Senior halfback Joe Murphy played his final game in Southern Columbia uniform as the Tigers fell to Farrell High 14-12 in the title game.

And as the water droplets from the stadium's rafters mingled with the tears in his teammates' eyes, the halfback exited the locker room.

And Joe Murphy, the father, waited patiently, silently, for his son. He had watched him play countless games in midget football and junior high. And now he watched his son leave the Southern locker room for the last time.

"Words can't describe it. I'm very proud, very proud of my son," the elder Murphy said. His words were probably spoken by many parents Friday. "He's done a lot over the past years. He's had a great career."

Murphy rushed for 777 yards and eight touchdowns this season. But in his final game, he could manage just 17 yards on 10 carries. Statistics could not dim the father's pride.

"I'm very proud of him," the elder Murphy said. "I don't know what else to say."

He knew his pride was shared among the scores who waited for their children.

"I think it shows all over," the elder Murphy said. "It's a very close team. (Southern Columbia's) a small school and they're very, very close."

The players will remember their third straight trip to the state championship game. The Tigers won the title in 1994 and lost to Farrell last season.

But one loss could not mask their faith in their school and their team.

"Nobody thought we would get here," said Ricco Rosini, the junior fullback who missed the game because of a broken leg. "I think we earned a lot of respect."

And the younger Murphy mixed philosophy with football as he took off his uniform one last time.

"You think about the loss for a little bit. But life goes on," the younger Murphy said. "The memories are the good times. We showed a lot of character this year. It's sad that we couldn't win it this year. We played our hearts out. That's all we could do."

Senior tackle Mark Scisly also put his Southern pads away for the last time Friday. He knew about playing with heart this season.

"Everybody just stuck together and gave it their best," Scisly said. "It just showed how a lot of the kids on this team had a lot of character. It shouldn't have had to end this way."

And it was difficult for Brad Osevala to watch the season end also. Osevala was the quarterback of last year's team. His brother, Marc Osevala, is a freshman on the team this year.

"It was hard watching it. A lot of my close friends still play," said Osevala, a freshman at Bloomsburg University. "Nobody was losing faith. Southern's a class act. They're not going to give up."

There was no surrender in Southern on Friday. But time ran out on the Tigers' dream this season. Just as the clock expired on the seniors' careers.

But the elder Murphy, like many parents, couldn't measure a lifetime with one game. That wouldn't be football. To him, football is more than a score. It's about fathers and sons — and lessons learned. And he knew his son, and his teammates, had learned their lessons well.

"They all look out for each other," the elder Murphy said. "That's what makes him a winner."

The 6-1, 215-pound defensive end/running back might get an ar-gument from teammate Dante Newell.

Newell, a 6-0, 240-pound senior tackle, had eyes bigger than the piles of snow surrounding Mansion Park Friday when he saw Southern Columbia put the ball on the ground on a second-down-and-six play on the Tigers' opening possession of the second half.

Senior halfback Joe Murphy lost the ball on a reverse. As the ball bounced and rolled farther from the line of scrimmage, Newell finally ran it down and recovered it at the Southern 41-yard line.

"I saw him running the misdirection and the running back didn't get the pitch. Somebody jumped on it, and it popped back out, and sombody else jumped on it, and it popped out," Newell said. "I picked it up and took a couple steps, and I must have been hit by one of my own teammates, but if I wouldn't, I would have been in the end zone."

In other words, Newell had no thoughts of safely falling on the ball.

"I was thinking end zone the whole time, I didn't see nobody, and I didn't hear nobody," Newell said.

And even Daniels didn't mind. "That was a big turnover. It probably was the most (important) turn-over of the game," he said.

And that turnover, just like last year when Southern lost, 6-0, to Farrell in the Class A state final, led to what would prove to be the winning score as Jason Kennedy scored on a 9-yard run.

And that was OK with Newell, too. "I wanted to score, but I'm just happy for Jason. He deserved to get the touchdown."

Thanks in part to Newell, Southern Columbia would score just once more as the Steelers held on for a 14-12 win.

Newell finished with 10 tackles, an assist, and two tackles for losses.

One of those came on a third-and-six when he slammed Murphy to the turf just after he caught a shovel pass from quarterback Nick Slater, handing Murphy a 1-yard loss and forcing a punt.

"One of the coaches on the side-line called out to watch the shovel pass and I heard him, and I played my gap. It was just luck he was there, and just my luck, I laid on the hit," Newell said.

"I read it the whole time and I saw it develop. I just played my gap and I made the hit," he said.

"I owe it to the rest of the defense, my teammates, and especially the seniors. I love them," Newell added.

n Daniels, who missed four games with an injury, returning two weeks ago, said he lost some of his acceleration, but not his conditioning because he was able to lift weights while sidelined.

He had only five carries for 16 yards, but defensively had four tackles, an assist, an interception, a pass break-up and a tackle for a loss.

"They're a good team, and we knew they were going to do some good things, but as far as anybody to consistently pound us up and down the field, it's not going to happen," Daniels said. "We don't like it when a team gets yards on us. We hate that."

Berwick scored twice after Blackhawk fumbles in the opening 2:09 of play, then needed all four of Bryan Smith's touchdowns before putting away the Cougars, 34-13, Friday night in the PIAA Class AAA title game.

Smith scored on runs of 11, 1 and 24 yards and on 51-yard pass play that upped Berwick's lead to 18-7 as the Bulldogs became the first team to win three consecutive state titles since the PIAA playoffs began in 1988.

Berwick (15-0) has won 40 con-secutive games — including 15 in tournament play — and could break Central Bucks West's state record 53-game winning streak by advanc-ing unbeaten to the state semifinals in 1997.

But the nationally ranked Bulldogs' record fifth PIAA title in six tries came much harder than the last three, when the eastern coal region power clearly outclassed its western opposition — Sharon in 1995 and 1994 and Blackhawk in 1992. Berwick won those three games by an average margin of 27 points.

Berwick, which had held eight consecutive opponents to a touchdown or less, led only 18-13 early in the fourth until scoring 16 points in the final 10 minutes, when Black-hawk was forced to open up its of-fense in a failed rally.

Blackhawk (13-1), badly out-classed in losing to Berwick 33-6 in 1992 and a big underdog again Friday, seemed ready to be beaten badly after fumbling two of the first three times it touched the ball.

Mark Cokain's fumbled a screen pass on Blackhawk's first play, with Jeremiah Dyer recovering, and Smith scored from the 11 with 21 seconds gone. The Bulldogs, just as they did after each of their first four TDs, missed the extra point.

It got worse for Blackhawk before it got better.

The ensuing kickoff squirted through upback Nate Stewart's legs and Berwick's J.D. Stanley fell on the free ball at the Blackhawk 4. Four plays later, Smith squirmed into the end zone from the 1 on fourth-and-goal with only 2:09 gone.

Traditionally, this was about the time Berwick's opponents — out-scored by an average of 35-6 this season — start to fold. Blackhawk refused to do it.

Trent Wissner scored on a 8-yard run, one play after Arbogast hit Chad Marsilio for 18 yards, to cut it to 12-7. Then, after Smith's third touchdown in a span of 12:34 made it 18-7, the Cougars closed to within five points as Nate Stewart's 1-yard run finished off a 66-yard second quarter drive.

But Berwick, accustomed to naming its score in state champion-ship games, couldn't build on the lead until Smith's 24-yard TD run with 10:20 remaining. Smith was boxed in at the 20, but bounced off would-be tackler Dane Helsing before finding an open lane to the end zone.

The score seemed to take the heart out of Blackhawk's rally, and the Bulldogs blew it open with Jeremy Chapin's 40-yard field goal and Jerry Superico's 64-yard interception return score with 3:08 remaining.

Berwick is 4-0 in state champion-ship games since being upset by Pittsburgh's Perry Traditional Academy in 1989.