Tornadoes dismantle Shaw 56-0

After a tough loss at Chardon last week, Columbian was all business Friday night – even with the game starting 44 minutes late.East Cleveland Shaw didn't arrive to Frost-Kalnow Stadium until a few minutes before the 7 p.m. start time, so after a sizable delay, the game began and it didn't take long before the Tornadoes were ahead 21-0 after the first quarter and well on their way to a 56-0 rout.It was win No. 600 for the TC football program."That speaks to our program and guys who've done it before me and who will do it after me and it's a great culture that many were born into for a long time and I'm happy to be a part of it," TC coach Judd Lutz said. "Really proud of our guys executing, the coaches had a good game plan and we actually had a lot of adversity with sickness going through the team and guys being out, but our guys have had a next-man-up mentality."That team has some really good athletes that can make you look dumb some times and I think we did a good job of corralling them early and often. We put the pedal to the metal early and often and that showed."The TC (2-1) offense did pretty much what it wanted against the Cardinals (0-3), but it was the defense that had an impressive night mostly in Shaw's backfield. The Tornadoes' defense wreaked havoc all night as it held the Cardinals to just 65 total yards of offense.It also scored twice with a fumble return by Braden Egbert on a punt attempt and a pick-6 by Blake Miller."We felt like we could attack them up front for sure. We feel really good about our front seven and D-line anyways, but that showed tonight as we got home and got some turnovers and scored off of those turnovers," Lutz said. "A lot to fix and we know that, but we also know we did a lot of good things too."Some of the good things was the passing game as Zach Shawberry tossed four touchdowns. He found DaShawn Russell on the fourth play of the game for a 15-yard TD. He then found Johnny Bremyer for a 35-yard score, hit Izaac Woessner in stride for a 32-yard TD strike and then capped his night with another TD pass to Bremyer – this time from 25 yards out to give TC a commanding 48-0 lead at the half.Shaw produced just 40 yards in the opening half and was hard-pressed to line up to get a play off before the play clock expired.Besides the defensive touchdowns in the opening half, Brady Bonnell added a 3-yard score on the ground in the first quarter.With all of the second half played with a running clock, TC managed to score on its lone possession as Hayden Miller capped a four-play drive – which were all Miller runs – with an 18-yard TD run.Shawberry finished 7 of 8 passing for 147 yards as Bremyer hauled in two catches – both TDs – for 60 yards.The Tornadoes got back in the win column Friday, but the intensity will have to be turned up just a notch with Division III power Bishop Watterson coming to Tiffin next week."It's gonna be a great challenge," Lutz said. "They are returning state runner-ups. We took it on the chin at their place last year and they're really good at what they do. They have some good size up front and some skill guys returning from last year and they've been really good on defense for gosh … the last five or six years now, so it's going to be a great opportunity to see how much growth we can put in week in and week out and do everything we can to be in the game."