them do it before. We should have been ready for that.”
Those penalties were really the only negative to speak about though. Southern had a 7-0 lead with the game barely two minutes old when Steve Roth scored on a four-yard run after Bloomsburg coughed the ball up on a fumble at its 16 on its first series.
Southern got its second score on a 30-yard pass from Jeremy Campbell to Joey Admire, which pleased coach Roth.
“We’ve had a touchdown pass in every game but one,” he said. “Jeremy and Joe did a nice job on that play. They’ve been effective, and that’s good to know if we have to pump it up a few more times.”
Speaking of pumping it up, Bloomsburg freshman quarterback Blake Rankin showed he can do it, hitting Charles Franklin with a 78-yard bomb on the next series to cut the lead to 14-7.
But Southern’s unstoppable force came right back with a 12-play, 80-yard drive, capped by a three-yard run by Roth, who carried five times for 42 yards on the series.
The Tigers went 66 yards in seven plays on their next series, with Roth scoring on a 30-yard run.
But the Panthers showed their spunk again, with an 11-play, 71-yard scoring drive, with Rankin completing all three of his passes for 50 yards and getting help from a pass interference call. Rankin threw nine yards to McLaughin for a touchdown.
That gave Bloomsburg coach Larry Sones some hope.
“I thought we had something going there,” Sones said. “I thought stopping them on the first series of the second half was key but boy, boom-boom-boom, they just took it to us.”
Those three booms were the Tigers scoring on each of their first three drives of the second half.
Springer scored on an eight-yard run to cap a six-play, 65-yard drive, then did most of it on his own with a 59-yard touchdown run, and Carpenter got in on the action with a four-yard touchdown to end a short drive after Admire had a 23-yard punt return to Bloomsburg’s 24.
That last score put the game into the mercy rule.
Reserve Dan Garvine tacked on a one-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.
“I felt we could have done some things a little better, but when you’re running the ball like we were, you’ve got to be happy,” Jim Roth said. “They did a nice job getting back in the game and I was a little concerned at halftime, especially the way they can hit big plays. But our kids really came out and took it to them in the second half.”
Southern has another big test next week, playing at 5-1 Selinsgrove.
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