Bruins are playoff-bound

Columbia (2-2, No. 3 seed from Trico, and 5-3 overall) heads to Montesano tomorrow to play a winner-to-state game against the Evergreen League champions, who will enter the game 9-0 and rank-ed No. 4 in the state Associated Press’s last regular-season 1A poll.

Kickoff on Montesano’s Crait Field is set for 7 p.m.

Against Stevenson, the Bruins pounded the Bull-dogs with a ground attack that featured the power running of senior tailback Zach Walker.

The offensive line dominated up front and opened holes that enabled Walker to surpass the century mark in his final Trico game. Walker finished with 117 yards on 23 carries, and one touchdown.

Walker also recovered a punt blocked by junior lineman Jarin Musgrove in the end zone for Columbia’s final score of the night.

Moreover, quarterback Austin Bucklin completed 5-of-12 passes for 105 yards and two TDs, with no interceptions, and ran for 46 and one touchdown.

All told, the CHS offense gained 296 yards and tallied five touchdowns.

Columbia’s first-string defense limited Stevenson to less than 100 yards of offense through more than three quarters of play. The Bulldogs got over that hump late in the game with a scoring drive against CHS’s jayvee unit.

“What a great win for our football program,” said Bruins Coach John Hallead. “With only five seniors this season, we are very, very happy with our 5-3 season and very excited to make the playoffs.”

In addition to clinching a playoff berth, the Bruins took home the new Gorge Bowl trophy the schools added as an incentive to their longstanding rivalry.

Both teams started slowly last Friday.

Stevenson had the first possession, but an interception by CHS sophomore Trenton Howard (who finished with five total tackles) ended that.

The Bruins took over but turned the ball over on downs at the Bulldogs’ 17.

Another defensive stop gave the ball back to CHS in good field position. Bucklin put the Bruins on the score-board with a 33-yard scoring run in the first quarter. Senior Eduardo Oriz kicked the point-after to make it 7-0.

In the second quarter, Bucklin found sophomore Chandlor Bucklin (2 catches for 76 yards) open down the left sideline. The latter had to slow up and wait for the pass, but no defender was close enough to impede his path to the end zone. The TD and ensuing PAT put CHS on top 14-0.

Stevenson countered with a touchdown off a screen pass that covered 56 yards, but the kick for conversion failed.

Columbia got the ball back with little time on the clock. Nonetheless, the Bruins drove the length of the field to put themselves in striking distance of another score.

A Bucklin pass fell incomplete with 3 seconds left in the first half. The Bruins then lined up for a field-goal attempt by Oriz.

After surveying the defense, Bucklin checked to CHS’s fake field-goal pass. On the snap, he stood up and located junior Tylan Webster behind the defense for a 17-yard TD strike. A pass for the 2-point conversion failed after Bucklin bobbled the snap from center.

“I watched their first two PAT block attempts and saw that they, like a lot of opponents this year, did not leave any safeties behind and rushed 11 defenders,” Hal-lead said of the thinking that went into calling for the fake field-goal pass.

The second half was virtually all CHS. The Bruins scored three consecutive TDs and three PATs to mount a 41-6 lead with less than 5 minutes remaining. They also shut down the Bulldogs until the late going, when the home team scored on an 8-yard pass with less than 3 minutes left.

Webster, usually an offensive tackle, opened the second-half scoring with a 35-yard run that caught Steven-son’s defense flat-footed. Walker capped a later scoring drive on a dive play from the 2.

Webster only touched the ball three times, but he gain-ed 56 yards altogether.