On their senior night, the Columbia Academy Cougars needed to beat district rival Bowling Green to have any chance at making the playoffs, but a disastrous eight-minute stretch in the second half allowed the visiting Buccaneers to pull away and dash the Cougars’ hopes in a 49-29 loss for CA.
While the end result clearly wasn’t what second-year head coach TC Chambliss was looking for, he said he is proud of the way the Cougars fought until the end.
“I told them if they would have had this passion, which is one of four core values, all year long, we wouldn’t be in this situation at this point. To see that they can do that and that they have that in them, that’s encouraging,” he said. “But now it becomes, what do I have to do differently to get that out of them more consistently?
“We’ve got a handful of good, young promising guys coming up, but I hate for this to be the way this group of seniors goes out. They deserve better than that, and they have meant more to the program than I can possibly communicate.”
Bowling Green proved on the opening drive of the game that it could move the ball at will on the ground, driving 56 yards in just more than four minutes as Josiah Miller put the Buccaneers on the board with a 1-yard touchdown up the gut.
On CA’s second possession, the Cougars found some traction for the first time as Carter Rowell picked up 29 yards on two touches. After a holding call made it second-and-21, freshman quarterback Reed Duncan rolled to his right and uncorked a deep ball to the middle field, where Eli Beard was the only person to adjust to the ball and was able to haul in a 40-yard touchdown that knotted the game at 7-7.
Thanks to back-to-back penalties, the Buccaneers were backed up into a first-and-35, which later became fourth-and-6, and still managed to pick up first downs on their way to a 20-yard Rhett Schilling rushing touchdown on the first play of the second quarter.
The tough running of Preston Sauls, who picked up 78 yards on the ensuing drive, allowed the Cougars to get within a point as he powered his way into the end zone for a 1-yard score on fourth-and-goal. Despite trailing 14-13 midway through the second quarter, the Cougars had all the momentum and capitalized on it as Holdyn Sandifer recovered an onside kick to give CA a chance to take its first lead of the game. However, it would be for naught as CA went three-and-out while picking up just two yards and had to punt.
The Buccaneers put together a long drive late in the second quarter and got into the red zone, but the Cougars defense stiffened up and got a stop as time expired in the first half.
Following a missed field goal by Bowling Green, CA gave it right back to the Buccaneers on a fumbled handoff that changed the tide of the game. Starting its next drive just outside the red zone, Bowling Green wasted no time going up 21-13 with a 4-yard rushing touchdown moments after the Cougars gifted the Buccaneers a crucial first down with a fourth-and-4 offsides penalty.
Down by only eight points, the Cougars were still easily within reach as the fourth quarter started and had driven down to the Bowling Green 29-yard line. But Duncan had back-to-back misfires over the middle on third and fourth down, which gave the ball back to Bowling Green.
The Buccaneers then went up two scores as Miller coasted in for a 6-yard touchdown with 9:58 to play. Three plays later, Rowell was trying to fight through a host of Buccaneers to pick up a first down but had the ball stripped from him and returned for a Bowling Green touchdown to increase the deficit to 35-13. That 21-point swing over the course of seven minutes proved to be too much for the Cougars to bounce back from.
During that 21-point swing, the Cougars were called for seven crucial penalties, and it was clear that they believed the game wasn’t being called fair, which ultimately deflated the sideline. Chambliss said it’s only human nature to respond like that.
“When that happens so many times, eventually you get discouraged. You feel like anything you do is going to be undone or not count. It was an interesting night to say the least,” he said of the officiating. “But you can’t control the weather, and you can’t control the officials. You just have to find a way to get around it. I do think (our players) got a little bit disgusted and demoralized because it felt like every time they made a play, it would come back or wouldn’t count.”
CA turned it over on downs on its next possession, leading to another short rushing touchdown for the Buccaneers. On the ensuing kickoff, though, the Cougars blocked their return to perfection, allowing Sandifer nothing but green grass as he took off for an 89-yard touchdown. There were at least four pancake blocks as they seemingly took all their frustration out on that play as CA made it 42-21.
“Things were getting so physical, and I think some players were going after each other rather than worrying about the kick return. But the guys were going after each other so hard and were determined to get that one in,” Chambliss said. “I heard Holdyn Sandifer say to the guy in front of him, ‘This might be my last one, so if it’s close, let me get it. I have to get one in.’ Sure enough, he found a seam. He’s been so close four or five times this year to breaking one. That was great to see because he has played his guts out for us on defense and on special teams.”
However, Miller found the end zone again for the Buccaneers, this time from 37 yards out. CA would add one final score of its own in the final moments as Rowell weaved his way through the Bowling Green defense on a toss for a 13-yard scamper to pay dirt with just nine seconds remaining. The Cougars made it 49-29 with a 2-point conversion as their season came to a close.
Although it wasn’t reflected in CA’s win-loss record, there were a lot of noticeable improvements made within the program from diversifying the offense and developing a young quarterback to instilling a true identity on the defensive side of the ball. But at the end of the day, those wins and losses do matter, and Chambliss said CA has to improve in every single area to get where it wants to go.
The Cougars are graduating nine seniors, and Chambliss said what he’s going to remember most about this class is how they stayed hungry and wanted so bad to be more than they were before he was hired, as well as bringing up the young guys within the football program.
“They reached out to the younger kids, which has been a big point of emphasis for us with relationships and fixing the disconnect between junior high and high school,” he explained. “This group of seniors has had more of a connection to our junior high and JV kids and have shown them the ropes, communicated and been big brothers. A lot of teams that I’ve been a part of haven’t had that.”
