ALMEDIA – Down three starting offensive linemen after injuries sustained last week, Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech had a bit of a heavy lift staring at it on Saturday as they hosted Montrose and attempted to get its running game going after being a little stagnant a week ago.
The Rams got just enough of a ground game going to be effective and more importantly, that was enough to open up its passing game for some long scoring plays, and between that and forcing three turnovers defensively while cutting down on its own turnovers from last week, CMVT came out on top of the Meteors, 38-12.
“This was a hard-fought game in the trenches. It wasn’t an easy game by any means, it was back and forth in the beginning but I couldn’t be happier,” said CMVT coach Mark Varner.
Myles Koser threw for 246 yards and five touchdowns on 8-of-12 passing, and the return of Elijah Treon in the offensive backfield gave the Rams’ running game a boost and its offense some balance as the sophomore ran for 78 yards on 19 carries. Treon was enough of a threat on the ground, even despite the Rams missing those three starters on the offensive line, that it further opened up the Rams’ passing game for several big plays on the afternoon. Axton Koser caught a pair of touchdowns and had 140 receiving yards.
“Treon was able to give us a little bit more speed to the outside and the young guys filled in on the line for our more experienced guys and they did a good job,” said Varner. “We need to keep improving on that aspect. I wasn’t completely happy with all of our runs. We did some things that limited us on the inside in our running game but as a whole, they did a really good job for having just one week of practice.
“Two of those big touchdowns were on play action passes so when we’re running off tackle and the sweep with Treon, and then we fake that and go up top, it definitely opens it up.”
“The outcome today was largely due to our execution. Not taking anything away from them, but we came prepared for this game but didn’t play like it,” said Montrose coach George Petrak. “We didn’t execute. We did so many things to shoot ourselves in the foot – turnovers, penalties, not being focused and honed in, and our pass coverage was awful. We came into today anticipating what was going to happen and we still weren’t able to get it done.”
The first of those big plays came on CMVT’s opening drive of the game. Treon picked up 36 yards on three carries on the Rams’ four plays of the drive, and then Myles Koser hit Axton Koser for a 37-yard touchdown.
The Rams then recovered an onside kick but their drive stalled on downs and Montrose took over at its own 26 and proceeded to put together a seven-play, 74-yard drive capped by a 43-yard touchdown run by Weston Nabywaniec to tie the game at the 4:38 mark of the first quarter.
CMVT answered back immediately on its ensuing drive. Treon carried the ball five times, picking up just 13 yards, while Tyson Brown also had a seven-yard gain, but those rushing plays opened up the air for Koser to complete a 21-yard pass to Brown and later his Matthew Allen for a seven-yard touchdown to regain the lead.
The Meteors countered with another long scoring play, this one a 62-yard touchdown run by Sawyer Aukema on the second play of the second quarter to tie the game once again.
A fake punt by Montrose came up a yard shy of the first down on the Meteors next drive, giving CMVT the ball at its own 42. Four plays later, the Kosers connected again, with Myles hitting Axton from 54 yards out to give the Rams an 18-12 lead. Axton snatched a pass that was thrown slightly in front of him and then accelerated through and then away from the Montrose secondary and into the end zone.
Later in the second quarter, the Meteors took over at the CMVT 40 with 1:24 remaining in the half and got to the CMVT 16 after a 24-yard pickup by Cason Petrak. But a penalty, an incompletion and three negative rushing plays ended the half and the Rams preserved the lead going into halftime.
On Montrose’s first drive of the second half, following a penalty on the first play from scrimmage, it flipped the field with a 50-yard pickup by Aukema to get to the CMVT 23. They got down to the Ram 6-yard line, but from there, had a play for no gain and two negative plays and ran out of downs with 6:34 left in the quarter.
“I don’t think that affected us. We still had the mindset that we can overcome this and we can still come back, but again, we practiced flawlessly preparing for this game, but we came out and you’d never have known it,” said Petrak. “Kudos to them, they were able to get the ball away, we didn’t get enough pressure on the quarterback and we weren’t playing tight enough pass coverage and we let separation happen that shouldn’t have happened between our defensive back and their receivers.”
After then getting an interception on the Rams’ ensuing drive – the only turnover of the game for CMVT, the Meteors’ Weston Nabywaniec was picked off on the first play of Montrose’s next possession and the interception was returned for a touchdown by Axton Koser, making it a two-score game.
That was one of three takeaways for the Rams, who a week after turning the ball over six times, only committed a single turnover.
From that point forward, the Meteors were limited to just 73 yards for the remainder of the game, and Montrose committed two more turnovers.
“We made some adjustments to our defensive tackles and our inside linebackers and their gap responsibilities. We simplified it a little bit and it really worked. We were going through our gaps instead of staying in them in the first half,” said Varner.
Myles Koser, meanwhile, threw two more touchdowns in the second half, hitting Blake Sponenberg both times for 37 and 41-yard touchdown passes.
Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech 38, Montrose 12
Montrose (1-2) 6 6 0 0 – 12
CMVT (2-1) 12 6 14 6 – 38
First quarter
8:26 – (VT) Axton Koser 37-yard pass from Myles Koser (run failed), 5-65, 1:59
4:38 – (M) Weston Nabywaniec 43-yard run (kick failed), 7-74, 4:48
:21 – (VT) Matthew Allen 24-yard pass from Myles Koser (pass failed), 8-69, 4:17
Second quarter
11:40 – (M) Sawyer Aukema 62-yard run (run failed), 3-60, :41
4:52 – (VT) Axton Koser 54-yard pass from Myles Koser (pass failed), 4-58, 1:52
Third quarter
3:44 – (VT) Axton Koser 27-yard interception return (M. Koser run)
:45 – (VT) Blake Sponenberg 37-yard pass from Myles Koser (run failed), 3-46, :45
Fourth quarter
10:52 – (VT) Blake Sponenberg 41-yard pass from Myles Koser (run failed), 2-48, :57
Statistics
M VT
First downs 11 12
Rushes-net yards 40-308 36-113
Passing yardage -1 246
Passing 2-8-0-1 8-12-4-1
Fumbles-lost 3-2 2-0
Penalties-yards 9-61 8-67
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Montrose: Cason Petrak (13-58), Timothy David (9-54), Sawyer Aukema (6-118-1), Weston Nabywaniec (6-56-1), Liam MacNamee (2-9), Jacob Susz (2-(-4)), Nathaniel Thurman (1-12), Michael Hillier, Jr. (1-5); CMVT: Elijah Treon (19-78), Tyson Brown (8-31), Charlie Sego (5-15), Team (3-(-11))
PASSING: Montrose: Weston Nabywaniec (2-6-(-1)-0-1), Sawyer Aukema (0-1-0-0-0), Timothy David (0-1-0-0-0); CMVT: Myles Koser (8-12-246-5-1)
RECEIVING: Montrose: Evan McComb (1-2), Cason Petrak (1-(-3)); CMVT: Axton Koser (4-140-2), Blake Sponenberg (2-78-2), Tyson Brown (1-21), Matthew Allen (1-7-1)