COLUMBUS — The Columbus High School football team dropped their sea son opener in a close battle with Cuero High School August 29 at Memorial Stadium in Columbus by a final score of 28-21. This was a back and forth game for it's entirety and came down to the final drive.
Cuero just was able to have one more scoring offensive drive than Columbus down the stretch.
"It's disappointing," said Columbus head football coach Matt Schobel. "Didn't play well, but I thought our guys played really, really hard. Had a feeling we would play really hard. I knew we would make some mistakes and we
did, which is to be expected. First game, get some guys in new places, but we played really hard and there's things we can correct and there's things we can fix and get better at. That's kids and coach - ing staff including myself. Love these kids and look forward to watching the film and getting back to work." Cuero scored the first touchdown at the 7:51 mark in the first quarter on a 10yard touchdown catch, which turned out to be the final points for the first quarter to result in a 7-0 scoreboard.
Columbus responded right away in the
second quarter with a 10-yard score of their own, this time on a rushing attempt by senior running back Bryan Salazar.
The Cardinals put another touchdown on the board a few minutes later with an -
other run up the middle for seven yards by sophomore running back Doc Cantu in order to make it 14-7.
After an interception from Columbus, then a turnover on downs about three minutes later, Cuero took advantage and tied the game at 14 with a quarterback run up the middle for 77 yards with 4:28 to go in the second quarter. The score would remain the same going into the locker room at halftime.
Cuero didn't score again until the 5:22 mark in the third quarter as they drove up the field and capitalized with a 10-yard touchdown pass in the right cor - ner of the end zone to take a 21-14 lead. A kick out of bounds from the Gobblers put Columbus at their own 40 yard line, then junior quarterback Jack Schobel ran up the Columbus sideline for a 31-yard touchdown with 1:29 to go to tie it at 21. This would be the final score of the third quarter before a turnover on downs from Cuero, followed by a fumble from Columbus gave Cuero the ball back and they would end up scoring at the 3:18 mark in the fourth quarter on a 22-yard touchdown catch to go ahead 28-21. As Cuero kicked the ball out of bounds again and gave the Cardinals great field position, Columbus made a crucial hold - ing penalty in the final minute and ended up turning it over on downs on 4th and 16 to give the Gobblers the ball back with 1:17 to play in the game. Cuero would go into victory formation to secure the win 28-21.
