Columbia hopes to learn from it’s loss to Kirtland

Kirtland is a perennial state contender.

Columbia hopes to be one day.

On Aug. 31 at Columbia Station, the Raiders got a taste of how much more work they need to do to get there, losing 49-7. Kirtland’s two-headed monster at running back, seniors Joey Torok and Jake Neibecker, combined for 229 yards and five rushing touchdowns. Kirtland rushed for 303 total yards, getting reserves late in the game.

Columbia star RB Brandon Coleman was held to 53 yards on 12 carries—— including three yards in the second half.

It was no secret the Hornets wanted to pound the rock.

Columbia still had no answers.

“Our offensive line does a great job,” said Torok, who rushed for 113 yards and two touchdowns. “Jake and I don’t care who scores. We just play for each other and our teammates.”

The Raiders viewed this game as a measuring stick to see how they stack up against a dominant program. Last year, the Hornets won, 49-14, and Columbia wanted revenge.

Kirtland also wanted this one badly.

“We see them as a great game too,” Torok added. “They got a great back and are physical. They tried hard and came out pumped up. We just had to keep fighting. They’re a great team.”

There were two key plays in the first half that swung the moment to Kirtland. On the second play from scrimmage, Raiders QB Jared Bycznski had a throw batted up at the line of scrimmage and picked off by Kaleb Stephenson at Colombia’s 30-yard line.

That set up Neibecker for a 5-yard rushing touchdown with 8:15 in the first quarter.

After the Hornets went up 14-0 on a Neibecker 8-yard TD early in the second, Columbia responded with a 29-yard touchdown pass to Adam Ross with 5:07 remaining in the half.

Torok answered with a 16-yard rushing TD two minutes later, and then closed the half with a blocked punt and 30-yard return touchdown for a 28-7 halftime lead.

Two momentum plays that Columbia coach Jason Ward knew bit them.

“I was happy with our effort in the first half,” he said. “You take our blocked punt away and it’s 21-7. But you can’t take it away. But we didn’t tackle very well tonight.”

Throughout the week, Ward emphasized bottling up Torok and Neibecker, who hit a lot of belly and option plays. He was disappointed with the Raiders’ lack of fundamentals.

“There was a lot of plays where we had them bottled up,” Ward added. “We did our job and we just didn’t finish our job. That’s what stings.”

Kirtland opened the floodgates in the second half with three more touchdowns from Torok, Neibecker and reserve WR Tommy Drazetic.

They passed the ball four times——three from starter Tommy Powers, connecting twice for 37 yards.

“The guys up front enjoy what they do,” Kirtland coach Tiger Laverde said. “They work hard at it and like the style they play. This is what they want to do on Friday nights. We have a couple good backs that sometimes we don’t make the right call and they make it look even better. There was a lot of times we didn’t have it blocked well and our backs made it happen.”

Coach Laverde upped his career record to 146-17 with three state titles.

A lesson can be learned for the Raiders.

“Going back to last year, we take away a ton,” Ward added. “You learn a lot from a team like this. I’ve learned a lot talking with their head coach. What we needed to do was jump start our offseason program and we needed to see what the best of the best looked like. We did that over this offseason and I thought it would translate into a closer score this year. It didn’t and we’ll move on and know that’s how far we have to go.”