Wildcats 19, Bruins 13

"It was a great high school football game to be a part of," said Bruins Coach Matt Whitmire. "It was the first time this year that the team played four quarters of intense football."

Columbia took a 10-6 lead into its locker room at halftime, thanks to a 1-yard touchdown run by Kevin Kreps early in the second quarter and a 30-yard Felix Torres field goal with 19 seconds remaining in the half.

The lead got away from the Bruins in the third quarter, however, when Wildcats quarterback Chris Concannon broke containment on a third-and-27 play from CHS's 35-yard line.

Concannon broke two tackles before reaching the first-down marker, then went untouched into the end zone for a 12-10 La Center lead.

"That was a huge play," Whitmire noted. "We were in position to make the play and we didn't."

La Center's go-ahead scoring drive followed a missed field goal from 23 yards by Torres at the end of the second half's first possession.

The Wildcats added an insurance touchdown early in the fourth quarter when Concannon, who accounted for 148 of La Center's 193 yards of offense and all three of its TDs, passed to Zach Hollingshead for a score from 6 yards out.

Columbia's last scoring drive of the night ended in a 22-yard field goal by Torres with 7:52 remaining in the game, after the Bruins' drive from their own 18 stalled at the La Center 4-yard line.

Whitmire said it was a contest Columbia could have won had it been able to finish more of its drives in La Center's end zone.

"We had seven possessions and scored on three of them," he noted. "In a sense, we beat ourselves because we didn't make plays when we needed them."

Columbia's offense finished with 301 yards--all on the ground--and 16 first downs, and turned the ball over once in 62 plays from scrimmage.

Jenson Ladiges led the offense with 153 rushing yards, and Kreps added 95.

La Center ended up running 34 plays overall after gaining just 27 yards on nine snaps in the first half.

Kreps and Ladiges anchored the CHS defense, getting in on 10 tackles each. Carlos Mendoza contributed four tackles and four assists.

Coming Up:

The Bruins host the Kalama Chinooks tomorrow night in Bruin Stadium, for a Trico game that could help determine who plays where, and for what, in Week 10 of the season.

Kalama (1-1, 4-2) is coming off a shocking 43-0 loss to Castle Rock in Week 6.

"They aren't as physical as they have been in the past, but they have more speed than we've seen from them," Whitmire said. "Still, they're beatable, especially if our kids practice hard and come to play the way they did last weekend."

Columbia's keys to victory, he noted, are, "One, Eliminate our mistakes. Two, contain Kalama's overall team speed. And, three, spread the carries on offense."