By ALAN DOOLEY

The Columbia football team ran its record to 7-1 on Friday night, coming on strong in the second half to overpower Red Bud, 38-15.

The two halves of the contest were almost like separate games, with Columbia racking up penalties, fumbling the ball and, in general, in their own coach’s words, “playing sloppy ball” early on.

Columbia started the scoring just 37 seconds into the game when quarterback Jacob Hill thrilled the crowd with a 45-yard touchdown run.

Red Bud scored on a pass play from Brandyn Fadler to Gavin Rensing to knot the score early in the second quarter.

Columbia pulled back ahead on a 14-yard run by Lou Isringhaus at the 6:30 point, pushing the score to 14-7.  When it looked like the Eagles might get the ball in the waning seconds of the first half, they allowed Red Bud to keep it when they roughed the kicker on a punt.

The third quarter didn’t start much better for the Eagles. At the 8:47 mark, Red Bud punched in a touchdown and converted a 2-point play to make it 15-14 Musketeers.

Then the complexion of the game changed radically and abruptly. Columbia clawed its way back into the lead with a 38-yard field goal by Greg Long at 5:04, and never looked back.

Less than three minutes later, Hill hit Lamont Reed on 59-yard pass play and with a point after by Long, the score was 24-15.

It was all Columbia in the fourth quarter, as Isringhaus rambled over the goal line 10 seconds into the period to run the score to 31-15.  Following a fumble recovery by Connor Little at the 7:29 mark, Isringhaus quickly converted that to another touchdown, running 44 yards this time, to put the score at 38-15.

After the game, Columbia head coach Scott Horner acknowledged his team performed sloppily in the first half.

“But to give credit to the kids,” he said, “they kept playing. We have a mix of veterans and young players, and you’d hope they’d be over growing pains by now.  I challenged them to come out in the second half, and do the same things – but better.  We didn’t change anything except how we executed.”

Columbia goes up against powerful Nashville, also a 7-1 team, next week, to end the regular season at home.