The Columbia Raiders will take on the Firelands Falcons at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Firelands took a loss in their last matchup and will be looking to turn the tables on Columbia, who comes in off a win.
Last Friday, Columbia took their match on the road with ease, bagging a 43-13 victory over Northwestern. The Raiders pushed the score to 35-13 by the end of the third, a deficit the Huskies had little chance of recovering from.
Jimmy Stofey went supernova for Columbia, rushing for 111 yards and two touchdowns on only 15 carries. The dominant performance gave him a new career- in rushing yards.
Columbia wouldn't let Northwestern keep a hold of the ball as they managed to force two fumbles. Justin Smith was the leader in that area as all came courtesy of his dominant performance. He didn't just play on offense: he also picked up 1.5 sacks, forced two fumbles, and made five total tackles (3.0 for loss).
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Columbia was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 333 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 221 rushing yards in three consecutive contests.
Meanwhile, Firelands was not able to break out of their rough patch on Friday as the team picked up their fourth straight loss. The game between them and Poland Seminary wasn't particularly close, with Firelands falling 19-0. While losing is never fun, the Falcons can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Ohio football rankings (they are ranked 387th, while the Bulldogs are ranked 162nd).
Columbia now has a winning record of 2-1. As for Firelands, their defeat dropped their record down to 0-3.
Columbia strolled past Firelands in their previous meeting back in September of 2023 by a score of 21-7. Will Columbia repeat their success, or does Firelands have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
