Last Drive Turns Corner Into Next Season

With 3:49 remaining in the fourth quarter Saturday afternoon, 73 yards separated Columbia football from its first .500 season in a decade. However, an inconsistent kicking game and the Lion's failure to score from 21 yards out in the waning moments of the first half made those 73 yards seem far longer. In their last do-or-die moment of the season, the Lions' offense took the field from its own 27 and strung together one of the most impressive drives of the year to secure the win.

"You get the ball with four minutes left with a chance to win the game, there's really no excuse for not playing your best," senior tri-captain Matt Barsamian said. "We buckled down and closed ranks a little bit, and just piloted it down there. We had some great blocks, some good catches, Jordan [Davis] ran the ball well, Craig [Hormann] did a great job getting us into plays and just executed well."

The drive began flawlessly as Davis and Hormann combined for eight yards rushing on the first two plays, with Hormann also completing his first four pass attempts for a combined 35 yards-quickly moving the Lions into Brown territory at the 30. Kicker Jon Rocholl's longest field goal of the season was a 45-yard boot converted against Georgetown in week two, but after missing a 21-yard attempt at the end of the first half, Patrick Huston was called on in the third quarter. Huston's 27-yard field goal was his first collegiate attempt, and with Rocholl only 1-4 this season on kicks between 30 and 39 yards, the Lions needed to move the ball inside the 15 to give either kicker a chance.

On third-and-nine from the 29, Hormann found tight end Jamal Russell for an eight-yard pickup that left the Lions a yard short of the first down with just over one minute on the clock. Head coach Norries Wilson had a snap decision to make: go for it on fourth-and-one, or attempt a 46-yard field goal, the team's longest of the season.

"Vinny [Marino, offensive coordinator] asked me could he go, and I asked him if he could make it, and he said he was going to make it," Wilson said. "It's not often you guarantee something when you're calling plays, but he said he was going to make it, so I said let's go."

On fourth-and-one from the Brown 21, the give was to Davis, who at that point had 49 yards rushing on the day. Davis found room to run on the outside, picking up 9 yards when his team only needed one.

Hormann earned another eight yards on the ground on the ensuing play, bringing the Lions inside the 5-yard line. A substitution infraction on the next play pushed them back to the nine, and on second-and-seven, the give again went to Davis. This time, however, the Bears had him wrapped up, and Davis was stopped for a gain of one. On the next play, Hormann ran the ball to the center of the field, and the field goal unit took the field behind Rocholl, the more experienced kicker.

"It was the first game Patrick had gone out to kick a field goal, but to put him in that situation, it would have been a tough situation on him," Wilson said of his decision to put Rocholl back in the game. "When I asked Jon if he could make it, he said he could make it. His response wasn't shaky, and he didn't take any time to respond."

A solid hold and one swing of his leg later, Rocholl converted his 27-yard attempt to seal the win for the Light Blue.

The 63-yard drive was perfectly balanced, using six passes and seven rushes. Although the final game of the season was certainly a celebration for the seniors, underclassmen dominated the offensive production in the final drive. Hormann, a junior, completed five of his six pass attempts and ran the ball three times for 14 yards; Davis, a sophomore, had one catch for five yards and ran three times for 13 yards, including nine on the fourth-and-one; freshman Austin Knowlin caught two passes for 13 yards; junior Jamal Russell had one catch for eight yards; and sophomore Rocholl won the game for the team when the pressure was on.

"That's what I came here for, to start something to turn this program around," senior co-captain Uche Osadebe said. "I think we really did that, going 5-5 for the first time and just starting things off right for the off-season for these younger guys. I came here to turn this program around, and I think we started that."