PREP FOOTBALL: Buchholz blows past Columbia in season opener

GAINESVILLE — Already trailing Buchholz by 29 late in the third quarter, Columbia went for it on 4th-and-1 deep in its own territory.

The quick handoff went to Camdon Frier, who had nowhere to run but backwards, dragged down by his jersey for a 12-yard loss. All Frier could do was scream out in frustration, which began one night earlier and lasted into Saturday as the Tigers could never find their footing offensively in head coach Brian Allen’s regular-season return.

The Bobcats, meanwhile, marched right in stride drive after drive.

Sophomore quarterback Trace Johnson settled in after a shaky start Friday and found receivers time and time again in his first varsity start, completing 21 of 34 passes for 270 yards and four touchdowns to lead Buchholz to a 41-13 win over Columbia at Citizens Field in a game that was played with a running clock for most of the fourth quarter. The Bobcats picked up right where they left off Friday when they led 14-0 before the game was postponed to Saturday following the arrest of two armed males at Columbia High School.

Running back Quinton Cutler caught one of those TDs for a 14-yard score, which gave Buchholz a 41-6 lead with just over 10 minutes to go in the game to trigger the running clock, and it was part of a night where he tallied 136 total yards. Most of it came on the ground as Cutler rushed for 94 yards on 14 carries with another score for the Bobcats, who are coming off a state semifinals appearance a year ago under new head coach Chuck Bell.

“A lot of credit to Buchholz,” Allen said. “I’m that guy that’s always going to give credit where credit is due, and coach Bell and his staff had his guys ready to go in Week 1 and they looked the part. Buchholz is a dang good team. I understand why they were in the semis last year.”

Johnson, who is the son of former Florida Gator star Doug Johnson, completed passes to five different receivers. After tossing an 8-yard score to Caylen Ferguson to put Buchholz (1-0) up 14-0 on Friday, Johnson returned Saturday and also threw a 61-yard touchdown to Jordan Richardson — part of his 6-catch, 123-yard game — as well as a 3-yard score to RJ Livingston.

Livingston’s score put the Bobcats up 35-6 with eight seconds to go in the first half. Johnson outplayed Columbia quarterback Zack Paulk, who finished 9 of 14 for 197 yards in his first varsity start that included an 80-yard touchdown to receiver Bynton Edge late in the contest.

“He’s a pretty dang good kid,” Allen said of Johnson. “He comes from good stock obviously. I played against his dad in high school, college and the pros, so he comes from some very good stock. When I was looking at the little film we had (Friday) night, the ball was out in 2.5 seconds. You don’t have to have a very good line when you can get it out in 2.5 seconds and have confidence in where you’re going. The receivers that he’s throwing to obviously know where they need to be and he’s putting the ball on their shirts, so I thought he did very good.”

Aside from a 72-yard touchdown run by running back TC Smith and Paulk’s 80-yard touchdown pass to Edge, Columbia (0-1) tallied just 103 yards of offense. The Tigers struggled to pick up first downs throughout the game and finished just 1 for 7 on third-down conversions.

Creating lanes for their running backs and giving Paulk time to throw was a challenge for an inexperienced offensive line that played without Javon Bradley (concussion). Paulk was sacked three times and lost a fumble once as a result.

“I’m still trying to figure out who my five are up front,” Allen said. “I’ve got four going one way and one going the other way. Or I’ve got three going one way and two going the other way in pass protection and our run game. Until we get that fixed, it’s going to be tough to have sustained drives. And when we had opportunities, our balls weren’t where they needed to be to be caught. That’s frustrating. It’s extremely frustrating. You have to be able to move the ball on third down.”

The game picked up Saturday with the Tigers receiving the kickoff and a chance to get back in the game, but they picked up just one first down via a Buchholz personal foul before having to punt. The Bobcats turned around and put together a 10-play, 69-yard drive to take a 21-0 lead on a 2-yard TD run by Florida commit Myles Graham on 4th-and-goal.

Smith’s 72-yard touchdown came three plays later, but Buchholz answered with Johnson’s 61-yard scoring connection to Richardson to take control of the game for good. The Bobcats’ offense was rarely stopped aside from a missed field goal, and they punted only twice.

“I know we have a good enough football team,” Allen said. “We’ve got to fix the small mistakes. We’re going to play worthy opponents throughout the rest of this season. It was Buchholz tonight and it’s going to be another the next week and the next week, so we’ve got to fix these small things and we’ll be fine.”

UP NEXT

Columbia hosts Union County on Friday for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff. UCHS is coming off a 43-0 win over Interlachen in its season opener.