For the second week in a row, the Columbia Academy Cougars played well enough for most of the game to earn a victory, but a few crucial mistakes at inopportune times cost them.
The Cougars (1-2) had every opportunity to get above .500 Friday night at East Rankin Academy, but penalties in the red zone, poor snaps and missed assignments led to a 10-8 loss.
On the opening play of the game, East Rankin fumbled a handoff attempt, allowing Eli Beard to recover it and set the Cougars up at midfield. But after fumbling a handoff themselves — though they recovered it — the Cougars’ drive stalled with back-to-back incompletions.
East Rankin appeared on its way to scoring on its second drive after a long pass, but at the end of a long run that would have placed the Patriots inside the CA 10-yard line, Cougars free safety Dillon Rowley stuck his helmet on the ball to force another fumble that Jacob Reid recovered. CA couldn’t get anything out of it, though, failing to pick up a first down and being forced to punt it back to East Rankin.
After forcing a turnover on downs, Caleb King put the Cougars in great position to get points on the board first with a 45-yard run on a speed sweep to get into the red zone. But on the very next play, they ran a speed sweep the other way to Reid, but they fumbled the exchange, allowing the Patriots to get the ball back.
It wasn’t that costly, though, as an East Rankin option pitch hit the running back in the helmet and CA fell on the loose ball. But yet again, CA couldn’t do anything with it and went three-and-out.
The Patriots had a nice drive going, but another option pitch went awry and the Cougars fell on the loose ball again. But CA’s ensuing drive was halted by a holding call, forcing a punt.
When the Cougars got the ball pack following a Patriots punt, they were backed up at their own 1-yard line, which led to the first score of the game — albeit for just two East Rankin points. Cole Fortenberry tried to capture the corner on a first-down quarterback keeper but never made it out of the end zone as he was brought down for a safety.
While East Rankin got the ball in great field position after the safety kickoff, Beard broke on an out route, undercut the pass and came up with his second interception of the season. But on a fourth-and-6, CA tried a double pass with Kris Ginn throwing it downfield, but it was incomplete.
After CA’s opening drive of the second half stalled, the Patriots turned it over for a third time on an option pitch, giving the Cougars the ball at the East Rankin 46. Ginn had to replace an injured Fortenberry at quarterback, and the Cougars just went backwards about 25 yards and had to punt.
That wasn’t the case on Columbia Academy’s next drive. Three straight Ginn runs totaled 40 yards to get the Cougars into the red zone, but three straight penalties backed them up again. However, Ginn then scrambled and found King downfield on a 26-yard pass to get CA inside the East Rankin 10. Ginn nearly got the Cougars on the board on a quarterback sweep, but Reid was called for holding that brought the touchdown back. Then on fourth-and-goal from the ERA 13, the shotgun snap was low and off target and skirted past Ginn, who was brought down for a huge loss by the time he was able to track down the ball and pick it up.
With the momentum shifted back to the Patriots, East Rankin quickly drove the ball downfield with its power running game until quarterback Mason Morgan scored on an 18-yard keeper. He then ran in the two-point conversion on the same play to put the Patriots up 10-0 midway through the fourth quarter.
On the ensuing possession, the power running of Ginn had the Cougars on the move again, reaching the East Rankin 30, but the senior was then intercepted taking a shot at the end zone, putting an end to another scoring opportunity.
But with the Patriots backed up at their own 1, they tried a quarterback sneak to get out of the shadow of their own end zone. But as Morgan was going down, Reid ripped the ball out of his arms and set the Cougars up at the ERA 7-yard line. On second-and-goal, the Cougars had a pass drawn up for King in the flat to the short side of the field. But when Ginn recognized it wasn’t open, he reversed field and ran nearly 40 yards horizontally to capture the corner and score on a 2-yard run. Ginn then powered his way into the end zone on the two-point conversion to cut the Patriots lead to 10-8 with less than a minute to play.
The ensuing onside kick was easily recovered by the Patriots, who then kneeled out the clock.
“It was another game where we had our opportunities and more of the same penalties, self-inflicted wounds and a big injury in the third quarter — lost our quarterback,” head coach TC Chambliss said. “The guys rallied around each other, played with a lot of heart and, especially there in the second half, galvanized and came together. They just left it all out there.”
Chambliss added that for the second week in a row, the mistakes cost the Cougars despite a courageous effort.
Initially, it was feared that Fortenberry may have broken his ankle or lower leg, but that is not the case. Chambliss said Saturday he would be evaluated this week, but there is concern of ligament damage and he will be out for the foreseeable future.
Columbia Academy had to change its offense with Ginn at the helm, operating far more out of shotgun and essentially running a version of the Wildcat. Chambliss said at times the Cougars were drawing plays up in the dirt, but going forward the offense will be much more organized with it centered around Ginn.
Preston Sauls, who missed the Silliman Institute game with an ankle injury suffered in Week 1, tried to give it a go against East Rankin, but he came out for good after just two carries. Chambliss said he had a good week and was able to sprint and cut leading up to the game, but he had a setback Friday. Sauls will also have a doctor’s appointment this week.
While there were numerous mistakes offensively, the Cougars defense was excellent for the third straight week, which is a stark contrast to last season when it gave up 44 points per game. This year, the defense is surrendering just 12.3 points per game.
“Our defense is definitely the heart and soul of our team right now,” Chambliss said. “Sometimes I don’t know how they do it — we keep them on the field so much with some of the mistakes we’ve been making offensively — but they dig deeper and find a way. They’ve played almost perfect week in, week out so far. We’ve got to get our offensive side of the ball cleaned up, and once we get there, it’s going to be something special.”
The Cougars will be back at home Friday night when PCS (2-0) visits Columbia Academy.
