Columbus Crusaders 51 Noblesville Lions 0

 

Saturday night took me to Grove City, home to the Grove City Christian football team. The matchup was a first-round playoff game in the Great Lakes Christian Athletic Conference featuring the Columbus Crusaders. The team met on Sept 27th in Indiana, with Columbus posting the 49-0 win.

Columbus would get a 13-yard run from the senior star running back Ezekiel Bowie, and from there, there was no stopping the offense. Matthew Colaizzi found Braden Miller for 10 yards to set up a 4-yard touchdown run from Bowie. #16 Oliver Maccaughey nailed the PAT, making this a 7-0 game with 6:40 left in the quarter.

The Crusaders put on a show of their own all game long by holding the Lions to minus 55 yards for the game. With 4:52 left in the quarter, Kendal Smith flung #9 Britton Siebert to the ground for a loss of 7 yards.

With 4:24, Bowie looked to have gone 35 yards for another Crusaders score, but a very late flag came out negating the big play. Colaizzi would be picked off by Moises Melville with 4:18 left.

The Lions' drive would end when they went for it on fourth and eight from their own 29-yard line, with 1:58 showing on the clock, due to an incomplete pass.

Bowie took the ball to the 7-yard line with a 14-yard run. From there Elliah Gram #62 powered his way in for the 7-yard score, making this a 13-0 game, with 0:22 left in the quarter.

Just 0:17 into the 2nd quarter, Johnaton Wolfe got to Henry Smith for a loss of six. The Lions offense would find themselves behind the chains so many times due to bad snaps causing big losses. This happened 7 or 8 times, and each time the quarterback would just dive on the ball and take the loss.

The Crusaders would get a Bowie run for 15 yards at the 7:15 mark of the quarter. The 7-play, 84-yard drive ended on a Colazzi-to-Braden Miller 32-yard touchdown pass, making this a 21-0 game with 6:43 left in the half. Miller atoned very well after missing a catch earlier in the game.

Siebert would be picked off by Miller with 5:02 left in the half. Siebert throws a nice ball when he has more than a millisecond to throw the ball. In this game he seldom had a chance to set his feet, let alone read the defense. The Crusaders' line put on a show, as did the entire defense.

Joe Kamara broke off a 21-yard run to set the tone for the next Columbus drive. Bowie ended the 6-play, 45-yard drive with a 13-yard touchdown run. The PAT was low and short, keeping this a 27-0 game, with 1:39 left in the half.

Siebert would be sacked by Elijah Gram for a loss of six with 1:06 showing on the clock. With 0:42 seconds left in the quarter, Siebert connected with Mathew Melville for a gain of twenty-seven. The Crusaders would get another sack to close out the half, with Davier Lewis doing the deed.

The Crusaders opened up the 2nd half with Colazzi hitting Miller for the 80-yard touchdown, followed by the two-point conversion run by Bowie, making this a 35-0 game and starting the running clock.

The rest of the third quarter flew by with four plays being noteworthy. A sack on Siebert by Marcus Stoner for a loss of ten was one of them. As was a pick on a Siebert pass by Oliver Maccaughey. The other plays were Siebert finding #54 Wes Petit for gains of 28 & 33 yards.

Just 0:30 seconds into the final frame, Maccaughey trotted to a gain of 34 yards. The drive concluded with a 1-yard touchdown run by Joe Kamara to make this a 42-0 game, with 9:54 remaining.

A bad snap led to Siebert being sacked by Kamara with 5:00 left. When Columbus's offense got back on the field, they produced three more points on a 28-yard Maccaugheyfield goal, making this a 45-0 game.

The final score came from the Columbus defense to end the game with Lucas Stoner getting a 40-yard pick six, making the final score 51-0.

My Stats

Noblesville

36 plays

yards (-55_

Passing, 10-20, 2 Ints

Columbus

36 plays

369 yards

Passing, 6-11, 2 TDs, 2 Ints

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