Warrior senior Matt Pelleschi (62) tackles Southern Columbia’s Trevor Yorks in the backfield for a loss Friday night.
                                 Tony Callaio | For Times Leader

Warrior senior Matt Pelleschi (62) tackles Southern Columbia’s Trevor Yorks in the backfield for a loss Friday night.

Tony Callaio | For Times Leader

<p>The Warriors defensive tackle Nick Elko sacks Southern Columbia quarterback Liam Klebon for a 13-yard loss in the first quarter Friday night. Wyoming Area came within minutes of ending Southern Columbia’s 63-game winning streak, but ultimately fell to the Tigers 37-30. Coverage of the game could be found at timesleader.com.</p>
                                 <p>Tony Callaio | For Times Leader</p>

The Warriors defensive tackle Nick Elko sacks Southern Columbia quarterback Liam Klebon for a 13-yard loss in the first quarter Friday night. Wyoming Area came within minutes of ending Southern Columbia’s 63-game winning streak, but ultimately fell to the Tigers 37-30. Coverage of the game could be found at timesleader.com.

Tony Callaio | For Times Leader

<p>Wide receiver Usamah Alansari hauls in a 26-yard touchdown catch from quarterback Blaise Sokach-Minnick in the first quarter against Southern Columbia on Friday night.</p>
                                 <p>Tony Callaio | For Times Leader</p>

Wide receiver Usamah Alansari hauls in a 26-yard touchdown catch from quarterback Blaise Sokach-Minnick in the first quarter against Southern Columbia on Friday night.

Tony Callaio | For Times Leader

<p>Wyoming Area’s Drew Mruk celebrates after recovering a Southern Columbia fumble.</p>
                                 <p>Tony Callaio | For Times Leader</p>

Wyoming Area’s Drew Mruk celebrates after recovering a Southern Columbia fumble.

Tony Callaio | For Times Leader

<p>Wyoming Area’s Drew Mruk raises his finger after scoring on a 31-yard touchdown run in the first quarter Friday night against Southern Columbia.</p>
                                 <p>Tony Callaio | For Times Leader</p>

Wyoming Area’s Drew Mruk raises his finger after scoring on a 31-yard touchdown run in the first quarter Friday night against Southern Columbia.

Tony Callaio | For Times Leader

WEST PITTSTON — Wyoming Area was right there. So close to ending the longest winning streak in the nation.

But as the Warriors found out in painful fashion, Southern Columbia didn’t win 63 consecutive games coming into Friday night by luck. The Tigers instead overcame a miserable first half and rallied to defeat Wyoming Area 37-30.

Southern did so by driving 99 yards with just over three minutes remaining after stuffing Wyoming Area at the 1-yard line on a fourth-down run. Running back Gavin Garcia’s 1-yard TD run with 31.8 seconds left and Wes Barnes’ ensuing two-point run gave the Tigers their first lead of the game at 37-30.

“An incredible high school football game,” Wyoming Area coach Randy Spencer said. “It was everything you hoped for with a high level of competition. Our guys poured everything they had out on that field tonight. Very proud of their effort tonight.”

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Wyoming Area had, perhaps, an opportunity to seal the win after Aaron Crossley recovered a Southern fumble at the Tigers’ 22-yard line with 7:30 remaining and the Warriors up 30-29.

The Warriors used a 12-yard reception by John Morgan to step up a first-and-goal at the Tigers’ 9-yard line. Southern, though, stuffed a fourth-down run at the 1 and took over with 3:10 remaining.

Garcia got Southern out of the hole with a 9-yard run and followed with a 54-yard run where he used just about every move possible to avoid tacklers. He and his fullback, Barnes, kept the drive moving before his 11-yard run gave the Tigers a first-and-goal at the 1.

Garcia then scored his fifth touchdown of the night and Barnes’ two-point run gave Southern its first lead of the game, 37-30. The Tigers trailed 24-7 at halftime.

“We got the ball and we were like in a trench,” said Garcia, referring to the pitch on the grass field to allow for draining. “I’m standing in the end zone like five yards deep and I literally had to run three yards uphill on that first carry. Got us 10 yards, got us out of the ditch. From there, it was just pounding the football.”

After the ensuing kickoff resulted in a touchback, Wyoming Area picked up 12 yards on a hook-and-ladder pass. Four incompletions later, Southern secured the victory.

“We got the opening drive (of the second half) and weren’t able to establish a drive or momentum, which was very important,” Spencer said. “They came back and Garcia made the big run to start momentum the other way. Then it was a matter of those guys responding like you knew they were going to respond.”

Garcia finished with 22 carries for 258 yards, but he and the offense had a miserable first half. He rushed six times for 26 yards in the first two quarters. The Tigers totaled 96 yards at halftime, while Wyoming Area had 224.

The Warriors used the running of Drew Mruk and were able to get past the Southern secondary for two touchdowns for a 24-7 halftime lead. Their only touchdown of the second half came in the third quarter.

Running back Leo Haros took the snap as quarterback Blaise Sokach-Minnick was sidelined with a cramp and darted 37 yards to give the Warriors a 30-13 lead at the 6:51 mark.

“The way we were down and how the first half went, it really wasn’t an X’s and O’s type of thing in the locker room,” Southern coach Jim Roth said. “There wasn’t too much to talk about scheme-wise because we weren’t making plays pretty much in all phases.”

Wyoming Area, though, went three-and-out on two consecutive drives while Southern finished off the third quarter with two Garcia touchdown runs and two Barnes two-point runs to move within 30-29 entering the fourth quarter.

“It was a tremendous game by our players,” Garcia said. “We had a lot of key turnovers in that first half that were momentum killers. Blocked punt, a fumble. Other than that I think we really showed how good of an offensive team we are when we came back in the second half and scored that many points and they scored only once.”

Southern Columbia 37, Wyoming Area 30

Southern Columbia`7`0`22`8 – 37

Wyoming Area`14`10`6`0 – 30

First Quarter

WA – Drew Mruk 31 run (kick blocked), 7:38

WA – Usamah Alansari 26 pass from Blaise Sokach-Minnick (Mruk run), 3:47

SC – Gavin Garcia 28 pass from Liam Klebon (Isaac Carter kick), 1:15

Second Quarter

WA – Rocco Pizano 32 pass from Sokach-Minnick (Jayden Rusyn kick), 9:22

WA – Rusyn 30 FG, 0:33

Third Quarter

SC – Garcia 54 run (kick blocked), 8:49

WA – Leo Haros 37 run (kick blocked), 6:51

SC – Garcia 2 run (Wes Barnes run), 4:12

SC – Garcia 32 run (Barnes run), 0:29

Fourth Quarter

SC – Garcia 1 run (Barnes run), 0:31

Team statistics`SC`WA

First Downs`20`14

Rushes-Yards`46-298`32-192

Passing Yards`90`160

Total Yards`388`352

Passing`4-8-0`9-20-0

Sacked-Yards Lost`3-27`0-0

Punts-Avg.`2-33.2`4-36

Fumbles-Lost`3-2`0-0

Penalty Yards`5-33`8-50

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING – Southern, Garcia 22-258, Barnes 14-71, Klebon 5-(minus-27), Trevor Yorks 1-(minus-2), Matt Masala 2-(minus-2), team 2-(minus-8). Wyoming Area, Sokach-Minnick 3-7, Mruk 11-92, Aaron Crossley 3-5, Haros 15-86, Nico Sciandra 2-2.

PASSING – Southern, Klebon 4-8-0-90. Wyoming Area, Sokach-Minnick 9-20-0-160.

RECEIVING – Jake Rose 3-62, Garcia 1-28. Wyoming Area, John Morgan 3-43, Alansari 1-26, Pizano 3-60, Sciandra 1-16, Crossley 1-5, Haros 0-10.

INTERCEPTIONS – none

MISSED FGS – none