NTL FOOTBALL: TROY TO FACE WARRIOR RUN IN D4 FINAL (2024-11-14)

BY CHRIS MANNING
Northern Tier Sports Report
Troy football had a historic performance last week in their win over Southern Columbia, but after getting their white whale the Trojans still have plenty of hunting to do. This week they face this year’s Cinderella team, sixth seeded Warrior Run, for the District IV, Class AA Football title game.

“I’m really excited to do something we haven’t done in a long time,” said Troy’s Mason Smith. “We’ve just got to go prove ourselves.”

Troy’s coming off a 69-28 win over defending state champions Southern Columbia in the district semifinals, while Warrior Run defeated Towanda, 43-20, in the other semifinal.

The Defenders are a team that Troy doesn’t see too often, either in non-league contests or the playoffs.

“We’re just going to play as hard as we can, and see what we can do,” said Brendan Gilliland.

The Trojans come in as heavy favorites, being the number one ranked team in the state, while Warrior Run had to beat third seed Loyalsock (28-7) and then second seeded Towanda to get this far. 

Still, Troy is playing with a bit of a chip on their shoulder.

“We’re really juiced up about it, we felt like last year one got away from us,” said Troy coach Jim Smith. “It’s kind of given us a chance to redeem ourselves.”

Warrior Run is a different type team from Southern featuring a quarterback that’s on the verge of throwing for 2,000 yards in James Keifer.

Keifer comes in with 1,837 yards passing with a 55-percent completion rating. He has 21 touchdowns against seven interceptions.

“It’s some different coverage stuff, but the same responsibilities that we’ve had all year,” Gilliland explained.

Eli Butler is their 1,000-yard rusher, sitting at 1,131 yards and 15 touchdowns on 168 carries. They also feature Colby Lebarron, who has 521-yards on the ground off 129 carries and nine scores.

Samuel Hall is their leading receiver, coming in with 916-yards receiving and 12 touchdowns off 46 receptions. Butler is second on the team with 453-yards receiving and five scores off 27 catches.

Butler, Lebarron, and Hall are all seniors for the Defenders.

“They run the spread, they have athletes who make plays,” said Smith. “They’re very good tacklers with a lot of wrestlers on the team - you see when they’re making tackles the guys go right down - they’re strong kids, they don’t give up. They got a lot of fight, and you don’t get into this game by chance.”

Warrior Run had a strong start to the season, going 4-0, but then went 2-4 over their last six regular season games, including 1-3 over their final four.

They have losses to Milton (20-13), Hughesville (32-29), Loyalsock (24-23), and Lewisburg (24-0) while notable wins are Muncy (28-21), Bloomsburg (38-24), and Central Columbia (30-12).

The Trojans come in riding high on their offense after last weeks explosive performance.

“We’ve been moving the ball well, and everything seems to be working, so we’ve just got to keep going,” Gilliland said.

Quarterback Evan Woodward is at 1,454 yards passing with 19 touchdowns and two interceptions with a completion percentage of 67-percent. He’s over 500 yards running the ball with seven touchdowns on 36 carries.

Gilliland leads the team on the ground with 946-yards and 18 touchdowns on 72 touches, while Smith had 391-yards rushing and five scores on 28 carries. Fullback Kael Millard rounds out the 4-headed running attack with 411-yards and five scores on 48 carries.

Out wide Lincoln Chimics has 755 yards and nine touchdowns off 27 catches, while  Smith has 10 catches for 234 yards and three touchdowns. Joseph Frye had 12 catches for 220 yards and three scores, as well.

“Because we’re multi-dimensional, we have to really keep them off balance,” Smith said. “We don’t ever want to give them the feeling that they know what we’re doing all the time, and that’s to our advantage. We have multiple athletes that we can get the ball to, and it’s important we spread it around and keep them off balance.”

They’re also a threat on special teams as Smith has five touchdowns between punt and kick-off returns while Chimics has three.

“It’s definitely a momentum shift for games, and many teams don’t kick to us for that reason,” remarked Mason.

The biggest danger coach Smith sees is having a letdown after last week’s big win.

“We really kind of hit home that the celebration was just for the weekend,” he said. “The win against Southern, although it’s a big win in our program, it can’t be the biggest win that we hang our hats on, because we have big goals this year, and we have to move on week to week, and Warrior Run being a totally different animal than Southern, is a whole new challenge.”

The players also understand they can’t have any letdowns this week.

“Last weeks over, it’s a new week,” added Gilliland. “We’ve just got to go one game at a time, and make it to the end.”

Kick-off is slated for 7 p.m. on Friday night at Mansfield University.

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