Hazleton, PA — Southern Columbia’s punishing running attack carried it to another state championship game. Garrett Garcia ran for 193 yards and three touchdowns, Louden Murphy added 84 and two touchdowns and Carter Madden had 78 yards and one touchdown, with most of the damage done during an avalanche of points in the first half in a 39-7 win over Dunmore on Friday night in the PIAA Class 2A semifinal at Harman-Geist Stadium. Southern Columbia (14-1) will defend its title and seek a seventh straight championship next weekend when it faces Westinghouse, which defeated Beaver Falls, 28-8, in the other semifinal. It will be a rematch of the final from last season. Dunmore, which returned to the state semifinals for the first time since 2017, finished with a record of 12-3. “We are very happy with our kids’ overall effort throughout the entire season,” Dunmore coach Kevin McHale said. “To make it this far is a tremendous accomplishment. There are only four teams left in the state, and obviously we ran into a very good football team that is well coached and does things the right way. They have a great tradition.” Southern Columbia took command of the game from its opening possession and didn’t slow down through an overpowering first 24 minutes. During the first quarter, the Tigers had four scoring drives, dominated the line of scrimmage and rolled up 165 yards rushing on 12 carries. After Garcia ripped off a 22-yard run on his first carry of the game to set the tone, Murphy capped the opening drive with a 7-yard run. Garcia finished the second scoring drive with a 2-yard run, Madden had a 21-yard touchdown run, Garcia added a 48-yard touchdown run and the Tigers had a 26-0 lead at the end of the quarter. The third and fourth scores by Southern Columbia were on two-play drives. Southern Columbia gave its offense good field position by suffocating the rejuvenated Dunmore running game thanks to an offensive philosophy switch to the Wing-T back in Week 6. The Bucks ran 12 plays in the first quarter, with six going for zero or negative yards, which included a bobbled snap on a punt that went for a 20-yard loss and set up one of the Tigers’ touchdowns. Isaac Carter helped stop Dunmore’s fourth possession of the game with a pair of tackles for loss to force a punt early in the second quarter. Murphy scored his second touchdown four plays later on a 13-yard run for a 32-0 lead with 9:02 left in the first half. Domenic DeSando gave the Bucks their first jolt of excitement with a 60-yard kickoff return and a 15-yard facemask penalty added on at the end of the run, putting the ball at the Southern Columbia 14. But Ethan Makowski and Garcia each had tackles for loss, and the Tigers extinguished the scoring threat in four plays. Dunmore linebacker Nicholas Donvito added an interception; however, the offense went three-and-out and it took Southern Columbia three plays to march 56 yards and push the lead to 39-0. Garcia had a 19-yard run and scored on a 21-yard run on the drive to give him 162 yards on eight carries and three scores in a first half where the Tigers had 308 total yards on 30 plays. Southern Columbia’s defense limited the Bucks, who came in having scored more than 40 points in their two previous state playoff games, to 18 total yards on 23 plays, with 19 yards coming on a pass completion to DeSando. “We had a hard time getting anything going,” McHale said. “Their front four were outstanding. Then they have two very good linebackers on the inside. They have guys who can cover. They have it all. They put pressure on the quarterback. They are the real deal; there is no doubt about that.” With the clock running in the second half, the Bucks did get a pair of stops. Donvito tackled Murphy for a loss of 2 yards on fourth down on the Tigers’ first possession of the third quarter, and Nathan Reuther had a pair of tackles for loss later in the half. Dunmore averted the shutout with a 96-yard scoring drive against a defense that had a lot of fresh faces in the game. Ryan Mecca had a 33-yard run to give him 54 yards rushing in the game; Danny Pigga, who finished with 58 yards on 11 carries, added runs of 15 and 13 yards to close with 1,726 yards this season; and Thomas Bowen finished the drive with a 4-yard touchdown run with 7 seconds remaining. “Overall, I can’t say enough about our kids and what they accomplished throughout their four years,” McHale said. “We put our program back on the state map.” (SOURCE: Joby Fawcett, Scranton Times-Tribune)