No. 1 Bloomington South football survives gut check vs. Columbus North
· Yahoo Sports
BLOOMINGTON — Columbus North's football team came in zigging when the scouting report said the Bull Dogs should be zagging.
Different looks. Milking the clock on every snap to shorten the game. Avoiding tendencies. Stunting South's zone-read running game. They made Class 5A No. 1 Bloomington South sweat in the second half for the first time this season before the Panthers were able to pull out a 24-7 win on a perfect Friday night at Huff Memorial Field.
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After falling behind for the first time all season, 7-0, South had to settle for field goal, then quickly got the ball again at the Columbus North 48. Duncan Combs zipped a screen pass to Jonathan Winstead on the home sideline with two Bull Dogs in front of him. Connor Parker shoved one to the side and Winstead darted by the other, galloping all the way to the end zone.
"That was a great momentum swing," Combs said. "Coming out of half, we had the missed kickoff return, but to get on offense and in one play and score a touchdown, that's great momentum. Jonny's super fast. Once he caught it and I saw Connor push his guy to the sideline, I knew he'd score."
Those 10 points in 1:52 propelled the Panthers to 24 unanswered points. Combs was 9-of-11 for 159 yards and three touchdowns in the second half after a less than stellar start.
It was 0-0 at halftime, but the break was more teaching than yelling.
"We kind of got in there and obviously, we're disappointed with ourselves offensively," Combs said. "We didn't play great, but they came out with different stuff that we haven't seen on film. So we had to go in, fix the gameplan, correct it to where we could attack the holes and it worked."
Columbus North keeps Panthers on their toes
The Bull Dogs tossed in some new looks and tried to shorten the game to keep South's potent offense off the field. It worked for 30 minutes.
"Some different approaches for us," South coach Gabe Johnson said. "We expect that. That's the hard part I think sometimes teams go into playing us and think, 'Let's change things up.' In football, you look at tendencies and that more you can change that up, you can catch people off-guard."
It was the start of a tough four-game finish for South and the first true test of the season.
"I thought our defense played really well," Johnson said. "Our offense was off-key, and they eventually got it going. I am 100% OK with a game like that. I told our kids, we can't go into every game thinking it's going to be 35-0 at halftime and that won't be the case moving forward."
The first half was a slog for South, which ran 15 times for just 41 yards and got 76 yards in the air. South owned great field position, as the punt and kickoffs pinned CN back. But they missed a field goal and had an interception in the end zone.
"They lined up in what we call and Eagle defense that just gives you problems," Johnson said. "They were trying to take away inside-zone, which is what we do. And we were not great up front. We've got things we've got to do to improve.
"We've got to run the ball better. Their plan was to get us in third-and-long and they did that. We didn't handle it well sometimes."
South defense stands tall
Still, the real key to it all was South's defense, which made sure it was still tied 0-0 at halftime. That group broke just once after a muffed kickoff put them in a bad spot, giving up a TD pass on fourth down to make it 7-0 CN at 9:32 of the third quarter.
Despite all the new looks offensively, Columbus was forced to punt eight times as South had eight tackles for loss and held the Bull Dogs to 102 yards, 46 rushing (on 25 carries) and five first downs.
"I feel like our effort was pretty good," lineman Donovan Avila said. "We definitely kept our ground even when things were starting to get tougher."
Good thing as for the first time all season, the Panthers, who came in averaging 53 ppg, needed a stout effort to save the day.
"I feel like it's just great coordination," Avila said. "Great teamwork too, overall. We just kept it together. Great composure."
That effort allowed a sputtering offense to find its footing.
"They've been great all season long," Combs said. "They've held teams to really low scores. They're getting us the ball with the interceptions. When we come off the field, we're going to be right back out there."
Offense goes NASCAR
One of the things South did to pep up its offense was go into hurry-up mode behind its all-state QB no matter where they were on the field. Combs was key after a less than stellar first half with 76 yards passing and an interception in the end zone right before halftime.
Defensively, South kept attacking. Offensively, South was still getting stuck on too many third-and-long situation, but Combs started taking advantage of the field position and connecting with his receivers.
"They were loading the box, bringing blitzes to try and stop the run," Combs said. "Hayden's a great runner, so you've got to stop something. So we saw a chance behind the blitzes to take some shots over the middle, take some shots deep, and it started working out for us."
Following the Winstead TD, South forced a punt and South took is 74 yards, with Combs finding Mayson Lewis over the middle from 24 yards out on fourth and 8 at the 7:56 mark for some breathing room, 17-7.
Then an interception by Charlie Morris at the CN 40 set up an insurance score as Combs zipped a 13-yarder to Winstead with 4:10 left. Crisis averted.
"You've got to lean on your playmakers and eventually, they come through," Johnson said.
Winstead caught seven passes for 139 yards, Parker four for 34 and Lewis three for 61 as Combs threw for 234.
"It was a check who we were inside," Combs said. "It's what we want, toward the end of the season. We've got a tough schedule to finish it out. We want those tough games to prove once we get to the tournament, we're ready, we're ready for battles, all four quarters."
BLOOMINGTON SOUTH 24, COLUMBUS NORTH 7
Columbus North (3-3) 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 — 7
Bloomington South (6-0) 0 | 0 | 10 | 14 — 24
THIRD QUARTER
CN: Cohen Long 26 pass from Max Wilson (Cole Stevens kick), 9:32. CN, 7-0.
BS: Sam Stolberg 32 FG, 3:55. CN, 7-3.
BS: Jonathan Winstead 48 pass from Duncan Combs (Stolberg kick), 2:03.
FOURTH QUARTER
BS: Mayson Lewis 26 pass from Combs (Stolberg kick), 7:56. BS, 17-7.
BS: Winstead 13 pass from Combs (Stoleberg kick), 4:10. BS, 24-7.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING
Columbus North (25-46): Keaton Russell 4-21, Ashton Schwartz 10-16, Max Wilson 11-9.
Bloomington South (38-134): Hayden Clark 25-79, Miles West 8-47, Lucas Smith 3-11, Jonathan Winstead 1-3, Duncan Combs 1-(-6).
PASSING
Columbus North: Wilson 7-16-1-56.
Bloomington South: Combs 14-21-1-234.
RECEIVING
Columbus North: Cohen Long 4-30, Hunter Koharchick 2-25, Austin Kuchman 1-1.
Bloomington South: Winstead 7-139, Connor Parker 4-34, Mayson Lewis 3-61.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: No. 1 Bloomington South football survives gut check vs. Columbus North