STEENS – Jonah Harrison knew he was going to land in the end zone upon handover.
“No, I haven’t,” the Columbus Christian Academy junior began to say. “Wait, I’ll take that back. Yes, I have. Caleb (Farlow) blocked well and it just worked. “
It worked well enough for a game-winning 17-yard touchdown run with 3:25 on the clock in the Rams’ wild 34:30 victory over the Christian Collegiate Academy at the football opener for both schools.
Farlow, Harrison’s stepbrother, made sure no one would lay hands on the Rams junior who ended a 51-yard seven-game drive that looked doomed after three games.
At that point, junior quarterback Drake Shaw was taking matters into his own hands, or at his feet, so to speak. Shaw had thrown an end zone interception on the Rams’ previous drive, a mistake returned by Sean Fairley 100 yards to give the Bulldogs a 30-28 lead with 5:43 remaining.
But the resilient Shaw made sure that this would not remain the lasting memory of the start of 2021. The fourth and tenth time he was pushed out of his pocket and ran for his life, climbing 12 yards and a drive extension that ran out first on the Bulldog’s 39th.
“Basically we were just trying to get the ball into the field,” said Shaw. “We tried to make a passing game. We tried to do a first down and I knew if we couldn’t get it it might have been for the game.
“Our team blocked well when they saw me running. We carried on, pressed on and passed the first-down marking. “
Rejuvenated by the dramatic game, Shaw then hit Farlow for 13 yards and found McCory Humphries on a small swing pass on the right, the Humphries turning away from would-be staplers, turning it into a 9-yard gain that turned Harrison’s exploits reasoned.
“We throw the Tebow Pass and we throw it deep,” said Rams first-year old Rusty Mason. “Mental mistake, let it open, threw it deep, they pick it, go all the way back, and we have to get back on the field and fight again. Much determination from the children tonight. “
Time and again, the Rams recovered from potentially groundbreaking games. Shaw’s resilience in the last series epitomized the performance of the Rams.
“I’m really proud of our children’s struggle,” said Mason. “They had some athletes, they had a lot of skill and we kept fighting. But we have a lot to do. “
Mason noted that there were way too many mistakes, even for an opener, and that was noticed by his players.
“We had a lot of good games,” said Shaw. “We made a lot of mistakes that cost us a lot of money and we have to work on them. We have to get a lot better in the next game, improve and get a W next time. “
“So many mental flaws,” said Mason. “It looked like the first game. It was hard. We missed a lot of tasks and it’s up to us to train harder. We have to improve the mental game. Man, the movie is going to be chaotic. “
Mistakes often lead to big games, and each team has had several of them. The Bulldogs scored their first two touchdowns at 25 yards from DJ Biggs and 53 yards from Trae Bailey. In between, the Rams scored a 50-yard punt return from Humphries that electrified the home crowd.
“That punt return that Cory had was great,” said Shaw. “That’s why I jumped up and down.”
There wasn’t much jumping up and down as the Rams flipped the ball twice in the red zone, once just five games after a takeaway. But the Rams’ defense was aided by the consistently poor snapping of the Bulldogs, forcing their quarterbacks to start a game by picking up the ball instead of dropping it back.
But the most devastating of the bad snapshots came from an attempted boat. One game after a bad snap in third place left the Bulldogs fourth and 15 at their 29, another low snap sent player Aidan Castillo after the ball but he was choked off by Rams senior Lahndon Townley. It took only one play for Shaw to find Beau Kemp in the front corner of the end zone for a 13 yard score with 40 seconds to go before half time and send the Rams into the locker room with a 20-16 lead.
Townley made some of the more dramatic defensive games, chasing Bulldogs back from behind twice, pushing Houston Mack back. But the entire defense took on the opportunity with the Bulldogs final gasp drive, forcing Biggs out of pocket as first down and sacking him twice for 25 yards with losses, setting up a fourth and 33 incompleteness that ended the game.
“I’m really proud of our defense in the end,” said Mason. “Townley had a great night. He’s a good soccer player. He was half vomiting, maybe a little dehydrated. But what a defensive game he had in the second half. “
Columbus Christian 34, Christian Quorum 30
Christian Quorum 16 0 8 6 – 30
Columbus Christian 6 14 8 6 – 34
First quarter
Coll – Biggs 26 run (Mack run)
Column – Humphries 50 Punt Return (Run Failed)
Coll – Bailey 53 run (Biggs run)
Second quarter
Column – Kemp 1 run (pass failed)
Colum – Kemp 13 Pass by Shaw (Kemp Run)
Third quarter
Coll – Lowe 37 Pass from Biggs (Biggs Run)
Colum – Townley 2 Run (Townley Run)
Fourth quarter
Coll – Fairley 100 Punt Return (Pass Failed)
Column – Harrison 17 Run (Run Failed)
