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.