Flash and Crash Steal the Show, But Defense Creates Turning Point

It felt a little bit like football weather last night at the Cage as Colerain rolled to a 33-18 victory over nationally ranked Highlands. Though Colerain pulled away early in the third quarter the game was very much in doubt with 1:31 left in the first half.

That is when the Colerain defense gave the sputtering offense, and the Cardinal faithful, a much needed lift. Facing a 4th and 1 from their own 31 yardline and leading by a mere point (7-6) the Cardinal defense lead by Colin Lozier and Tyon Dixon (8.5 and 7 tackles respectively) swarmed over Bluebird QB Tony Guidugli short of the first down. From there the rejuvenated Colerain offense needed just 1:11 to drive 70 yards capped by Trayon Durham's (Crash) 4yrd TD run.

In the 2nd half Tyler Williams (Flash) added TD runs of 26 and 20 yards and Durham closed out Colerain's scoring with a punishing 29 yard run.

Overall the Super Sophs combined for a ridiculous 424 yards rushing on 36 carries (11.78 per carry). When the comment was made to Tom Bolden after the game that his sophomore running backs really stepped up tonight the confident coach quickly, and proudly, proclaimed "you've got that right!"

The running backs were only a part of the story, though. The offensive line had not looked like a typical Colerain line: mean, intense and leading the way for 100 yard rushers. Senior offensive lineman Brandon White attributed a preceived lack of fire to early season jitters. "I think the lack of intensity was from guys being nervous and not wanting to mess up...500 yards rushing (team) is a major, major accomplishment"

But with Princeton and their QB phenom, Spencer Ware, looming with a short week of practice Coach Bolden was peeking ahead to the Vikings. "we've got to find away to keep Ware off the field. He's just a special, special talent."


Leading Rushers: Tyler Williams 240 yards on 15 carries, 2 TD's., Trayon Durham 184 yards on 21 carries, 2 TD's.

Total Yards: Colerain 535, Highlands 317

Leading Tacklers: Lozier, 8.5, Dixon, 7, Pasquale, 6.

Scoring Summary:

Colerain-Tabar 3 yd run. Ross, Kick
Highlands-Weinel 21 yd FG
Highlands-Weinel 34 yd FG
Colerain-Durham 4 yd run. Kick Failed
Colerain- Williams 26 yd run. Tabar, Kick
Colerain-Williams 20 yd run. Kick Failed
Colerain-Durham 29 yd run. Tabar Kick
Highlands-Guidugli 6 yd run. 2pt conversion failed
Highlands-Guidugli 1 yd run. 2pt conversion failed.



Stay tuned this week for expanded video highlights from the game, exclusive on field interview with head coach, Tom Bolden and game photographs.

-Al Gabriel.

Brian Wyatt contributed to this write up.