High school football: Black River blanked by Columbia

SULLIVAN TWP. — It was a defensive battle Friday night, as the Black River football team was shut out 14-0 by Columbia in a tight Lorain County League matchup. The Pirates looked to be in real trouble early, as Columbia marched right down the field on its first drive before finding the end zone on a 33-yard run from Jose Rivera. Already without running back Jayce Hopek and wide receiver/safety Austin Pamer due to injuries, Black River then lost standout two-way lineman Colton Moskal to a knee injury. The Pirates (2-3, 1-1) were stopped on fourth down on their first drive and the Raiders (5-0, 2-0) were driving again, looking to take command, when they were stopped on their own fourth-down attempt, something that would become a bit of a theme. The defenses traded stops the rest of the half, with Columbia forcing three Black River punts and the Pirates getting two more fourth-down stops, both coming after Columbia had picked up a few first downs. "The kids played really well on defense and hung tight," Black River coach Kyle Clark said. "We just didn't move the ball at all." The Raiders went for it on fourth down six times and only converted two, but they were big ones. On their first drive of the game, sophomore quarterback Wesley Sanders, who was making his first start in place of the injured Logan Menge, completed the first pass of his career for a key first down early in the drive. The second came on Columbia's only drive of the third quarter. On fourth-and-short from the 11, Sanders executed a play-action jump pass to perfection and found sophomore tight end Ryan Smith to put Columbia up two scores. "I loved his performance," Raiders coach Mike Rice said. "He took care of the football, he handled adversity and he handled negative plays. I can't say enough about his preparation." After Sanders' touchdown pass, Black River had its most successful drive of the night as freshman quarterback Dom Bell led it into Columbia territory. That comeback was cut short before it even really got going, however, as Raiders cornerback Carter Duley ripped a jump ball from the hands of Bryce Murray and came down with the interception. After Columbia was forced to punt, Black River tried to make things interesting one more time, but Duley snatched another ball from Murray's hands to ice the game. "It felt amazing," Duley said. "I had great reads on the ball, great teammates to help me out and I just played physical with them." The loss hurt Black River, but perhaps more importantly it suffered another potentially significant injury with Moskal being carted off. "(This loss) was all on us," Clark said. " We've just got to get healthy, get guys back to practice and stop having an injury bug. We've just got to execute." Contact William Cunningham at sports@medina-gazette.com. Columbia 14, Black River 0 COLUMBIA &emsp;&emsp;7 0 7 0 — 14 BLACK RIVER &emsp;&emsp;0 0 0 0 — 0 First C — Jose Rivera 33 run (Jack Washburn kick), 8:43. Third C — Ryan Smith 11 pass from Wesley Sanders (Washburn kick), 1:54. &emsp;&emsp;C &emsp;&emsp;B First downs &emsp;&emsp;15 &emsp;&emsp;8 Rushing &emsp;&emsp;56/213&emsp;&emsp;17/44 Rushing average &emsp;&emsp;3.8 &emsp;&emsp;2.6 Passing &emsp;&emsp;4/5&emsp;&emsp;13/19 Passing yards &emsp;&emsp;46 &emsp;&emsp;70 Total offense &emsp;&emsp;61/259 36/114 Penalties &emsp;&emsp;7/60 &emsp;&emsp;4/35 Fumbles &emsp;&emsp;2/1 &emsp;&emsp;1/0 RUSHING: Columbia — Xavier Hendon 31-117, Rivera 11-45, Sanders 10-30, Ambrose Beach 4-21. Black River — Hunter Varney 8-34, Dom Bell 8-7, Dozier Hendershot 1-3. PASSING: Columbia — Sanders 4-5-46-0. Black River — Bell 13-19-70-2. RECEIVING: Columbia — Smith 2-21. Jacob Reust 1-13, Beach 1-12. Black River — Bryce Murray 4-27, Zane Bungard 3-22, Carson Steidl 5-18, Varney 1-3.