In Historic Rivalry Renewed, Columbus Blows Past Leps
Friday marked the 78th alltime meeting between the La Grange and Columbus football teams. The Cardinals haven’t played any opponent more than the Leps. Of all those games, this year’s will be one Columbus fans will remember for a long time – and a contest Leps fans would rather forget. With as much precision as you’ll ever see from a sophomore quarterback, Columbus’ Adam Schobel completed 19 of his 20 passes Friday for 295 yards and five touchdowns as the Cardinals downed the Leps 44-7. “Columbus is big time. They do things so well. They were making plays all over the place,” said La Grange head coach Matt Kates.
“I thought in all phases of the game we played well tonight,” said Columbus head coach Matt Schobel, a former Columbus/TCU and NFL great himself and the father of the Cardinals star quarterback. “La Grange has had our number a few times since I’ve been coaching and I knew they were going to be physical and they were, but we played well.”
Colton Pitchford and Conner Geisler each caught two touchdown passes while Jordan Woods snagged the other.
In addition to the passing prowess, Columbus’ JJ Hurd ran for 124 yards.
Meanwhile, for the Leps there was little to celebrate statistically. La Grange amassed just 120 total yards (compared to 451 for Columbus). La Grange’s lone touchdown came on a 75-yard kickoff return by Jakobe Wilkerson as time expired in the first half.
“When I got it a big ole hole opened up and I just took it to the endzone. It felt great,” Wilkerson said.
That cut the Columbus lead to just 22-7 and with the Leps getting the ball to start the second half, there was hope of a comeback. But that fluttered away when La Grange was unable to corral a Columbus onside kick to start the third quarter. “That was actually a last second call. When you have those playmakers La Grange does back there, it’s never a bad time to try an on-side kick,” Coach Schobel said.
Six plays later Adam Schobel was finding Pitchford with a six yard touchdown pass to make the Columbus lead 29-7 and it just continued to balloon from there.
Another bright spot for the Leps was a fumble recovery by Anthony Weikel in the first half, but the positives were too few and far between for the Leps Friday
“Games are won and lost in the trenches and we’ve got to find the formula and we still have some weeks to find it,” Kates said. “I know our kids are going to get this right and by district we’ll be a good football team. We’re just not there yet, but I know the kids we have in our locker room.”
La Grange (0-2) welcomes La Vernia (1-1) to Leopard Stadium this Friday at 7:30 p.m. La Vernia lost to Burnet 36-25 in the season opener before beating Gonzales 38-10 last week.
Last season La Vernia beat La Grange 28-21.
Columbus 44, La Grange 7 Score by quarters La Grange 0 7 0 0 – 7
Columbus 8 14 15 7 – 44
LG Colum. Rushes-Yds 27-95 30-156 Passing yards 35 295 Total yards 120 451 Comp-Att-Int 5-11-1 19-20-0 Fumbles-lost 1-1 1-1 Punts-Avg. 3-27 1-45 Penalties-yds 4-40 4-30
Scoring summary First Quarter COLUMBUS – 4:22, Ty’Vone Whitehead 4 run (Colton Pitchford conversion run) Second Quarter COLUMBUS – 3:47, Pitchford 64 pass from Adam Schobel (Javier Mendoza kick) COLUMBUS – :08, Jordan Woods 21 pass from Schobel (Mendoza kick) LA GRANGE – 0:00, Jakobe Wilkerson 75 kickoff return (William Bundick kick) Third Quarter COLUMBUS – 10:05, Pitchford 6 pass from Schobel (Mendoza kick) COLUMBUS – 5:42, Conner Geisler 43 pass from Schobel (Pitchford conversion run) Fourth Quarter COLUMBUS – 11:06, Geisler 30 pass from Schobel (Mendoza kick) INDIVIDUAL STATS Rushing – La Grange: Jaden Williams 9-28, Jakobe Wilkerson 6-23, Bravion Rogers 6-22, Clayton Knapik 1-13, Jacob Chovanetz 1-10, C.J. Davis 2-6Cody Krupala 1-2, Bennett Barber 1-1; Columbus: JJ Hurd 21-124, Ty’Vone Whitehead 5-18, Jordon Woods 2-7, Carson Beettner 2-7
Passing – La Grange: Jaden Williams 4 of 9 for 22 yards, Jacob Chovanetz 1 for 1 for 13 yards, Bennett Barber 0 for 1; Columbus: Adam Schobel 19 of 20 for 295 yards.
Receiving – La Grange: Knapik 2-26, Chovanetz 1-4, Nathan Scott 1-4, Wilkerson 1-1; Columbus: Colton Pitchford 6-110, Conner Geisler 4-85, Jordan Woods 5-72.
District 12-4A Cuero 2-0 Smithville 1-1 Gonzales 1-1 Giddings 1-1 La Grange 0-2 Caldwell 0-2
Friday’s scores: Columbus 44, La Grange 7 Waco Robinson 35, Caldwell 7 Giddings 21, Jarrell 14 Cuero 46, Navarro 13 La Vernia 38, Gonzales 10 Sealy 48, Smithville 0
This week’s games: La Vernia at La Grange Jarrell at Caldwell Marion at Gonzales Smithville at Navarro Cuero at Yoakum Lago Vista at Giddings