High school football: Columbia goes for broke, gets 2-point conversion in 2OT to defeat Firelands, claim outright Lorain County League title

COLUMBIA STATION — It's been six years since Columbia won a conference championship, and since its inception in 2019, the Lorain County League has run through Keystone. Not anymore. The Raiders battled through two overtimes to defeat rival Firelands 29-28 to complete a perfect regular season and win the conference title outright. When the title was on the line, the Raiders put the ball in the hands of their standout running back Marco Cirigliano, who took care of the rest. Cirigliano had been kept out of the end zone all game despite racking up 179 yards, but with Columbia's back against the wall, he secured his team's victory with a 5-yard touchdown run in the second overtime to get within a point of Firelands. Rather than play another overtime, the Raiders opted to go for the 2-point conversion and gave it right back to Cirigliano, who powered right up the middle for the win, avoiding a three-way tie with the Falcons and Black River, which both entered Week 10 with one league loss. Cirigliano described his emotions Friday as "the best feeling in the world." "You can't even imagine," he said. The players were confident in the second overtime that if they found a way to score, they were going for two, and Columbia coach Jason Ward agreed it was the right time to put the game away. "The first touchdown (Firelands) scored in overtime, we only had 10 guys on the field so that was kind of an outlier," Ward said. "But the second one, we really felt like they were breaking our backs a little bit and it just seemed like the right time." The Falcons put up one of the toughest fights Columbia (10-0, 7-0 LCL) has seen all season, and rather than break off for some big, splashy plays as they've been known to do this season, Firelands (7-3, 5-2) forced the strong Raiders run game to grind out every single yard. It felt like whoever had the ball at the end of the game would come out on top. "We were just fighting for yards the whole game, not really going for the big play (and) seeing what was there — just fighting (and) fighting to get every first down we could to keep the clock running," Cirigliano said. "For the 2-point conversion, we were confident in our gorilla package. No one stopped us the whole year, so we were like, 'Go for two to win conference? Why not.' And you saw the rest." Firelands coach Ryan O'Rourke was pleased with how his team keyed in on Cirigliano and its overall defensive game plan against one of the best teams in the area, but after controlling the clock most of the first half, the Falcons struggled on offense and didn't pick up a first down again until the first overtime. "I'm certainly proud of how our kids played," O'Rourke said. "Obviously he's a tremendous back and I think our defense played great. I've got to do a better job on offense." The Raiders had to make some adjustments themselves after a disappointing first half. "I feel like we lost some momentum in that first half, then coming back into the second half we were fired up, playing as hard as we could," Cirigliano said. "(Firelands was) just loading everything up, just having a bunch of blockers going everywhere. They have a great running back themselves, Weston (Strader). … They were a really hard-fighting team, just battling every play like us, so I feel like that's what makes a good run team. I feel like Firelands and Columbia are really similar teams — hard-running teams, hard-fought teams, and this time we just ended up coming out on top." This is the first conference title for Columbia since 2016, which dethrones three-time Lorain County League champ Keystone, and it's the seventh conference championship in program history. While that may have been something Ward took for granted in the past, he's making sure his team appreciates this moment before postseason preparation begins next week. He summed it up as a "special night for a special group." "It's just amazing how the students in this school and really the people of this community rally around each other," Ward said. "It's special. It's a special place, Columbia. "I'm not sure I ever really took time to savor those ones. It was always the next game, the next week, next month, next season, next class. I've been doing this for a long time now and I'll definitely take time to savor this one, and I'm going to make sure my guys do, too." "Everyone was saying we weren't going to be as good as we were, but the whole time we knew what we were going to do," Cirigliano added. "No one believed except for us and a few others and we just did what we said we were going to do and kept going." Contact Marissa McNees at ctsports@chroniclet.com and follow her on Twitter @MarissaNM.