The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Lovell’s late score lifts Raiders to PAC victory
It wasn’t the prettiest performance, but Columbia managed to pull out a late win on Mike Lovell’s short scoring run with eight seconds left to give the Raiders a 19-14 win on the road against Lutheran West Sept. 29.
Columbia (4-2, 1-0 PAC) turned the ball over five times but chewed nearly eight minutes off the clock in the fourth quarter to set up Lovell’s 2-yard winner.
“You don’t usually win games like that, but our kids were pretty determined all week to start this Stripes Division playoff right,” Columbia coach Jason Ward said. “It’s a rivalry game and anything can happen in those, and we’re fortunate to come out with a win.”
Cole Schwartz had two short scoring runs for Columbia, set up by a pair of Lutheran West turnovers. The Raiders turned to him on their final drive, giving Schwartz 10 carries on the 16-play, 72-yard march as he gained 47 yards.
“Just sheer will,” Ward said of Schwartz. “Cole Schwartz hasn’t played a lot of tailback, but he went in there and was really grinding. It really goes to that offensive line. We said we needed to rely on our strength, and the strength of our team right now is our offensive line and they did a heck of a job.”
Columbia tried to run a short fullback dive play to Lovell two plays earlier on first-and-goal from the Longhorn 2, and nearly fumbled the ball away, but Jared Bycznski recovered it. Two plays later, Lovell got the ball, and got into the end zone.
“Luckily we got it back,” Ward said. “Mike Lovell playing fullback, we ran a lot of (isolation) tonight, a lot. And Mike’s going to be a sore cat tomorrow, but it’s going to be a good sore after scoring a game-winner like that.”
In what was shaping up as a defensive battle, Lutheran West (3-3, 0-1) broke open a
big play midway through the third quarter on a receiver screen. Shawn Naim turned a short catch from Rory Zakareckis into a 47-yard touchdown, outrunning the Columbia defense to put the Longhorns ahead 14-7.
After trading turnovers, Columbia got the ball back at the Lutheran West 1-yard line. After a penalty backed them up, the Raiders ran the ball twice with Schwartz for his second touchdown of the night, but the PAT was wide, leaving them behind 14-13 late in the third.
“It was a great game by both teams,” Longhorns coach Frank Petroff said. “I know we made some mistakes, and so did they. Both teams battled all night.”
The game was tied 7-7 at halftime. Schwartz put Columbia on the board first early in the second quarter with a 3-yard touchdown run. He set the score up when he intercepted Austin Kim’s pass on third-and-11 near midfield and returned it to the Longhorn 5.
The Raiders came up with another defensive stop late in the second quarter, this time as Jay DeLisle picked off Rory Zakareckis in the end zone.
But Columbia gave the ball back on the next play — one of their two turnovers in the final two minutes of the half — when Schwartz fumbled it back, and Owen Albers found paydirt from the 2-yard line to knot the game, 7-7.
The Longhorns got the ball back right away when Columbia fumbled the ensuing kickoff. They couldn’t cash in that time, though, as Brett Mather hauled in a pass from Zakareckis on fourth down in the back of the end zone, but couldn’t get a foot down.
Schwartz and Bycznski both gained 75 yards on the ground, and Ben Alten added 62 yard for Columbia.