Columbia Academy (2-2) had its hands full facing one of the tougher offenses in MAIS last Friday night in a 67-44 loss at Parklane Academy.
The McComb squad runs a form of the Wing-T offense, but does it from an extremely tight formation. Most Wing-T based offenses have at least one receiver out wide to avoid congestion, but Parklane keeps everything in the tackle box, making it even harder for any defense to get a read on where the ball is going with countless misdirection actions on every play.
Parklane’s offensive dominance showed all night, while it took a while for the Columbia Academy offense to get going. Parklane jumped out to a 37-16 halftime lead before the Cougars offense truly kicked into gear.
Spanning from the beginning of the second half until the 11-minute mark in the fourth quarter, the Cougars outscored Parklane 28-14 to pull within seven points, 51-44, late in the game.
However, two late interceptions leading to Parklane touchdowns ended the Cougars comeback bid, but the effort to comeback after a 21-point halftime deficit to make it a one-possession game in the fourth quarter was encouraging for head coach Randy Butler.
“It’s been that way every game. We’ve been behind and there’s just no quit. There’s no panic. I’m sure there’s some anxiety, but we have a good coaching staff that exudes confidence in our players,” he said. “I think it’s really helped our players knowing and seeing in the last four weeks that if we can a little more consistent, we can be a really good football team.”
One of the big developments for the Cougars over the past three weeks has been the marked improvement of sophomore quarterback Ras Pace. In the Cougars last three games, he has 11 total touchdowns to just two turnovers.
“He continues to get better every rep, every practice and every game. If you look at it from the game he had to come into last year in the playoffs until now, he’s really stepped up and elevated his game,” Butler said. “He’s making everyone around him better, too.”
Columbia Academy will return home to face a tough Adams County Christian (3-1) team that beat the Cougars 28-7 last year. That was a district game last season, but the two schools are no longer in the same district. But it will still be a tough game, especially for the Cougars defense.
“Looking at them from the defensive perspective, we have to tackle well in space. They’re very athletic, very fast and we’ve got to be able to wrap them up and get them on the ground to prevent the big play,” Butler said. “That’s kind of been our nemesis this year is we’ve given up too many big plays defensively and a lot of it is just missed tackles.”
For a Cougars offense that is averaging 35.2 points per game, it’s all about continuing to perfect its recipe.
“Offensively, we have to stay on the roll that we’re on. We’re scoring a lot of points,” Butler said. “Our running game has really come around the past few weeks. When you’re able to run the football, you can use play-action and have some open receivers all night.”
Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
Pictured Above: Ras Pace leaps over the line and is met by a pair of Parklane defenders. | Photo by Chuck Barnes
