Van Buren survives Columbus’ 2nd half

COLUMBUS JUNCTION - It was Monday night football, but it wasn't on ESPN.

The high school football game between Van Buren and Columbus (postponed from Friday) held the audience in suspense until the Wildcats failed to convert a first down with 1 minute, 50 seconds remaining in the game. Van Buren ran out the clock despite three consecutive penalties, one which negated a fumble recovered by Columbus, and the Warriors took a 18-12 road win.

'We got the monkey off our backs,” Van Buren coach Brian Johnson said of the Warriors' first win. 'It's about time, especially since we let one go against Davis County (a 28-0 loss). It has been haunting us, but this feels good.”

The three touchdowns were especially rewarding since Van Buren had only entered the end zone once in its first four games.

The Warriors matched that when quarterback Lane Davis found JT Metcalf on an out route from the 3-yard line just a minute into the second quarter.

'The cornerback went deeper than he should have, so I cut right on the goal line and Lane threw a nice pass, so it was an easy touchdown,” Metcalf said.

Van Buren doubled their lead when Metcalf scored on a 1-yard plunge with 6:43 left in the second quarter.

'I had to jump over a kid,” Metcalf said.

Davis intercepted a Columbus pass then completed a 58-yard pass to Corner Helling. That set up Cohn Jury for a TD run from the 3 and an 18-0 lead just 5 seconds before halftime.

The halftime talk seem to make a difference in the Columbus Wildcats' play.

'They came out with a lot more fire than what they started the game with,” Metcalf said. 'I think that is not what we were expecting since we had already scored 18. We thought they would roll over and obviously that did not happen. We should've got our heads out of our butts.”

Columbus put a drive together and capped it with a 26-yard scoring pass from Bawi Uk to Jonny Gonzalez with 7:28 left in the third quarter.

'I just told them we have to execute the fundamentals of the game,” Columbus coach Tyler Kibbe said. 'The big thing is getting the kids to understand our offensive philosophy of what we are trying to do with the ball.”

Columbus has two different offenses with two different mentalities. The Wildcats used three different quarterbacks and Tucker Bright was the most effective in the passing game.

'If our receivers stay engaged, we are one block away from hitting the home run,” Kibbe said. 'In the first half, we tried something different and we just did not execute well on our outside blocks.”

Starting on their own 15, Columbus scored in seven plays. One was a 37-yard completion to Schwab from Bright. On third-and-12 from the VB 30, Bright found Schwab wide open in the end zone. With 6:01 remaining in the game, it was 18-12.

'We saw something on tape as far as run action, but what it was was a broken play,” Kibbe said. 'Both of those big plays I think were broken plays, but you got to be able to take advantage.”

Van Buren is 1-4, 1-0 in the district and hosts Sigourney-Keota Friday. Columbus is 1-5, 0-1 and plays at Mediapolis.

'It was JT‘s first game back and he came out ready to play,” Johnson said. 'We have Tony Davison on one side and we haven't had somebody to balance out that other big athlete on the other side and JT is a good athlete and he will make some plays for us.”