High-Powered Columbus Cardinals Down Leps 63-21

Columbus looked every bit as good as their No. 2 state ranking says they are as the Cardinals beat the Leps 63-21 Friday.

The Cardinals, loaded with college prospects, put on an offensive show scoring touchdowns on nine of their 10 possessions (and just missed a 10th TD when they fumbled out of the back of the endzone on another scoring try).

“They are a very talented football team. They can attack you in a lot of different ways,” said La Grange head coach Kyle Cooper. “We came out and traded punches with them early. Against a team like that you have to score with them, and we didn’t.”

“We’re a good football team. They are a great football team. The question is how do we get from where we are to where they are at in the next few weeks.”

Columbus senior quarterback Adam Schobel, who has committed to play college ball at TCU, showcased pinpoint accuracy, completing 19 of 22 passes for 230 yards and four touchdowns. Among those TDs were one to his cousin John (also a TCU commit, at defensive end), one to his younger brother Jack (a sophomore) and two TDs to Camdon Pitchford.

Meanwhile, move-in Grayson Rigdon (an Air Force commit) ran for 209 yards and four touchdowns. He’s a three-time state champ and three-time state six-man Player of the Year who moved to Columbus when his dad was hired as a Cardinals assistant.

La Grange hung with Columbus early. This game was tied 14-14 after the first quarter. The Leps got on the board first with a 31-yard touchdown pass from Clayton Cooper to sophomore Eli Gillum.

It was Gillum’s first varsity touchdown.

“It was awesome, nothing like it .. and to do it against Columbus made it even better” Gillum said of that score.

After Columbus took a 14-7 lead, the Leps answered with a Clayton Cooper oneyard touchdown run, part of a team-high 106 yard rushing night by the senior QB.

“We started out great, we just lost momentum,” said Clayton Cooper.

The Cardinals then scored 21 unanswered points to start the second quarter.

“They just had super fast players, hard to tackle and strong,” Gillum said.

La Grange scored on a Cooper five-yard touchdown run to trim the Columbus lead to 35-21 late in the second quarter but it never got closer than that. Columbus scored 21 unanswered points in the second half.

“We’ve got to get better, got to tackle better. On both sides of the ball we’ve got to put our kids in better positions,” Coach Cooper said.

Clayton Cooper ended up throwing for 141 yards for the Leps. Dwodney Thompson led the Leps in receiving with seven catches for 68 yards.

La Grange looks to bounce back from this one as they head to Smithville Friday to face an 0-2 Tigers team that is coming off a 40-7 loss to Giddings.

“We could have won this game but there’s a lot of things that go into it,” said La Grange defensive end Devonte Mc-Kenzie. “We’ve just got to come back and work harder next week.”

Columbus 63, La Grange 21

Score by quarters

La Grange 14 7 0 0 – 21 Columbus 14 28 14 7 – 63

LG Col.

Rushes-yds 56-232 26-332 Passing yards 141 244 Total yards 373 566 Comp-Att-Int 13-21-1 20-23-0 Fumbles-lost 1-1 2-1 Penalties-Yds 9-85 3-22

Scoring summary FIRST QUARTER

LA GRANGE – 10:04, Eli Gillum 31 pass from Clayton Cooper (Taylor Cook kick) COLUMBUS – 7:21, John Schobel 14 pass from Adam Schobel (kick failed) COLUMBUS – 5:43, Grayson Rigdon 29 run (Camdon Pitchford from Adam Schobel conversion pass) LA GRANGE – 1:50, Clayton Cooper 1 run (Cook kick) SECOND QUARTER

COLUMBUS – 10:27, Adam Schobel 15 run (Giovanni Martinez kick) COLUMBUS – 7:04, Rigdon 32 run (Martinez kick) COLUMBUS – 3:32, Pitchford 7 pass from Adam Schobel (Martinez kick) LA GRANGE – 1:11, Clayton Cooper 5 run (Cook kick) COLUMBUS – :32, Jack Schobel 6 pass from Adam Schobel (Martinez kick) THIRD QUARTER

COLUMBUS – 9:16, Rigdon 5 run (Martinez kick) COLUMBUS – 6:39, Rigdon 31 run (Martinez kick) FOURTH QUARTER

COLUMBUS – 3:16 Pitchford 23 pass from Adam Schobel (Martinez kick)

INDIVIDUAL STATS Rushing: La Grange – Clayton Cooper 28-106, Dillan Johnson 11-67, Eli Gillum 6-43, DaVon Giscome 9-33, Max Dixon 1-4, Team 1-(-21); Columbus: Grayson Rigdon 17-209, Adam Schobel 5-76, Ellijah Usher 2-44, Sean Sutton 1-3, William Fitzgerald 1-0.

Passing: La Grange – Cooper 12 of 20 for 139 yards and 1 TD and 1 INT, Eli Gillum 1 of 1 for 2 yards; Columbus – Adam Schobel 19 of 22 for 230 yards and 4 TDs, Camdon Pitchford 1 of 1 for 14 yards.

Receiving: La Grange – Dwodney Thompson 7-68, Gillum 2-32, Johnson 2-30, Mason Kleiber 1-9, Cole Collier 1-2; Columbus – Pitchford 6-87, Rigdon 5-47, Braylon Fisher 3-47, Usher 3-33, John Schobel 1-14, Fitzgerald 1-10, Jack Schobel 1-6

District 11-4A Sealy 2-0 Madisonville 2-0 La Grange 1-1 Giddings 1-1 Bellville 1-1 Caldwell 1-1

Friday’s results:

Sealy 48, Cameron 13 Madisonville 27, Navasota 20 (OT) Giddings 40, Smithville 7 Bellville 30, Stafford 0 Waco Robinson 31. Caldwell 20 Columbus 63, La Grange 21

This week’s games: Brazosport at Sealy Madisonville at Malakoff Salado at Giddings Bellville at Almeta Jarrell at Caldwell La Grange at Smithville