Potent Keystone rolls to win over Columbia

Keystone’s electric offense was on display in a 53-28 win over Columbia, amassing over 400 yards in the Week 2 rout. Henry Palattella was on the scene and has a recap of the action.

With 35 seconds left in the first half of Keystone’s game against Columbia on Sept. 4, Keystone coach Don Griswold had a decision to make.

The Wildcats, who were holding a 28-14 lead at the time, had the ball at the Columbia 22-yard-line and were facing a fourth and 1. Instead of trying to use the Wildcats’ prolific air attack to pick up the first down, Griswold elected to keep the ball on the ground with junior Gideon Lampron.

It was the right decision. Lampron burst through a hole in the middle and went nearly untouched in the end zone, a score that set off a raucous celebration on the visiting sideline.

That celebration was one of many for the Wildcats, who passed for more than 260 yards and ran for more than 150 yards in the 53-28 win.

“Teams are going to have to pick their poison with us of either taking away the run or the pass,” said Griswold. “It’s America in 2020, baby. We love offense.”

The teams started with their foots on the pedal and broke off early touchdowns early. After Keystone opened the scoring with a 25-yard touchdown pass from Konner Rodick to Ryne Shackleford, the Raiders responded with a 69-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Carter Kalamasz to Owen Menge.

“We were misaligned on their first play and didn’t have enough time to react,” senior wide receiver and defensive back Deghan Rigda said. “We’re going to make sure we’ll fix that. We just had some minor slip-ups that let them score.”

Both teams found the end zone again in the first quarter with Shackleford scoring on a 5-yard run and Kalamasz throwing a 6-yard touchdown strike to Cody Davis on fourth down to give the Raiders a 14-13 lead in the waning seconds on the first quarter.

But it was in the second quarter when the Keystone offense really woke up. After taking the lead on the first play of the quarter on a 63-yard touchdown pass from Rodick to Rigda, the Wildcats scored 14 unanswered to close the quarter, with the final score coming on Lampron’s aforementioned rushing touchdown at the close of the quarter.

“I was feeling a little sorry to myself prior to that run but nothing felt better than seeing what my offensive line and fullback did for me on that run,” Lampron said.

After focusing on the passing attack in the first half — Rodick finished with 214 yards and three touchdowns through the air in the first half — the Wildcats focused on the ground game in the second quarter, as Lampron gashed the Raiders defense on handoff after handoff. Lampron finished with 128 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.

“It was awesome,” Lampron said of running the ball. “It was a lot easier in the second half, I just had to make one cut and everything was open ahead of me. Our line was really good with communicating with the backs about the lanes.”

Keystone’s defense picked up in the second half, as the Wildcats recorded two key interceptions of Kalamasz. The first interception came from Christian Pataky who jumped in front of a pass to stop a Columbia drive in the red zone with 6:13 left. The next possession, Rigba made his mark on the defensive side of the ball as he took a Kalamasz pass 70 yards to the end zone for his first career defensive score.

“We decided to spread the field a little more in the second half,” Rigba said. “Our cornerbacks did a really good job of containing outside and coming up on the short routes they had. I’m really proud of those guys. All my teammates were making fun of me on my interception because I’m slow but I’m glad I got it.”

Rodick finished the night 12 of 17 for 268 yards and four touchdowns while Rigba finished with a team-leading 101 yards receiving. Shackleford was second with 90 yards receiving.

“Last week, the weather conditions weren’t favorable for a passing offense so to see Rodick come out and play like a senior and drop dimes was awesome,” Griswold said. “We’re blessed with a plethora of talented offensive guys on the outside. It’s nice when your friends and competitors say you have a nice team. It makes my job easy.”

Kalamasz finished the night 29 of 41 for 386 yards with three touchdowns.