High school football: Columbus Grove dominates Pandora-Gilboa in opener

COLUMBUS GROVE — For anyone on the home side of Clymer Stadium, it was no secret that Columbus Grove had some extra motivation for Thursday night’s season opener against Pandora-Gilboa.

It was about repaying the Rockets for a 25-22 last-second loss in 2023 that’s lingered over the program for almost 53 weeks.

And by the middle of the first half, the Bulldogs had done exactly that.

Columbus Grove held a 28-0 lead at halftime and coasted through a running clock in the second half to hand Pandora-Gilboa a 35-7 loss.

“That loss last season meant everything for us,” said Lineman Kylan Mayes, who had a sack in the win “We knew we needed to get off to a better start this year if we want to go deeper in the season. Our coaches hyped us up for this one and that’s something that makes us confident every time. We were locked in from the start.”

Locked in might have been an understatement.

On the third play of the game, Columbus Grove quarterback Landon Best hit Trevon Baxter for a 38-yard touchdown.

After forcing Pandora-Gilboa to a three-and-out on its first drive, the Bulldogs used four minutes to go 61 yards. Best ran for 20 yards on the drive, including a two-yard touchdown run to make it 14-0 with just under five minutes left in the first quarter.

“It was about the attitude we came in here with tonight,” Columbus Grove coach Andy Schafer said. That’s something we preached all week. We wanted to come in here with a killer attitude no matter what the situation was.

“We wanted to start the 100th season in our program off with a win. That was important to us. We talked about things like the crowd, and it being on a Thursday. I think we made our fans proud and our coaches proud with this one.”

Best finished the night 6-of-7 through the air for 138 yards and a touchdown, with 32 yards on seven carries and two touchdowns on the ground.

His counterpart, Cory Gerten, went 16-of-30 for 112 yards and three interceptions. One of those interceptions went to Levi Schroeder, who took it back 55 yards for a third-quarter touchdown.

“This is a first-year start for him,” Schafer said of Schroeder. “It’s the first year he’s played linebacker after being more of a defensive back. We needed him to move positions and when you get a pick-6 in the first game, I think that lets the coaches know that we made the right choice.”

Pandora-Gilboa had 97 yards of total offense in the first half. By himself, Columbus Grove running back Trenton Barazza had 100 yards and a touchdown.

All 13 of Barazza’s carries came in the first half. He spent the rest of the night on the sideline after Schroeder’s pick-6 enforced the running clock.

He didn’t touch the ball a lot but he touched the ball enough,” Schafer said of his all-state running back. “That’s the great thing about Trenton. He agrees with coaches on the moves they make and he doesn’t question things. He’s a humble kid and he’s all about the team. That’s pretty special.”

Andrew Miller, Pandora-Gilboa’s running back who finished with 1,139 yards last season, ended the night with 60 yards on 14 carries. 38 of those rushing yards came in the second half.

“Every yard he had, he (Miller) earned it,” said Pandora-Gilboa coach Matt Hershey. “They really slowed us down. We don’t want to make it obvious that we’re giving him (Miller) the ball but that’s something we want to do a lot of. We have some work to do on our line too. When you don’t get a lot of push up front, that usually makes for a tough night.”

Shafer said to contain Miller, the Bulldogs stuck to their Cover-2 defense, something that’s designed to stop the outside run.

“Our defensive staff did a great job putting our kids in the right position,” Schafer said. “They took a couple of shots trying to hit that window between our corner and safety, and obviously, if they had caught the ball, those would have been some big plays. There are definitely some things we have to shore up but as a team, we did a good job.”

Gerten scored Pandora-Gilboa’s lone touchdown with 4:43 left in the fourth quarter on a 1-yard run. A 50-yard run from Ben Burkholder set up the play.

Columbus Grove had 320 yards of total offense. Pandora-Gilboa finished with 240.

Scoring Summary

CG — Trevon Baxter 38-yard pass from Landon Best (Evan Verhoff kick) — 10:47, 1st

CG — Landon Best 3-yard run (Verhoff kick) — 4:51, 1st

CG — Landon Best 1-yard run (Verhoff kick) — 5:49, 2nd

CG — Trenton Barraza 3-yard run (Verhoff kick) — 0:33, 2nd

CG — Levi Schroeder 55-yard interception return (Verhoff kick) — 9:07, 3rd

P-G — Cory Gerten 1-yard run (Lane Lee kick) — 4:43, 4th

Passing

Landon Best (CG) — 6/7, 138 yards, TD

Cory Gerten (P-G) — 16/30, 112 yards, 3 INT

Rushing

Trenton Barraza (CG) — 13 carries, 100 yard, TD

Andrew Miller (P-G) — 14 carries, 60 yards

Receiving

Trevon Baxter (CG) — 2 receptions, 59 yards, TD

Nathan Walker (P-G) — 3 receptions, 39 yards

Turnovers

Pandora-Gilboa: 3

Columbus Grove: 1

Total yards

Pandora-Gilboa: 240

Columbus Grove: 320

Reach Chris Howell at 567-242-0468 or on Twitter/X at @Lima_Howell