Tre Lindsay 54-yard touchdown run gives Columbus East a 22-20 Win over Toledo Scott

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contributor | September 4, 2022

Yesterday afternoon I made the drive for the first time to the home of the Columbus East Tigers to watch their battle with unbeaten at the time, Toledo Scott. I was very impressed with the stadium as it is one of the better ones I have taken in a game as far as the Columbus City League goes. The weather seemed to keep the crowd to a smallish one where the visitors had 49 total fans and the home side had nearly 300. Before getting into the game I want to thank the coaches in the pressbox from East that treated me so well and especially head coach Mike Bell. Coach Bell and I had a nice chat before the game and when asked how he felt about this one he basically said we are ready, they are a good team, and he thought this was going to be a good game.

Scott would end a six-play, fifty-seven-yard drive with a Carnel Smith II short touchdown toss to Daryl Barnettt Jr. to give the Bulldogs a 6-0 lead at the 9:00 mark of quarter number one. The drive featured four tosses mostly little short ones that kept the defense on its toes and allowed the running game to do its job.

The Tigers would respond on the ensuing kickoff where Mr.Excitement, Tauzaun Burns did his best Devin Hester impression by going sixty-five yards to tie things up at six apiece. The Tigers have speed to burn which is a big weapon especially with them having only dressed twenty-two players yesterday.

The Tigers defense would get the last big play of the opening act when C.J.Swason, Kemu Woods-Law, and Daquan combine to stop Carnell Smith II to just a short gain, with 7:35 showing on the clock. Both teams would take turns making stops to keep things locked up by making stops when needed.

Burns would get a nice punt return of thirty-five yards to set the Tigers up at the Bulldogs forty-five-yard line at the 10:42 mark of the second quarter. Solomon Vaughn was interfered with and somehow he made a marvelous catch for a gain of nineteen yards giving the Tigers a first down at the Bulldogs sixteen. Burns would break two tackles on his way to a gain of nine but the drive fizzled from there giving the Bulldogs’ offense another shot to break the tie. Amon Haynes would find Smith for a big gain all the way down to the East five, from there Demecus Beach boke three high arm tackles attempt to go five yards to break the tie putting the Bulldogs up 12-6 at the 2:38 mark of the quarter. East for some reason seem to try and arm tackle a lot in this one even though they were in the correct position to make a good hit and it really cost them not only on this drive but throughout the game.

The Tigers would covert a fourth and two when Burns used the work of his offensive line to squeeze his way to the fifty-yard line moving the chains. Lindsay would gallop to an eleven-yard gain on a nice quarterback run. The twelve-play, sixty-four-yard drive ended when Lindsay found Julian Albano for the score to give the Tigers a six-point lead then he connected with Burns, who broke a tackle and dove in for the two-point conversion making this a 14-12 game, with 5:31 left on the clock.

Law wood stop Smith on a quarterback run holding him to a one-yard gain if not for the tackle the gain would have been long making this a big play at the 4:56 mark of the quarter. The Bulldogs ran three fake punts and converted them all this kept one drive alive at the 3:47 mark when Smith was able to find an open receiver. Smith stayed with the passing game finding Daryl Barnett, who made a sweet run after the catch picking up sixteen yards at the 2:11 mark. Before the quarter ended each team came up with a nice play. For the Tigers, Junior Breaston got to Demecus Beach for a loss of two, and then for the Bulldogs Smith got a five-yard completion to Nytwuan Williams.

Just nine seconds into the final frame on fourth and one Amon Hayes broke three high arm tackle attempts to break off a nice thirty-eight-yard touchdown run to put his squad up 18-14. Hays is 190 and runs very hard making arm tackle attempts a non-issue for him. The final frame gave us more excitement when Law showed some speed and track-like instincts when he hopped over a would-be tackler picking up fourteen yards. Burns looked to have a Walter Peyton-like thirty-yard touchdown run but a late hold was called on Solomon Vaughn negating the score with 9:46 left in the game.

The Last 5:40 of this one brought a thirty-three-yard catch and run from Barnett, who easily broke a tackle on the play a fifteen-yard flag was thrown on the Bulldogs. Burns continued his big game when he got to Smith for a loss of four. The Tigers who had some issues on the snap to the punter paid the ultimate price when the punter watched the ball sail over his head and out of the end zone putting the Bulldogs up 20-14 with just 3:31 left to play.

The Tigers would need to go ninety yards to lock things up which seemed impossible with little time left. They would have the ball at their own forty-six with less than one minute left when Lindsay was forced to run and what a run it was he would avoid a tackler or two with some sweet moves and field vision as the coaches in the press box was screaming get out of bounds, he turned inside and turned on the afterburners avoid the defense and exploding into the endzone to lock things up. The 300 or so fans on the home side went nuts and before they could set down Burns dove in for the two-point conversion to give the Tigers (2-0) the lead. The Bulldogs (2-1) would have three passes go incomplete before time ran out on them.

For East one of the happy coaches in the press box said this was a culture-changing win for the team because in the past after the safety the team would have given up. From my point of view, the Tigers are a very exciting team who dug down deep to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and did so in such an exciting way, that I have to believe it will carry over to next week when they face city for Centennial (1-10 who comes in on a win over Columbus West (0-2). For the Bulldogs, they will need to recover quickly as they head to Vermillon (0-3).

Unofficial Stats

Scott

60 plays

295 yards

Passing, 12-23

East

46 plays

241 yards

Passing, 8-17

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