Columbus authors signature win in overtime against Lincoln East

“We were looking for this signature win,” said Columbus coach Craig Williams.

Seconds into the fourth quarter, things seemed to be spiraling out of hand for the Discoverers.

Lincoln East had just punched in its second second-half score, plunging in from a yard out in the aftermath of an unsportsmanlike penalty that had halved the Spartans distance to the goal.

But the outside noise didn’t match what was going on in the Discoverers huddle.

“You can’t panic in the chaos and our offense really stayed composed and we stuck to the ground game,” Williams said.

Columbus marched back down the field, grabbing six points from a 14-yad Michael Voichoski run. A penalty put the extra point try at the one, setting up the Discoverers to go for two, which they successfully converted on an Evvann Daniels run to return the game to a one-score margin, 21-18.

Omar Rozikov added more life to the Columbus sideline, tracking down a deep ball from Lincoln East quarterback Turner Wilkie to flip the momentum.

The Discoverers finished with two interceptions, the first by Xavien Lopez-Long in the first half. Columbus nearly had a third when Laitenn Braithwait swatted away a ball in the endzone, but an extraordinary effort by Spartan wide receiver Sam Sutko turned the pass break up into the lone touchdown of the first half, giving the hosts a 7-3 halftime lead.

“Our DBs are really good, they gave up a couple plays there just because they lacked the height to get up there and make those plays, but a couple of times they were in position on those long plays,” Williams said. “It was just a matter of time, if you keep making those throws, eventually a DB is going to step up and make a play.”

The pick turned into a punt with six minutes left to play, a showcase of trust in the Discoverers defensive unit that ultimately limited Lincoln East to 314 yards of offense.

“They had given up a couple big plays, but other than that, they played well,” Williams said. “We just had to take the chance that they weren’t going to give up that big play — we almost did — but we rallied to it and made them punt it.”

The almost big play was a 25-yard run by Wilkie that took the Spartans from the two-yard line out to outside of the danger zone.

It was the only snafu on drive that ended in a stop that gave Columbus four minutes, 27 seconds to work with.

The Discoverers used all but 40 ticks of it, getting down to the 12 before electing to send out Alexander Ogle for the game-tying field goal — Columbus was similarly stopped on their opening drive, which resulted in Ogle’s first chip shot field goal of the night. Ogle was pure for a second time, sending the game to overtime tied at 21-21.

Columbus needed just one play in overtime to find the endzone as Voichoskie powered his way through the East secondary for a 10-yard score.

“He wanted that one there and he wasn’t going to be denied,” Williams said.

East gained only eight yards with their four overtime plays as Bryce Brown made a game-saving shoe-string tackle at the two-yard line on the final play of the night to turn away the Spartans.

“You have to believe in yourself, you have to believe that something like this can happen,” Williams said. “You gotta believe. If you don’t believe in yourself then these types of things won’t happen. These kids have earned it.”

Columbus will have another chance to make some noise at the state level in week eight, hosting previously ranked Kearney.