COLUMBUS — With a powerful ground attack, Columbus racked up 530 yards of offense in a 53-28 blowout win over Coffeyville-Field Kindley in a non-league matchup between the two teams last Friday at Cecil Kline Field.
Coming off a thrilling 21-14 victory over perennial state power Pittsburg-St. Mary’s Colgan, the Titans have now improved to 2-0 overall following their second win in as many weeks. They have already surpassed their win total from a year ago during their 1-8 campaign. Columbus will remain at home on Sept. 20 when it entertains CNC foe Girard. The Trojans are 1-1 on the season following last week’s 48-14 home loss to Galena.
On the other side, Coffeyville continues its search for its first win as it dropped to 0-2 overall. The Golden Tornado will return home on Sept. 20 to take on Labette County in a Southeast Kansas League matchup at Veterans Memorial Stadium. The Grizzlies — 1-1 overall — picked up their first win of the season last Friday, rallying from a two-touchdown deficit to pick up a 36-31 victory at Independence.
Columbus struck early and often, taking a quick 14-0 lead on a one-yard touchdown run by Patrick Cassidy and a nine-yard scoring strike from Cassidy to Lynn Shallenburger. Coffeyville was able to cut into that margin, though, as quarterback Aaron Rutherford hooked up with Darell Jones for a 74-yard TD pass to get within 14-7 after one quarter of play.
Things remained relatively close early in the second period. The teams exchanged scores — Cassidy running in from four yards out for the Titans and Rutherford finding Tyrone Johnson for an eight-yard pass — to make the score 21-14 in favor of the Titans.
Yet, Columbus pulled away before halftime, getting a pair of touchdown passes from Cassidy — one to Saul Fontanez for 12 yards and the other to Clay Saporito for 37 yards — to extend the Titan lead to 33-14 at the intermission.
From there, it was all Columbus, which exploded for 20 more points in the third quarter. Gabe Martin ran into the end zone on plays of 52 and 10 yards, while Christian Engroff added a 15-yard scamper into the end zone for a 53-14 Titan advantage.
Coffeyville was able to narrow the gap slightly in the final period with two more touchdowns, but Columbus still went on to cruise to its second straight win.
The Titans did most of their damage rushing as 378 of their 530 total yards came on the ground. Martin led the way with a game-high 122 yards on 11 carries.
As for the Golden Tornado, it had 311 total yards. Rutherford completed 16-of-30 passes for 209 yards and three touchdowns.