Roncalli’s Sam Neu chases after Columbus North’s Asher Ratliff during a game at Max Andress Field at Columbus North High School.
Tommy Walker | For The Republic
Columbus North outplayed Roncalli Friday night.
The Bull Dogs won the offensive battle and the defensive battle to come away with a low-scoring 14-0 football win over the Class 4A No. 8 Royals at Max Andress Field.
North remains unbeaten on the season at 4-0, while Roncalli dips to 1-2. The Bull Dogs snap a four-game losing streak to the Royals.
“We knew coming into it that their defense was pretty impressive. They fly to the football, and safeties come down and make tackles at three yards,” North coach Logan Haston said. “We knew it was going to be a grind-out game offensively. For us to be able to put faith in our defense to go out and get stops and give us the ball back for extra drives, you can’t enough good things about our defense tonight. They really set the tone for the game. So proud of those guys and proud of our the way we played complementary football tonight.”
It was all defense in the first half. Points were hard to come for both teams with neither team reaching midfield until late in the second quarter.
North forced many three-and-outs from Roncalli, but the Bull Dogs couldn’t drive past midfield on their drives either.
Once the offensive started getting in rhythm, the Royals were threatening with about three minutes left in the first half and were at the 28-yard line of North after a pass interference penalty. However, Roncalli had a couple mistakes of its own, as back-to-back penalties eventually pushed the Royals out of field goal range, and they were forced to punt.
With less than two minutes left in the first half, the Bull Dogs went to a hurry-up offense. It worked, as quarterback Asher Ratliff found Jordan Briner to move it past midfield. Two plays later, Ratliff found tight end Garrett Long to take it to the 12-yard line for a first down with 33 seconds to go. On the next play, Ratliff found Long open in the end zone for the 12-yard touchdown to make it 7-0 at the break.
The action picked up a bit in the second half, but it didn’t show much on the scoreboard. That all changed when Ratliff completed a huge pass to Morgan Knapp. Running back Gino Prescott ran it to the 1-yard line. Ratliff then kept it on the next play for the score with 6:19 left in the fourth.
Briner and Knapp stepped up to carry the void left by top receiver Braylon Thoman, who missed the game due to an elbow injury.
“They struggled a little bit in the first half. Don’t know if that was nerves of stepping into a new role. What I told them at halftime was that we’re going to keep calling shots for you guys, and we know you’ll get one eventually,” Haston said. “It shows that I have confidence in those guys, our quarterback has confidence in those guys to keep firing at them and they’re going to come down big with the ball.”
Roncalli missed out on another opportunity on the ensuing possession. Quarterback Collin Nash found Conner Kesler for a huge reception to put the Royals around the 35-yard line. However, the North defense stripped the ball away from Kesler, and Jackson Haston recovered the ball with 5:12 left.
After the Bull Dogs punted, the Royals drove down the field again and it into field goal range. Roncalli then had a bad snap and Dumo Kak recovered the ball for North with under three minutes left.
The Bull Dogs then picked a couple of first downs to run out the clock.
“What’s made us successful so far all season is the fact that we can hurt guys with a lot of different weapons,” Haston said. “With our quarterback’s legs, with our running backs, with our receivers out in space, we feel like that makes us dynamic and our quarterback does a great job of sharing the wealth and taking what the defense gives him. You saw that come to fruition tonight.”
One question going forward is the status of Long. He was injured in the second half with a sprained ankle and did not return. He was in crutches with his ankle wrapped. It is unknown if he will play next week at 4A No. 2 Chatard.
“I know he’s pretty banged up. He seems to be in good spirits, so we are going to get him checked out,” Haston said. “Talking to him, he was like, ‘Oh, I’m good to go.’ So, you never know, but we will get him looked at, and he is a guy that we need, so hopefully he is not hurt too bad.”
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