The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Champagne, Columbia roll over Black River
As the Columbia Raiders blasted out to a 3-0 start sophomore running back Marco Cirigliano has gotten the bulk of the credit.
It’s easy to see why. In his first three games of the year, he shredded opposing defense while racking up nearly 600 yards rushing and eight touchdowns.
But in the Raiders 40-12 road win over Black River on Sept. 10 in the Lorain County
League contest, it was senior quarterback Andrew Champagne who was the toast of the township.
The athletic dual-threat quarterback ran for three scores and passed for a pair to lead the Raiders to the win.
He scored on runs for seven, one and 14-yards and fired a 24-yard touchdown pass to Drexton Friscone and a 20yard scoring strike to Cody Davis.
“He’s really good,” Columbia coach Jason Ward said of Champagne. “He’s somebody that has been bitten by the injury bug the last couple of years. We all knew what a talent he was and how good he could be and tonight he kind of showed you with his legs and with his arm how good he could. He led our football team as well as any quarterback I’ve ever had and I’m really happy for him. Really happy for him,” Ward said.
The 6-foot-1 Champagne said he and the entire offense felt good about what they were doing for most of the night. The Raiders didn’t score in the first quarter but then ran off 21 points in the second period to take control of the contest.
“They took away our run. They gave us a lot passing. They took one thing away and we hit the other,” said Champagne.
Champange finished the night 14-for-18 for 226 yards and a pick to go with his two touchdown tosses.
Champagne said this is the first year he’s been healthy, which is allowing him to show off his running ability.
“I love running the ball. I didn’t get to do that much the last year or the year before because I was out injured, which sucked, but this year I feel great and I feel I can run the ball and throw the ball, so I do what the team needs me to do,” said Champagne.
Champagne may have also found a new favorite target on this night. He hooked up with Davis, a 6-foot-3 senior, who also plays cornerback, for eight catches and 142 yards and the 20-yard touchdown.
Ward, for one, didn’t appear surprised at Davis’ breakout performance, even though the receiver entered the contest with just one catch on the year.
“Really talented receiver. Really tall. But runs good routes and has good hands. He’s faster than he looks,” said Ward.
On defense, Davis broke up a pass on a fourth-down play in the second quarter that gave the Raiders the ball at the Black River 25 and set up Columbia’s third score of the night.
Columbia made things interesting in the third quarter when its quarterback Aldon O’Neal connected with Brandon Rollin
for a short touchdown pass to cut the Columbia lead to 21-6.
But Columbia recovered the ensuing onside kick setting it up with a short field which set up Champagne’s 24-yard touchdown strike to Friscone and a 28-6 lead.
Black River coach Kyle Clark said his team’s goal was to stop Columbia’s run game.
“They’ve been running all over people so that was a our No. 1 goal. But they were able to adjust. They went empty backfield and they have a phenomenal quarterback and good players and they just got them the ball in space. We were missing some guys on the back end, so it was tough,” said Clark.
Champagne was almost perfect in the first half, as he threw just one incomplete pass eight attempts for 117 yards. He also ran the ball six times for 21 and a pair of touchdowns.
Champagne’s seven-yard run up the middle increased the Raider lead to 14-0.
He snuck in from 1-yard out with 1:20 left in the half to up the Raider lead to 21-0.
One of Champagne’s favorite receivers in the first half was Davis. He caught passes for 26 yards and 11 yards to set up Columbia’s first score of the night, a 14yard touchdown run by Cirigliano. Cirgliano entered the game having rushed for 557 yards and eight touchdowns in his first three contests of the season. Black River contained him for the most part in the first half, limiting him to just 56 yards on nine carries in the first two quarters.
The Columbia defense was dominant in the first half. They continually pressured Black River’s O’Neal who completed three passes for just 18 yards.
“That’s really good football team,” Jason’s got,” said Black River’s Clark.
How good is yet to be seen.
Columbia hosts Brookside on Sept. 17 in its homecoming game.