Turnovers turn tide against Columbus

STANWOOD - Turnovers are never a good thing and Columbus experienced how bad giving up possession of the football can be when the Wildcats lost Friday.

North Cedar capitalized on the gifts Columbus presented and won its first game of the season in the Class A District 6 home contest, 44-26.

Columbus had the lead late in the third quarter, up 18-14, but turned the ball over three times. Two of those giveaways were fumbles and another was on downs.

'The worst part of it was, it was three straight times and all resulted in big plays for North Cedar,” Columbus head coach Dave Lekwa said. 'We just didn't execute late in the game.”

The Wildcats had two backs get over 100 yards each as Will Schwab ground out 190 yards on 30 carries and had 100 on just seven carries. Columbus was 0-for-7 passing with an interception.

North Cedar had 221 yards passing and 181 rushing.

Bright led the Wildcats with 6.5 tackles and Kaden Amigon had 6.0 tackles. Gage Storm had 4.5 and Gabe Alcala 4.0.

Columbus is 2-5 overall and 1-4 in the district and will play at Wapello in the opening round of Friday's playoffs.