Football banquet

Walt Price, a 1956 graduate of Columbia High School and a recent inductee into the first CHS Athletic Hall of Fame, was the featured speaker at Sunday’s high school football banquet held at the Taste of Styles.
Price, who taught 40 years in the Donegal School District, was proud of his induction into the CHS Hall of Fame.
“I’ve been inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and out of all the ones I’ve been in, nothing is more special than Columbia High School,” Price said.
He spoke of the four people, who were also inducted into the Hall of Fame that put the desire, determination and instilled discipline in him -- Harry Smoker, Elmer Kreiser, Tom Donan and Hubie Peters.
Smoker was the principal at CHS while Price was a student; Kreiser was the junior high football coach, while Donan was the varsity coach and Price met Peters during the summers on the playgrounds in Columbia.
“They made an impression on me and helped shape by future,” Price said.
The former educator and wrestling coach at Donegal and Manheim Central said he taught more than 7,00 kids and they all left an impression on him.
He also spoke to the seniors, underclassmen, parents and coaches. He urged the parents to be supportive on their son’s sport and not try to make their son into something they are not, or relive their high school days through their sons.
“Parents need to help promote the sport and be supportive,” Price said.
He concluded his remarks saying that getting an education at Columbia helped make him successful.
“The opportunities are here. I believe in it and don’t ever make excuses about being from Columbia,” he said.
The varsity coaching staff presented the following awards:
Players of the Game
• Daniel Boone: Marcus Fischer and Dakota Lightfoot.
• Pequea Valley: Yahya McIntyre and Lightfoot.
• Donegal: Kevin McCarty and Lightfoot.
Season Awards
• Offensive Back of the Year: Lightfoot.
“He had a great season offensively. Other coaches in the section told me they weren’t looking forward to facing him,” said head coach Jason Shoff.
• Offensive Lineman of the Year: McCarty.
“He played every position and had the highest blocking grade,” said Adam Aston, assistant coach.
• Wide Receiver of the Year: McIntyre.
• Defensive Back of the Year and Leading Tackler: Lightfoot.
• Defensive Lineman of the Year: McCarty.
• Linebacker of the Year: Joey Charles.
• Special Teams Most Valuable Player: Clark Meshey.
• Scout Team Most Valuable Player: John Markley.
• Rookie of the Year: Marcus Fischer.
• Helmet Awards for participating in the program in grades 9-12: Jason Combs, Matt Kreiser, Lightfoot, McCarty, McIntyre and Bobby Schoelkopf.
The varsity coaching staff made remarks about the season and introduced the freshman team that went undefeated this past season.
Former Columbia quarterback Ray McCarty served as master of ceremonies, while the Rev. Ron Bachman gave the invocation.

Tide falls

Columbia’s 2008 football season came to an end Friday night in a 39-6 loss to one of, if not the best team in the state, the Steel-High Rollers.
The 11-0 Rollers are not only the defending District 3 Class A champion, but the defending state champion as well.
They have a number of Division I prospects on the team and are a good bet to repeat their success in the state tournament.
One of those Division I prospects for the Rollers is running back Jeremiah Young. He’s closing in on the state’s career rushing record. He needed more than 400 yards going into the game. Friday night, he ran the ball 15 times for 159 yards. He also caught a pass for a score.
Young caught that pass on the Rollers’ first possession of the game, on a 20-yard aerial from quarterback Andre Campbell.
He scored the first of three rushing touchdowns on a 40-yard sprint on the Rollers’ second possession. Steel-High led the game 14-0, seven minutes into the game on a nine-play and a two-play drive.
After forcing the Tide to its second straight, three and out series, the Rollers took over late in the first quarter at their own 26 and 34 seconds into the second quarter, Young scored from the 17 to give the Rollers a 20-0 lead.
Disaster then struck the Tide.
They fumbled the ensuing kickoff, which the Rollers turned into points. Campbell scored on a 10-yard scamper with 10 minutes left in the first half.
On the Tide’s next possession, quarterback Matt Kreiser fumbled when he was sacked and the Rollers got the ball back. Two plays later, Young scored on a 6-yard run and the Rollers were ahead 32-0.
Columbia again was forced to punt, but got a huge break when the Rollers fumbled the punt, giving the Tide new life. But they were unable to capitalized as Dakota Lightfoot’s option pass was picked off, which the Rollers converted into a 30-yard run by Dionte Willis. With five minutes left in the half, the Rollers were in front 39-0.
The Tide finally got some offense going. Lightfoot, the leading rusher in the L-L League broke loose on a 22-yard gain and the Rollers were flagged for a 15-yard penalty on a Tide punt. But the Tide was unable to capitalize and the half ended.
Now with the mercy rule controlling the game, the Rollers moved in for another score in the third quarter, but a great defensive play by Clark Meshey broke up a fourth down pass.
Columbia moved the ball on their second possession of the second half. Steel-High was again hit with a 15-yard penalty and Kreiser teamed up with his number one wide receiver Yahya McIntyre for a 34-yard gain to the Roller 24. But the Tide was unable to convert.
Columbia finally did get on the board. Getting the ball at the Roller 49, the Tide needed nine plays to score on a 2-yard run by Lightfoot with 3:47 left in the game.
On the nine-play drive, Lightfoot had his hands on the football for eight of the plays.
The Tide finished the season with a 3-8 record.
Friday’s game saw the end of the high school careers of Kreiser, Lightfoot, McIntyre, Meshey, Jason Combs, Kevin McCarty, Bobby Schoelkopf and Raefel Mendez.

Rollers, Rollers

• They have rich traditions in athletics.
• They are among the smallest school districts in the state.
• Both communities are economically deprived.
• Both communities love their high school athletics.
The list could go on and on.
But the biggest difference in the two schools, the Crimson Tide and Rollers, at least year on the football field is that you could call the Rollers a Division I college team and the Crimson Tide are a Division III college team.
That’s not a smack in the face to our kids, its just that the Rollers are loaded and basically rolled to a perfect 10-0 record.
In winning 10 straight regular season games, the defending state Class A champs, who are a solid bet to repeat, they scored 381 points, while giving up just 98.
Their three closest games were a season-opening 16-14 win over Susquehanna Township and wins over Mid-Penn Patriot Division rivals, Trinity, 20-14 and Camp Hill, 28-20. They crushed Middletown, one of the favorites in the Class AA field, 30-14.
And they have a number of Division I prospects on the team.
The biggest D-I prospect is running back Jeremiah Young, who sat out last week’s game with Camp Hill, with an ankle injury.
He needs 421 yards to get a new state career rushing record for a season currently held by James Mungro of East Stroudsburg High School. The former Indianapolis Colt rushed for 8,432 yards for his four-year career.
So far this season, Young has rushed for 1,806 yards and scored 20 touchdowns.
But here’s a little history -- Columbia is one of seven schools in the state that has held Young under 100 yards on the ground since the start of the District 3 playoffs when Young was a freshman. In that playoff game, Young was held to 89 yards on six carries. Others in the club are Holy Name (11), Southern Columbia (27), Boiling Springs (3), Bellwood-Antis (35) and Trinity (18).
And he also had a stud blocking for him, fullback Jordan Hill, who stands 6-5 and weighs in at 290 pounds.
Calling the signals for the Rollers will be Andre Campbell, who started last year on the state title title team. This year, he’s rushed for four scores and thrown six touchdown passes.
The team’s leading receiver is Jordan Smith, who has caught 21 passes for 389 yards.
The Rollers have rushed for 2,751 yards this year, while passing for just 666. Run defense was a weakness for the Tide earlier this year, but it has been moved improved over the last four games, but Columbia still hasn’t faced a run game like the Rollers.
That’s because there is a lot of beef\ up front for the Rollers. In the pits, the Tide will face a line anchored by the “Big Cat,” Lloyd Hull, who stands 6-2 and weighs a whopping 320 pounds. Others in the trenches are Will Rozman (6-0, 230), Matt Johnson (6-1, 215) and Justin Williams (6-2, 210).
Leading the way at linebacker for the Rollers is Jordan Hill, who leads the team with 64 tackles, followed by Jeff Davis with 35 stops.
Defensively, a player to watch for the Rollers is LB Jordan Perry, who leads the team in sacks ad cornerback Dionte Willis and Billy Stairs, who lead the team in interceptions.
Roller coach Rob Deibler in his 10th year has won five district titles.
NOTES: Kickoff is 7 p.m. at the Roller’s Cottage Hill Field, which is turf.
The winner gets the winner of the Millersburg-Reading Central Catholic game.
The other seeds are Holy Name (2), Camp Hill (3) and Millersburg (4).
Local ties are Columbia grad Tony Fillmore is a Roller assistant and Columbia assistant junior high football coach Tom Sherk teaches health and physical education at the high school.
Other L-L League teams in the playoffs are: Wilson, Penn Manor, Hempfield, Warwick and E-town (AAAA), Cocalico, Manheim Central, Lebanon, Garden Spot, Northern Lebanon and Elco (AAA) and Lancaster Catholic (AA).
Four of the 10 teams that Columbia played during the regular season qualified for the playoffs. The fourth being Daniel Boone in the Class AAA field.

Lightfoot is league's best

There’s no denying that Friday night was a big night for Columbia running back Dakota Lightfoot.
The fleet-footed senior had what could be termed a “three-peat” night against Donegal.
• He rushed for more than 300 yards for the second time this season, breaking his home single-game rushing record with 360 yards.
• He broke the Columbia single season rushing record set last year by Ben Guiles of 1,665 yards.
• He also won the L-L League’s overall rushing title.
Lightfoot finished the game with 360 yards, 29 more than his record setting night earlier in the season against Daniel Boone, when he stunned the Blazers rushing for 331 yards.
Lightfoot now has 1,746 yards going into tomorrow’s playoff game with Steel-High.
In addition to his running prowess, Lightfoot has caught four passes for 59 yards and also changed how teams kickoff to the Tide, after running back the opening kickoff of the season against Eastern. Ever since, most teams have elected to squib kick or kick the ball out of bounds to keep it out of Lightfoot’s hands.
The record breaking night also allowed Lightfoot to pass Cocalico’s Kyle Fisher, who he trailed by 13 yards going into Friday’s game with Donegal to win the overall league rushing title.
Here are Lighfoot’s numbers for the season.
• Eastern: 20 carries, 111 yards.
• York Suburban: 24 carries, 196 yards.
• Daniel Boone: 22 carries, 331 yards.
• L-S: 11 carries, 25 yards.
• Elco: 25 carries, 239 yards.
• Northern Lebanon: 22 carries, 85 yards.
• Annville-Cleona: 26 carries, 128 yards.
• Lancaster Catholic: 10 carries, 81 yards.
• Pequea Valley: 17 carries, 190 yards
• Donegal:29 carries, 360 yards.
Here are some other stats about the Tide heading into tomorrow’s playoff game.
• Columbia as a team has rushed for 2,073 yards. Second on the team in rushing is Jason Combs with 117 yards.
• Columbia scored 22 touchdowns on the ground.
• Quarterback Matt Kreiser is 46-127-15 with nine touchdown passes for 925 yards.
• Yahya McIntyre leads the Tide with 33 catches for 728 yards and six scores. Second on the team is Derrick Smith with five catches.
• McIntyre, Smith, Felix Mendez and Clark Meshey have caught touchdown passes.
• On special teams, Meshey is 18 of 24 with PATS.
• McIntyre leads the Tide in kick returns.
• On defense, Lightfoot is the team’s leading tackler with 67 stops, followed by Joey Charles with 57 and Marcus Fischer with 44.
• Dominic Trout leads the team in tackles for losses with three.
• Fischer leads the team in fumble recoveries, while Alex Beckley leads the team in sacks.
• Combs, McIntyre, Meshey, John Markley and Smith have picked off passes for the Tide this season.
• The Tide gave up 1,862 yards on the ground for the first five games of the season and 1,054 over the last five.
• Passing-wise, Columbia gave up just 342 yards over its first five games, but 768 over its last five games.
• Columbia is also minus nine in the turnover department.

District 3 playoffs

With the exception of last two years when the Crimson Tide was classified Class AA in football, the annual trip to the District Three playoffs always met one thing -- more often than not the Tide was paired against either Steel-High, Scotland or Camp Hill in the playoffs.
Back in Class A, the Tide, despite its 2-7 record qualified for the post-season again and their reward will be a trip to one of the most tradition rich schools in District Three next week, Steel-High.
And the Rollers are loaded. They are 9-0 on the season and have Division One prospects at a number of positions including senior running back Jeremiah Young.
Young, who has yet to commit to a college, is with 420 yards of setting the state’s career rushing record of more than 8,000 yards held by former East Stroudsburg running back James Munro, who spent some time with the Indianapolis Colts.
Other teams qualifying for the Class A playoffs are Camp Hill (2), Holy Name (3), Central Catholic (4), Millersburg (5), York Catholic (6) and Upper Dauphin (7).

Columbia-Donegal

For the last two years when Columbia and Donegal played their annual high school football game, it was the league opener in the L-L League.
For many years prior to that, the two longtime rivals that are separated by Chickies Hill, played the final game of the regular season.
Usually attached to that final game of the regular season was a championship or playoff berth.
Remember the final game of the 1999 season when the Indians beat Columbia 3-0? The section ended in a three-way tie as the result of that game.
And during the many years of the rivalry, there have been a number of great games, outstanding players and memorable moments.
This year, there is no section title at stake, or, a District Three playoff berth. Donegal won’t be going to the playoffs for the second straight year. Columbia on the other hand is going to the District Three Class A playoffs.
Both teams have struggled this year.
The Tide and Indians come into the game with identical 2-7 overall records and 1-5 section marks.
There are also a lot of similarities.
• Both teams beat Pequea Valley.
• Both teams played Eastern. Columbia lost its season opener to the Golden Knights, while the Indians beat the Knights a week later.
• Both teams played Daniel Boone. Columbia shocked Daniel Boone in overtime, while the Indians were blanked in the opener by the Blazers.
• Both teams like to run the football. Columbia’s Dakota Lightfoot has rushed for 1,386  yards and scored 13 times this season. Donegal’s Kyle Witmer has rushed for 1,224 yards and scored 10 times.
• Both teams are improved on defense, but have weak areas. Donegal’s is against the pass, while the Tide has trouble stopping the run.
NOTES: Kickoff is 7:30 p.m., which is a half later later than Columbia has started its games all season.
Last year, four teams from Section 3 made the playoffs. This year, going into the final week of the regular season, the Tide, Lancaster Catholic, Elco and Northern Lebanon are guaranteed spots, while L-S, who had a magical run through the playoffs last year needs some help to get in.
Daniel Boone, who faced both teams, is ranked in the top 10 in Class AAA.
In all, 15 L-L League teams could qualify for the playoffs, which begin next week.

Hats off to varsity

Right now, the Columbia football team might not be winning a lot of games at the varsity level.
They come into tomorrow’s Homecoming contest with Elco with a 1-3 record.
They haven’t stopped anyone who has run the football this season.
But last Thursday, the Tide’s varsity team showed the true meaning of Tide Pride.
The team was practicing on the baseball field, deep in left field, as the Columbia junior high football team was playing Lancaster Catholic on the football field.
The game was close, 14-14 late in the game, when all the sudden the varsity team stopped their practice, sprinted over to the fence around the football field, probably a good 100 yards and cheered the younger team on.
The Junior Tide won the game on a late 85-yard touchdown run and picked off a pass in the closing sections.
While the crowd at the game was larger than normal for a junior high game, some people had smiles on their faces when the varsity team stood and cheered wildly.
Like I said, its not been a good year for the Tide in terms of wins and losses, but just that move made the team heros in a lot of people’s books.
By the way, if you haven’t caught the junior high team yet, do so. They are unbeaten going into this afternoon’s game at Donegal. Also unbeaten and looking 100 times better than past years is the seventh and eighth grade team.
They are well coached and well stocked at the skill positions. They have a large arsenal of running backs to choose from.
Last Thursday against Catholic, the Junior Tide didn’t play well, but the mark of a good team is its ability to overcome adversity. They did and picked up a sweet win.

Game is off

Tonight's Columbia football game at Daniel Boone has been postponed until 7 p.m. Saturday.

Who is Daniel Boone

Columbia closes its non-league schedule tomorrow night with perhaps the toughest team on their schedule.
No, its not Lancaster Catholic, rather the Daniel Boone Blazers who went deep[ into the District Three playoffs last season and a team the Tide dominated when they played a few years back.
Boone is 2-0 on the season with convincing opening wins over Donegal by a 40-0 score and Susquehannock last week by a 35-14 score.
The Blazers play in Division One of the Berks Inter-County League and have a number of key players back from a team that went 9-4 a year ago.
Coach Dave Bodolus is getting credit for turning the Boone program into a District Three Class AAA power. When the Tide played them before, Boone wasn’t that good and the Tide owns a two-game winning streak over the Blazers..
Leading the way for the Blazers will be quarterback Jon Monteiro, who threw for five touchdown passes against Donegal.
Monteiro’s favorite targets are Zach Keely, who is also an all-state defensive back and Mitchell Steed.
Monteiro is just a junior and in his first year as a starter.
It will be the last tune-up for the Crimson Tide, who starts league play next week against defending Section 3 co-champ Lampeter-Strasburg.
Like it has been all year, kickoff is 7 p.m. tomorrow night.

Another tough night

It was another tough night on the hill for the Tide.
Columbia lost to York Suburban as they surrendered 521 yards on the ground.
Columbia had a couple of bright spots on offense.

Read this week's Columbia Ledger for a full report on the game and also a preview of Friday's game with Daniel Boone.

Who is Suburban?

There are a couple of new/old teams on the Columbia football schedule -- York Suburban and Daniel Boone.
Suburban was on the Tide’s schedule in the late 1990’s and earlier this decade and always had trouble competing against the Tide in the season opener. Boone was also on the schedule for the Tide during that time as well and never beat Columbia.
But that was then and this is now, as they say.
Friday, the Trojans return to the Tide’s schedule for the first time in more than six seasons, when they visit the Crimson Tide Stadium for a 7 p.m. kickoff.
Like the Crimson Tide, the Trojans, who were 4-6 a year ago, come into the game with an 0-1 record. They lost their season opener to Dallastown, 41-27.
Coach Bill Kerr’s team returns eight starters on offense and nine on defense.
Players to watch for the Trojans on Friday night are:
The team’s top two rushers from a year ago, who played as sophomores, Cody Waltimyer (643 yards) and Nathaniel Cross (310 yards). Waltimyer rushed for 116 yards against the Wildcats.
Another player to watch is the team’s leading receiver from a year ago, Cole Wagner, who caught 30 passes in 2007.
Up front, the Trojans are led by Ben Woody, Chris Smith and Ryan Bulgarelli.
Friday night against Dallastown, the Trojans fell behind 21-0 in the first half and trailed 27-6 at the break.
Suburban rushed for 209 yards on 39 carries, but only passed eight times for just 86 yards.
Defensively, the Trojans gave up 245 yards on the ground and another 115 yards through the air.
Suburban plays in Division II of the York-Adams County League.

Eastern 20, Columbia 14

High School football games are 48 minutes long. In Friday;s opener between Columbia and Eastern, the game was broken down into two seven minute segments.
The end result was an historic night for the Eastern Golden Knights, who beat Columbia for the first time in school history, 20-14.
Those five minute segments were at the beginning of the game and the end of the game.
The first seven minutes were owned by Columbia. The last seven minutes were owned by Eastern.
Senior running back Dakotah Lightfoot got the Tide off to a fast start. He returned the opening kickoff 85 yards for a score to give the Tide the early lead.
“My stomach dropped. We had lane people who got out of position,” said Eastern coach Jeff Shutter.
On Columbia’s first offensive series, Lightfoot carried the ball three times for 23 yards and Matt Kreiser making his first start found Yahya McIntyre for a 12-yard score. With 5:42 left in the first quarter, Columbia had a 14-0 lead.
Just when it looked like Columbia was going to run away with the game, things started to change.
Eastern was again forced to punt on their next offensive series, but the Tide’s Jason Combs misplayed the ball and the Knights recovered. Two plays later, the Knights were on the scoreboard as Jared Smeltzer scored from the nine.
But the Tide’s offense moved the ball to the Eastern 31 when Kreiser and center Kevin McCarty couldn’t get together on a snap and turned the ball over.
The problem existed all night.
The Tide’s regular center Bobby Schoelkopf was sidelined during the week with a foot injury.
“He did work with Kevin some over the summer, but he worked mostly with Bobby., who left practice on Tuesday with the injury,” Tide coach Jason Shoff said, adding other factors such as how Eastern’s defense played were involved.
Late in the first half, the Tide had another chance to put points on the board, but Kreiser’s pass on fourth down at the Knight 15 fell incomplete.
There wasn’t much offense the rest of the game until the final seven minutes.
That’s when Eastern trailing 14-7 capitalized on a couple of Columbia turnovers.
A mishandled center/quarterback exchange at the Eastern 46 by the Tide ended up in a game tying score for the Golden Knights.
Led by Smeltzer, who rushed for 119 yards against the Tide, Eastern pounded the ball downfield. They tied the game at 14-14 when Andy Siple scored from the six.
After forcing the Tide to punt. the Knights went back on offense. Just when it looked like the game might be headed to overtime, Eastern went into its bag of tricks.
In the second half, the Knights only tried three passes. On first down from the Tide 32, Smeltzer took a pitch, carried right, pulled up and found Ryan Yohe alone in the Tide secondary for a 32-yard score. With 49 seconds left, Eastern led the game 20-14.
Columbia had two other chances to pull out the win, but turned the ball over.
Coaches’ comments
Eastern coach Shutter said he thought in the second half of the game, the Knights’ offensive line took over the game.
“Our offensive line took control in the second half. We got a pretty good feel for what they were doing,” Shutter said.
“We same play about 25 times in the second half,” the Eastern coach said.
The win was Eastern’s second in the last two years.
“These kids have been through adversity the last two years and a win will help the kids understand the things you do over the summer will work,” Shutter said.
“A win will make practice easier,” he said.
Columbia coach Shoff was disappointed in his team’s effort.
“We had a million chances to win this football game,” Shoff said.
“We didn’t have a good attitude all of camp and it showed in a game,” Shoff said.
As for positives in the win, Shoff said there were a few.
“I saw a positive in the running game when we had everybody in and doing their job,” Shoff said.
“Matt (Kreiser, first-year quarterback) did a good job throwing the ball,” Shoff said.
After getting torched by McIntyre in the first half, Eastern double teamed the talent Columbia wide receiver, and the Tide’s other receivers didn’t come through.
“We can still come out of this and be a 9-1 football team and we put that challenge to the kids,” Shoff said.
Statistical notes
Lightfoot was the team’s leading rusher with 111 yards on 20 attempts. With catching one pass and returning two kicks, the fleet footed Lightfoot had more than 200 yards in total offense.
McIntyre caught six passes for 87 yards.
Kreiser was 8-15-3 for 102 yards. He connected on five of his first seven passes.
Defensively, the Tide gave up 140 yards on the ground.
Lightfoot was also the team’s leading tackler with six solo stops.
McCarty recorded the team’s lone sack.
Streak Buster II
Not only did Columbia’s 14-game winning streak over Eastern end, but so too did another streak that dates back to 1993 when the Tide lost its season opener to Marian Catholic.
NO J.V.
There was no junior varsity game played between the two schools. That was scheduled to be played on Saturday morning.

Weeks 1-2-3

Been doing some research, reading pre-season previews today -- real busy stuff.
Here's the skinny on the Tide's three non-league opponents.

Eastern
2007 record: 1-9 (lone win over Kennard-Dale)
Other non-league games: Donegal next week and Fairfield, Sept. 12.
Coach: Jeff Shutter, 11th season, second time around as Eastern coach. Third year of second stint.
Offense: Multiple, will run a lot out of the shotgun.
Defense: 3-3 stack, based on linebacker and defensive back play.
Who they scrimmaged: Daniel Boone and Big Spring.
Offensive players to watch: QBs Corey Hershner or Mark Halloway; RBs Aaron Mackley and Jared Smeltzer; WRs Alex Seitz and Jake Dunlap.
Defensive notes: The Knights gave up 30 or more points in seven of their 10 games.

York Suburban
2007 record: 4-6. Beat D-3 qualifier York Catholic.
Other non-league games: Dallastown and York Catholic, Sept. 12. Columbia game is the first of three straight road games.
Coach: Bill Kerr.
Offense: Spread.
Defense: 4-4.
Players to watch: WRs Cole Wagner and Nathianiel Cross; Lineman Ben Woody and Chris Smith and RB Cody Waltimyer; QB Jordan Knaub.

Daniel Boone
2007 record: 9-4. Class AAA school, who made it deep into D-3 playoffs.
Coach: Dave Bodulous.
Opener: Donegal.
Opening scrimmage: With Eastern
What to watch for: Boone, who hasn't played Columbia in several years boasts al all-state DB, returning QB and a running back that has had three straight 1,000 yard seasons.
Note: Probably will be second or third best team Colmbia will face this season.

Little known fact

With Columbia dropping down to Class A in football this season, there's a possibility they could be playing the Steel-High Rollers in the playoffs.

They have the top player in the state in running back Jeremiah Young, who has rushed for more than 6,000 yards during his career. The state record is more than 8,200 yards.

Why am I posting this? Since the playoffs of Young's freshman year, Columbia is one of six teams to hold Young under 100 yards on the ground.

The others were Holy Name and Southern Columbia (freshman year); Bellwood Antis, Boiling Springs and St. Pius X (sophomore year) and Trinity (junior year).

Pre-season is over

On a field where Jesse Owens once ran track, the Columbia football team completed its pre-season last night with a scrimmage under the lights at Sheppard-Myers Field in Hanover.
The Tide opens the season on the hill Friday night at 7 p.m. against cross-river rival Eastern York. The start time is new and don't forget the Booster Club chicken barbecue prior to the game.
Technically, this scrimmage was tied. Both teams scored twice and went 1-for-2 on PATs.
Columbia ran the ball well at time and got its passing game clicking a bit late in the scrimmage.
Defensively, the Tide gave up a few long runs and a couple of passes.

For complete details on the scrimmage, along with a story on the Tide's opener and a preview of the football season, check out this week's Columbia Ledger, which hits the stands Thursday.

Columbia scrimmage

The 2008 Columbia Crimson Tide football team ended its first week of two-a-day workouts with a scrimmage Saturday up on the hill with Ephrata.
Ephrata, a Section 2 team from the Lancaster-Lebanon League, played the Tide in football for the first time since 1983. The Mounts have a new coach, Jim Vieland, who was an assistant at Hempfield and takes over for longtime coach Ken Grove.
There were only two touchdowns in the scrimmage, one for each side. Columbia’s came on a run by Dakotah Lightfoot, while Ephrata scored on a pass.
Much of the first scrimmage was spent working with the second teams.
Columbia showed some good signs, but also showed they had some work to do. There were no serious injuries during the scrimmage, which is a good thing for the Tide, who is working with a roster of about 30 players.
The Crimson Tide closes its two-a-day workouts this week and will scrimmage at Hanover tomorrow night at 7 p.m. The Nighthawks, who haven’t given the Tide much of a challenge the last two years, also have a new coach.
Columbia then has a week to get ready for its season opener, on the hill, next Friday night, against cross-river rival Eastern, a team they have never lost to.

Football starts

Been up on the hill the past two days watching the Crimson Tide.

They have about 35 players out, but also have about five or six freshman working out.

Columbia scrimmages Ephrata on Saturday at 10 a.m.

It's the first time the Tide and Mounts have gotten together in football since the 1970s. They have a new coach and went 2-8 last season under the Ephrata legend Kenny Grove.

Former Cocalico coach Phil Kauffman said the Mounts have nothing back, but they do have some big linemen.

House to the Lions

According to Columbia football coach Jason Shoff, all-state center Brian Groff has accepted Penn State's offer to become a perferred walk-on.

Walking on

Could "House" be moving? No, not the TV show, but Columbia's Brian Groff, nicknamed the House.

Columbia football coach Jason Shoff said last night that Groff has been contacted by Penn State about becoming a walk-on at Penn State. Shoff was on contact with Nit assistant Mike McQueery about the matter. He's the red headed coach that Joe always yells at.

LOI

Columbia's Colby Tuell will sign a letter of intent tonight to play football at Kutztown.
He was one of the top receivers in the L-L League last year.

Congrats to Colby!

More honors

Brian Groff and running back Ben Guiles were named to the honorable all-state team by Eastern PA Football.
Earlier this week, the Pennsylvania Football News released its Class AA All-State team.
Groff was named to the third team as an offensive lineman, while quarterback Mike Seibert and wide receiver Colby Tuell were named as honorable mention selections.