WHITE SALMON — Offense will be prominent on the practice plans this week at Columbia High School (CHS), as the Bruins seek ways to score more points midway through the 2024 football season with an Oct. 11 game looming at Castle Rock. Columbia lost its fourth successive contest Oct. 4 vs. King’s Way, 28-7, as the visiting Knights benefited from a big game from running back Ryan Charlton. The 175-pound senior scored three touchdowns and rushed for 280 yards in the Tri-Co League game.
Columbia (0-3 Tri-Co, 1-4 overall) avoided a shutout when senior Bryce Wang intercepted a pass near midfield and returned it for a first-half touchdown. King’s Way (1-2, 3-2) outscored Columbia 21-0 after the halftime break.
The Bruin offense has scored one touchdown in its past three games, and CHS has just five TDs from scrimmage in five games.
Coach Shawn Friese said: “Offensively is probably our biggest issue right now, that we need to fix up. That’s something we’re going to focus on a lot this week.
“Our defense has been playing real well. And, really, on Friday [vs. King’s] our special teams played real well, too. We’ve just got to get that third phase, the offensive side of things, going.”
The Bruins had their chances against King’s Way. “Friday was a tough loss,” Friese said. “We were right in it the whole game. It kind of got away from us at the end. The score didn’t really indicate how close that game was.”
Not as close as the 7-6 contest the two teams played in 2023, but close enough where neither team could afford too many mistakes. “This one, it could have gone either way really,” the CHS coach added. “We had opportunities; we just didn’t capitalize on opportunities, and they did. That was the difference in the game.”
Friese said there’s no quit among the Bruin players. “I care about the players’ attitude and the effort that they give and how they go about themselves,” he said. “Our team is certainly doing that this year. We have a small senior class, and we’ve got freshmen and sophomores that are playing four quarters of varsity football. I think they’re working really hard and continue to improve and that’s what it’s all about.”
The coach said Columbia can win any of its remaining four contests. “If we put it all together, we can win any game that we play the rest of the season,” Friese said. “The kids really have a good mentality this year of just getting back to work. That’s what they’ve been doing all season and that’s what were going to continue to do.”
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