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Southern Columbia crushes Wilmington in state final
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HERSHEY – Sophomore Gaige Garcia rushed for 154 yards and a touchdown, and caught four passes for 57 yards and another touchdown, as Southern Columbia rolled to a 48-0 victory over Wilmington in the PIAA Class AA football championship game Friday afternoon at Hersheypark Stadium.
Southern Columbia (16-0) won its second state title in three years and has won eight of its last nine PIAA playoff games. The Tigers scored at least 40 points in 15 games this season.
Wilmington (14-1), which defeated Washington in the semifinals last weekend, was held to 104 yards total offense, including 31 rushing yards on 32 attempts.
Late in the second quarter, Garcia caught a 15-yard touchdown pass from Stone Hollenbach to put the Tigers up 24-0. On the first play of the third quarter, Garcia took a sweep 57 yards to put his team well on its way to its record eighth state title in 15 championship game appearances.
Garcia finished the season with more than 2,200 rushing yards and 43 touchdowns.
Wide receiver Julian Fleming caught six passes for 72 yards and a touchdown. Hollenbach capped his junior season by completing 13 of 16 passes for 142 yards and three first-half touchdowns.
Archbishop Wood 49, Gateway 14: Nasir Peoples rushed for 266 yards and four touchdowns as Archbishop Wood rolled to a 49-14 victory over Gateway in the PIAA Class 5A final.
It is the second consecutive state championship for Archbishop Wood (12-3) and its fifth in eight years.
Archbishop Wood scored on each of its first six possessions and led 42-0 in the second quarter.
WPIAL champion Gateway (14-2) was making its first appearance in the state finals.
Peoples rushed for 197 yards and three touchdowns in the first half and added a 19-yard scoring run midway through the third quarter that made it 49-0.
Adrian Lambert had a pair of first-half touchdowns runs for Archbishop Wood.
Gateway quarterback Brady Walker completed 12 of 26 passes for 257 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions. He finishes his career second on the WPIAL’s all-time passing yardage list.