LIZTON — Southmont concluded their Sagamore Conference gauntlet on Friday as they made the trip to take on Tri-West in the regular season finale. In the end the visiting Mounties had no answer for the high-powered Bruins offense as on their senior night Tri-West claimed a share of the Sagamore Conference title with a 35-0 over Southmont.
From their first possession of the game the Bruins flexed their muscle and score on a two yard touchdown by senior tailback Davon Brown. On their second possession it was the same story as senior quarterback Ty Owens found Jeff Marsh for a 39 yard touchdown. Two more touchdown before the half saw Tri-West take a 28-0 lead into the locker room.
“It obviously wasn’t the outcome that we wanted this evening,” Southmont coach Desson Hannum said. “We didn’t play as well as we wanted to in really all three phases of the game. It’s a collective effort and we know there’s a lot of things that we have to better as we move forward into the tournament. Tri-West is a very good football team and it’s just unfortunate we didn’t play like we’re capable of.”
On offense the Mounties mustered just 146 yards with 46 of those yards coming on a big pass from Nick Scott to Sam Line. Wyatt Woodall tallied 51 yards on 15 carries and Carson Chadd rushed just six times for 26 yards.
Owens ended the game for the Bruins with 232 yards through the air, all in the first half as the Bruins didn’t attempt a pass in the second half. Junior receiver Noah Lien had himself quite the game as he caught eight passes for 134 yards. Marsh added four catches for 74 yards. Hannum noted how it’s difficult to prepare for a team like the Bruins who are capable of putting up points in a hurry and have plenty of weapons to defend.
“That quarterback might be the best the quarterback in the conference. He’s really playing well this season and their receiving corps is very good as well. You combine that with how good their o-line is and there’s just a lot of good on that team. On defense they played responsibility football and executed their assignments almost flawlessly. Their an explosive team and just very tough to defend.”
With the loss the Mounties conclude the regular season with a record of 6-3 (4-3 SAC). They end with a third place finish in the conference after Tri-West and Western Boone tied for the SAC title. Lebanon after their loss to the Stars finishes 5-2 in the SAC and 6-3 overall.
Southmont now shifts its focus to next week’s Class 2A Sectional 37 where they will host North Knox. Hannum knows next Friday is win or go home as he and his team will get back to work this week.
“Things will be a little bit different when you’ll likely be playing a team with a similar roster size and guys playing both ways,” Hannum said of the upcoming post-season. “There’s going to be a lot of un-knowns about them (North Knox) because we haven’t seen a lot of them at this point. We’ll have to some breakdown this weekend and figure out what we want to do. In the end though it comes down how we execute in every facet of the game. If we do that then I think we’ll be alright.”
