St. Joseph’s football can’t contain Columbia Montour Vo-Tech in 6th straight loss
The St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy football team simply didn’t have an answer for Columbia Montour Vo-Tech’s bruising running back Sevon King on Saturday night.
The 5-foot-11, 235-pound King plowed through defenders — taking advantage of the tackling issues that have plagued the Wolves all season — and became the focal point of his team’s offense in a 60-34 win over St. Joseph’s at Memorial Field.
King sprinted his way to three long touchdown runs for CMVT, part of a performance defined by big plays — the Rams scored on a 65-yard touchdown pass on the first offensive snap, added a 75-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the second quarter and found the end zone on a 45-yard touchdown pass in the fourth.
In between the team’s most explosive touchdowns, King powered the offense with 164 yards rushing on 26 carries.
“We just hopped on Sevon King’s back and he just ran us to a victory,” CMVT coach Mark Varner said. “He was exhausted by the end of the game, but we just ran him between tackles and ran over people. He deserved this victory for the way he ran.”
The Wolves (0-6) couldn’t bottle up King, who contributed to the big-play highlights with touchdown runs of 21, 29 and 19 yards in addition to accounting for four of CMVT’s successful two-point conversions in the team’s 60-point night.
St. Joseph’s coach Murray Fetzer said his team needs to improve defensively, but the Wolves can’t afford to risk injury by working on tackling at practice with their small roster. At one point in the past week, Fetzer said, the Wolves only had 13 players in uniform at practice. So the coaches preach technique and tackling low to prepare for their games each week.
“It’s just one of those deals where most of the practice we get is live at game time,” Fetzer said. “You don’t get it in practice.”
That showed against King on Saturday night.
After CMVT’s John Binder hauled in a 65-yard touchdown pass on the first play of the game and left with an injury during St. Joseph’s first offensive possession, King took over. He had five carries for 37 yards and a touchdown on the Rams’ second possession to push his team ahead 15-6. He had six more carries during the next scoring drive in the second quarter, bursting up the middle on fourth down for a 29-yard touchdown run to extend the lead to 23-6. His final touchdown in the fourth quarter pushed CMVT ahead 45-28 to give the Rams some breathing room.
King broke tackles and dragged defenders for extra yards throughout the night.
“I surely wouldn’t want to have to tackle him,” Varner said. “He’s a big guy, and our guys don’t like to tackle him at practice.”
But St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy’s Brendan Robinson said his team’s tackling habits contributed to King’s success.
“We tackled high and we didn’t tackle low,” Robinson said. “That’s on us.”
Robinson helped the Wolves stay in the game until the fourth quarter, as he completed 17 of 32 passes for 249 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. He also added two rushing touchdowns to complement running back Zac Sechler, who finished with 115 yards rushing and one touchdown.
Sechler’s score pulled the Wolves within 37-28 in the third quarter, but St. Joseph’s never got any closer after losing a fumble on a punt return late in the third. CMVT took possession and finished the drive on the first play of the fourth quarter with King’s third touchdown.
It put the game out of reach, as St. Joseph’s simply couldn’t keep pace.
“You can score as many times as you want, but if you’re giving up twice the amount, it really doesn’t matter at this point,” Fetzer said. “We’ve really got to get better on both sides of the ball and drill down a little bit better on defense.”
This story was originally published October 14, 2017 at 11:29 PM with the headline "St. Joseph’s football can’t contain Columbia Montour Vo-Tech in 6th straight loss."