A 1-hour-and-4-minute weather delay wasn’t enough to keep Columbia Academy from knocking off one of the top teams in the MAIS AAA playoffs Friday night.
The Cougars made the 180-mile trek to Rayville, La., and came away with a 38-26 upset win over Riverfield Academy, which entered the game on a 10-game winning streak.
Head coach Randy Butler said the Cougars did a good job of handling the delay and battling to come away with the victory.
“It was a bit of a strange game. Right after the national anthem, a lightning bolt hit and had a 30-minute delay then another one came around,” he said. “I just kept telling the kids we’ve been through adversity all year, and they kept their heads on. It was a heck of a ball game. Riverfield is a good football team and is well coached. Coming away with a second round victory was very exciting.”
With the win, Columbia Academy is now one of just four teams still in the hunt for the AAA state championship and will head to Indianola Academy Friday night for a semifinal matchup. The Colonels are 12-0 this season and ended Columbia Academy’s 2016 season in the second round.
Butler believes it’s going to take the right mindset to pull off what would likely be considered one of the biggest upsets in the state this season.
“I told the team (Monday) they’re good enough to go win the football game. We got up there last year and didn’t have good field position the whole first quarter. We had an opportunity right before the half to make it a game, but we didn’t do it,” he said. “The main thing is we have to believe we can go up there and win. I think last year we thought we could go up there and win, but we have to go up there believing and knowing we’re going to win the football game. We can. It’s up to me to get that point across, get them motivated and show them we can go win the football game.”
The Colonels pose a lot of problems for opponents both offensively and defensively. On the offensive side of the ball, they like to establish the running game and wear down their opponents to break off big runs and set up play-action passes.
“Offensively, they’re going to line up and pound the football. They get into some jumbo sets with three tight ends to one side and have a really good running back. They pound you,” Butler said. “That’s what they did last year. We held up pretty good, then in the second half they pounded on us. That’s what we have to stop. They pound you and pound you, then try to throw the football over the top. We have to keep them from doing that this week.”
On the other side of the ball, Indianola runs a popular collegiate defensive scheme with a 3-3-5 alignment (three defensive linemen, three linemen and five defensive backs) with two safeties that can line up in the slot, serve as extra linebackers in the box or blitz off the edge.
“Defensively, they play a 3-3 stack. Their front six is really, really good with their nose (guard), two ends and three linebackers. It’s as good as anybody we’ve played against all year,” Butler said. “It’s very multiple and you can bring people from every angle. There’s multiple ways of bringing extra people, and it’s hard to pick up. The way you handle that is you rely on those guy up front, knock people off the ball, trap block and hand it to good runners. We just have to keep the chains moving.”
If the Cougars are able to pull off the upset over the Colonels, they will take on the winner between Starkville Academy and Adams County Christian in the state championship game.
Friday night, sophomore quarterback Ras Pace had a game for the record books. While he has done most of his damage through the air this season, it was his feet that stole the show against Riverfield as he had three rushing touchdowns from two yards out and another from eight yards out. His highest rushing output of the season was 31 yards last week against Wayne Academy, but the Cougars needed every last inch of his 139 rushing yards against Riverfield.
Butler said the reliance on Pace running the ball stemmed from running back Drew Havard being limited throughout the week of practice.
“Drew Havard hurt his knee the week before against Wayne, and he only practiced on Thursday. So Norman (Joseph) came up with a plan to run Ras more. We had Riles (Stuart) ready, but Ras really did a great job,” he explained. “The offensive line from the middle of the third quarter until the end of the game was something to behold. They played as well as any high school offensive line as I’ve seen in a long time. They really wanted for us to run the ball, and that’s we did. We rode them and they did a tremendous job coming off the football.”
The Cougars came up with a key stop early in the fourth quarter with a 30-26 lead, forcing a turnover on downs while Riverfield was in the red zone. Columbia Academy iced the game on the ensuing drive when Pace found Owen Harper for a 5-yard touchdown.
Butler added that the offensive line’s mindset of wanting to take over the game was key in putting it away late.
“You want every position to be that way but especially those guys up front. When they’re feeling it, coming off and knocking people off the football, they know and the rest of the team knows we can win,” he said. “When they would come off on the sideline, they were saying ‘Let’s run it.’ When it gets like that, you just turn around and hand it off. In this case, we let Ras follow their lead and they put the game away.”
The Cougars defense really stepped up in the second half, holding the Raiders scoreless over the last 19 minutes of the game, but Butler would like to see an improvement made in the secondary.
“We gave up many too passes, and it was because we were mainly playing man (coverage). I wanted to play man so we could get more people in the box because of their running game. We did a good job of stopping the inside run, then they started throwing the ball up,” he said. “We had our eyes in some places and didn’t have our eyes on our men, and they got behind us a couple of times. We have to do a better job stopping the pass.”
Kickoff for Friday night’s semifinal game is at 7 p.m.
Pictured Above: A host of Cougars make a tackle against Wayne Academy. | Photo by Joshua Campbell
