There might have been more joyous places in Nebraska on Thursday night than the locker room Columbus used at Seacrest Field — but not many.
Loud music played over the speakers. Coach Craig Williams made his way around the entire room to greet each player. Many players were coming up to celebrate with the guy who scored the winning touchdown, senior Michael Voichoskie.
A lot of the guys in that room have played a lot of football games together since middle school and are down to the final month of doing so. There are 26 seniors. Twenty-six!
Columbus rallied from an 11-point deficit early in the fourth quarter for a 28-21 overtime win against Lincoln East and is now sitting pretty well to make the state playoffs for the first time in four years.
It was one of the biggest wins of the season for Columbus (6-1) with two games left in the regular season.
“We haven’t been to the playoffs, and with 26 seniors, we really wanted to get that opportunity,” Voichoskie said.
Columbus scored the final 18 points of the game after East led 21-10 early in the fourth quarter.
“I think it’s just a group of 26 seniors that have played a lot of football,” Williams said. “We’ve talked all week about believing that we can get this done. They’ve put in so much time in the last three years playing varsity football that this is a win that to me they deserved. To me, it was bound to happen at some point for them to break through.”
With eight minutes left in the game, Columbus got its deficit to 21-18 on a 14-yard TD run by Voichoskie.
East’s offense had earned a lead by scoring on two long plays, but then stalled in the second half when it had a stretch with an interception and five incomplete passes.
“I felt good about our defense. That’s why we punted there in the fourth quarter with about seven minutes left,” Williams said. “We just took the chance that we weren’t going to give up another big play. I just felt like we could get the ball back.”
That allowed Columbus one more chance to tie or win the game, and it did. With 40 seconds left in regulation, Columbus sophomore Alexander Ogle drilled a 29-yard field goal to tie the game at 21.
Columbus got the ball to start overtime, and started with a bang by scoring on the very first play of overtime. Voichoskie ran 10 yards up the middle for the touchdown. Ogle made the extra point for a 28-21 lead.
East’s chance in overtime came down to a fourth-and-goal from the 5, but quarterback Turner Wilkie was tackled short of the goal line.
Columbus is one of the top rushing teams in Class A with an average of 250 yards per game. It’s a team effort. Voichoskie is the power back. Sophomore running back Evvann Daniels is listed on the roster at 5-foot-8 and 170 pounds, but he fights really hard for yards. Senior back Carter Eisenmann had a few key runs on scoring drives.
”We aren’t naive,” Williams said. “We know we’re not the biggest team when we step on the field, so we try to find ways to get some of our athletes into some seams and create some seams with some misdirection.”
Reach Brent C. Wagner at bwagner@journalstar.com or 402-473-7435.
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Brent Wagner
Husker volleyball/women’s basketball reporter
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