In a lot of ways, Columbia Academy’s Week 2 performance mirrored its season opener as the Cougars dominated defensively and moved the ball effectively at times on offense but were unable to convert on opportunities to put the ball in the end zone. That all ultimately led to neither CA nor Silliman Institute scoring a touchdown offensively Friday night, but Silliman managed to make just enough plays to take down the Cougars 11-8.
“It was kind of the same song, different verse from the previous Friday night — self-inflicted wounds, not being able to take care of the football, not being able to punch it in,” head coach TC Chambliss said.
On CA’s second drive of the game, which started at midfield, a Preston Sauls 16-yard scamper and an impressive 12-yard reception by Carter Rowell on fourth-and-11, which featured the senior getting sandwiched between two defenders and still holding on for the first down, had the Cougars knocking on the door to take an early lead. But the Cougars were stuffed on four consecutive running plays that ended in Sauls getting stood up at the 2-yard line on fourth-and-goal, ending CA’s scoring opportunity.
But just three plays later, a heady play by outside linebacker Landon McNabb made up for the missed opportunity. Silliman tried to throw a receiver screen, but McNabb read it the whole way, jumped the pass and easily returned the interception 12 yards for a CA touchdown. Sauls then punched in the 2-point conversion to give the Cougars an early 8-0 lead.
That margin didn’t even last one play though. On the ensuing kickoff, Silliman knifed through CA’s kick coverage for a 75-yard touchdown that cut the lead down to 8-6 with 10:31 to go in the second quarter.
But on CA’s first offensive play following the back-to-back touchdowns, the Cougars seemed destined to add to its lead. Quarterback Eli Beard hit a streaking Carter Rowell up the seam, and Rowell turned it into a 64-yard reception before being taken down from behind.
However, on the very next play, Sauls found a seam on a toss and took it down to the 5-yard line when he had the ball punched out of his grasp, which was recovered by the Wildcats.
The seesaw action continued in short order as Holton Hartzog quickly got the ball back for the Cougars, forcing and recovering a fumble himself to set CA up on the edge of the red zone. Yet despite being inside Silliman’s 25 for a third straight drive, CA couldn’t score once again. On third-and-11, Beard threw an ill-advised pass while being chased from behind that was intercepted.
CA’s defense then perfectly set up its offense once again, forcing a three-and-out that gave the Cougars the ball at Silliman’s 26. But a third down holding call wiped out a 28-yard pass and forced CA to punt it back. On CA’s next possession, Beard was intercepted a second time as a high pass went through Jackson Speir’s hands and into the waiting arms of Silliman’s free safety.
The Wildcats had a chance to take the lead following all of CA’s miscues just before halftime but missed a 27-yard field goal that sailed wide left.
Silliman bounced back, though, on its opening drive of the second half, drilling a 42-yard field goal to go up 9-8 midway through the third quarter. Early in the fourth quarter, Silliman’s lead increased to 11-8 when a high snap flew over Beard’s head and into the end zone. Rather than allowing the Wildcats to potentially recover it for a touchdown, the senior quarterback smartly kicked the ball out of the back of the end zone for a safety.
CA’s defense did everything it could to give the Cougars a chance to put points on the board throughout the fourth quarter, but the offense got stuck in neutral. Following the safety, McNabb picked off a middle screen for his second interception of the night to give CA possession at the Wildcats’ 38. But three straight incompletions led to a turnover on downs.
Then Logan Buckley’s second sack of the game gave CA the ball back at the Silliman 36, but back-to-back 1-yard runs and back-to-back incompletions forced CA’s third turnover on downs in opposing territory of the game.
CA got one last crack at it with two minutes to play but couldn’t pick up a first down, allowing Silliman to kneel out the clock.
Even though failing to finish drives was a theme for the Cougars throughout the entire game, it really was a tale of two halves for the Cougars offense. Beard threw for 101 of his 118 yards in the first half as his completion percentage dropped from 50% in the first half to only 25% in the second half. Sauls picked up 34 yards on eight carries in the first half but was limited to five yards on four carries in the second half.
Defensively, the Cougars were superb all night, keeping Silliman out of the end zone and forcing three field goal attempts. Chambliss said the defense has been flying to the ball because they keep things simple while playing with passion and fundamentals.
“If somebody is going to beat us, we want them to beat us with what they do second or third best. We’re going to study film and figure out how stop what it is they want to beat us with,” he explained. “Coach Stanley has them prepared every week and is doing a great job.”
