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SANDUSKY – It’s generally accepted that sequels are ill-advised and rarely match the quality of the original.
Whether Columbian’s playoff-opening 25-20 victory over Sandusky Friday night was as good as when the teams met two weeks ago is a matter of opinion, but one thing is certain.
Tornado fans preferred this ending.
Jack Jacoby carried the ball 43 times, ran for 154 yards, ran and threw for a touchdown, and picked off a Lucas Poggiali pass with 1:53 left in regulation to help send TC to the second round, where it will face Shaw next week.
With the win, TC avenged a 35-34 loss to the Streaks in week nine. Jacoby was in the center of that game too, running for more than 200 yards.
“He’s just really grown up in the last three weeks,” said Columbian coach Brian Colatruglio, whose 9-2 Tornadoes didn’t even attempt a pass in the second half. “He’s learning how to be a running back and what it takes, and he had some tough physical yards. He just grinded out first downs, and he was our horse.”
A horse whose team won’t be riding into the sunset for at least another week.
Jacoby took plenty of hits Friday night, but kept pushing for more behind an offensive line that controlled the line of scrimmage when the Tornadoes had the ball
“It took it’s toll on me, but I’ll be all right,” Jacoby said afterward.
While the Tornadoes offensive numbers were impressive, it was three key defensive stops that made the difference. Sandusky got the ball to start the game, but was forced to punt. Starting at its 31, TC ran 15 plays and drained more than seven minutes off the clock. on third-and-7 from the Blue Streaks’ 9, Jacoby found Jordan Dye over the middle at about the 2. Dye made a cut and found the end zone. Kicker Donovan Walker missed the point after, but Columbian established the grinding style it used for most of the game.
The Streaks scored on the ensuing possession, with Poggiali throwing a perfect over-the-shoulder pass to a wide open Tristen Jeffries down the left sideline. The 22-yard TD came on fourth-and-7, and on the final play of the first quarter. It gave Sandusky a 7-6 edge.
It took all of two plays for Columbian to get the lead back. on a first down from the Streak 37, Jacoby took the snap out of the shotgun. Sandusky defensive back Dameyion Smith, expecting a run, left receiver Jonah Boyer.
Jacoby, in his only pass of the night, lofted one down the right side, where Boyer caught it and ran to the end zone untouched.
“(Smith), he makes a lot of tackles,” Jacoby said. “He’s the leading tackler in the league, and he flies up. So gameplanning, we knew we might be able to fool him one play and get him up. Jonah ran a great route.”
But Jacoby was stopped on a conversion run, and the score stayed 12-7 with 11:17 left in the half.
Again, Sandusky responded. A Marquis Winston jaunt from 7 yards out capped a seven-play drive, and the Streaks grabbed the lead again, 14-12.
With less than nine minutes to go in the half, Columbian started driving again. Davis, who finished 6 of 6 in the half for 56 yards through the air, made four of his completions on the drive, including a 7-yard TD strike to Boyer with 1:24 left. TC missed a two-point conversion attempt, but led, 18-14.
The second big stop for the Tornado defense came here. though the Streaks drove into TC territory, and reached the 18-yard line for an untimed down after an interference call in the end zone, it held.
The Tornadoes went to the half with the lead, and the ball coming to them to start the second half.
And as both teams were aware, TC’s offense had yet to be stopped.
“We were trying [to score], it wasn’t like we weren’t trying,” said Sandusky coach Mike Franklin, whose team bowed out at 9-2. “We just couldn’t get that score at the end [of the first half], and time of possession at to be about 500-to-1.”
It certainly seemed that way after the Tornadoes took the second-half kickoff and marched 70 yards on 16 running plays, bleeding more than eight minutes off the clock.
Jacoby ran the ball 13 times on the drive, but it was the offensive line, led by Chandler Hoover, who got credit.
“They were phenomenal,” Jacoby said. “I really wouldn’t be anything without them.”
Hoover made the line’s philosophy for Friday sound simple.
“We just tried to get up there and be as physical as we can,” he said. “They were a great defensive line, and we just tried to push them around a bunch, as much as we could, and we really succeeded.”
Jacoby’s plunge from the 1 on fourth down put the Tornadoes up, 25-14 with 3:42 left in the third.
After each defense made a stop, Sandusky drew close when Mike Delk made a brilliant one-handed catch in the back of the end zone with 6:40 left in regulation. After a failed 2-point try that made the Streaks’ deficit five points, Sandusky made another defensive stand. TC drove the ball to the Streaks 39, but on fourth and 2 with less than four minutes left, Jacoby was stopped for no gain.
Which set up a grand finale for Jacoby and the TC defense.
A third-down completion to Anthony Jones pushed the Streaks to the TC 45, but two plays later, Sandusky faced a third-and-6 from the 41 as the clock reached the 2-minute mark..
Poggiali dropped back and attempted a pass over the middle, but the ball was tipped and went into the waiting arms of Jacoby for an interception.
Jacoby said he thought it was senior linebacker Derec Blodgett who got his hand on the pass.
“Instinct. just went and grabbed it,” he said. “I was kind of getting mad that everybody was celebrating already. I was like, ‘All right, we’ve got to go finish this.’”
The Tornadoes did, getting a pair of first downs to kill the clock.
“I thought we played good football, but once again we weren’t able to stop no. 1 (Jacoby),” Franklin said.
Colatruglio said the game two weeks ago was one of the best games he’d been involved in. But something was missing to make it complete.
“When you win, it’s a lot better,” he said.
Like a Hollywood ending.
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