Columbus takes advantage of Western turnovers to advance to regional finals
Any coach will tell you. When you get deep in the playoffs and the competition ratchets up, you better stay away from crucial mistakes.
But somebody forgot to tell that to the Western Wildcats on Friday night.
Western head coach Adam Ratkevich could only watch in horror as his football team lost three fumbles at the most inopportune of times and the Columbus Explorers made them pay dearly.
Columbus, the No. 5 seed, in turn stayed mainly mistake free and that was the key ingredient to an impressive 27-8 drubbing of the top-seeded Wildcats in a Region 4-8A semifinal contest at Western High School.
And guess who’s up next? As if the two were on a collision course, Columbus and Palmetto, bitter district rivals, will meet for a third time this season. No. 2 seed Palmetto is the host team and will play the contest next Friday at Harris Field in Homestead at 7:30 p.m.
“Our big thing coming in tonight was outrush them, win the turnover battle and limit the yards after catch and I thought we did the job in all three areas,” said Columbus head coach Dave Dunn. “We also played really good special teams as well. Kicked the ball well, blocked a kick, really good in the return game. Believe it or not, as well as they (Western) throw the ball, I felt it was going to come down to blocking and tackling and I thought we did both really well. It’s exciting that we get to move on to the next round.”
But what Dunn can be most thankful for was a great performance by his defense, particularly the ability to come up with three huge turnovers.
Rarely can you look at a first-quarter turnover as being the key swing moment in the game but that’s what happened.
After Western had taken an early 8-3 lead on a 3-yard touchdown run by Nelson Walker and ensuing two-point conversion, the Wildcats (9-3) offense was rolling downhill again on the next drive with a first-and-goal at the six.
When Walker took a handoff up the middle, he had a gaping hole and was headed into the end zone that would’ve put Western up by 11. But as he reached the one, Columbus defensive end Brysson Stouffer reached out and popped the ball loose from Walker. A wild scramble ensued in the end zone before Columbus’ Darren McQueen Jr. came up with the ball.
“When I saw that ball on the ground, it was like a million dollar lottery ticket and I just went after it like it was just that,” said McQueen with a chuckle. “That was definitely a big play that swung the game in our favor.”
It was the first of two big plays for McQueen. After the Explorers (8-3) took a 10-8 lead on a 15-yard Fernando Mendoza-to-Eddie Durand hookup with 8:57 left in the second quarter, it appeared Columbus would take that two-point advantage into the half.
But with just over two minutes left, McQueen stripped the ball from Tyreik Thorpe on a flanker reverse and recovered the ball at midfield. Mendoza then led his team downfield by finding Durand, his favorite target all night (nine receptions for 87 yards) three times, which led to a Luis Palenzuela 27-yard field goal as time expired making it 13-8 at the break.
The third quarter settled into a battle of punts and field position before Columbus finally created some separation by putting together a 10-play, 60-yard drive culminating with a 6-yard touchdown run by Denim Edwards with 10:35 left to make it 20-8.
Just when it appeared to be over, the Wildcats, led by quarterback Collin Hurst, who was busy all night long completing 16-of-34 passes for 200 yards, led his offense down the field on a desperation drive that reached the Columbus one with four minutes left.
With a first and goal, it appeared Western would cut it to a one score game. But the Columbus defense stuffed back-to-back quarterback sneak attempts by run-specialist Navar Maine before Hurst came back in for a third down attempt from the shotgun. But the snap went high over his head and Columbus’ Ken Moore Jr. tracked it down, scooped it up on a convenient hop and bolted 80 yards for the putaway score with 2:43 left.
“I just saw that ball loose on the field and it was all about getting to it and try and scoop it,” Moore said. “I managed to pick it up clean and it was off to the races. A great feeling because I knew that was the ball game.”
“I don’t think we snapped the ball over our quarterbacks head all year, what a time to do it,” said a dejected Ratkevich. “Not to take anything away from a great Columbus team but about everything that could’ve gone wrong tonight went wrong. Those guys over there are state champions for a reason, great coaching staff, talented kids but, wow, I just wasn’t expecting anything like this tonight.”
Palmetto won the regular-season contest against the Explorers 7-3 thanks to a controversial ending before Columbus returned the favor with a 10-7 win in the newly formulated GMAC Championship series when the two teams coincidentally got paired up. It will mark the first time anyone can remember two teams meeting three times in the same season.
“Here comes Palmetto again,” quipped Dunn. “Should be another nailbiter.”