The Waterloo and Columbia high school football squads had a rough Friday night. 

Waterloo (3-1) suffered its first loss of the season in a 31-7 defeat at Mississippi Valley Conference foe Triad. 

Columbia (2-2) dropped a home contest to Roxana, 14-7.

Following a scoreless first quarter at Triad, the Bulldogs fell behind 7-0 on a 10-yard touchdown run by the Knights with just more than seven minutes remaining in the first half. 

That was the score at halftime. 

Triad added a field goal and then a short TD run in the third quarter to take a 17-0 advantage into the final period. 

Waterloo sophomore running back Derez Sayles provided a brief spark for the ‘Dogs with his 21-yard TD run at the start of the fourth quarter. 

However, that was answered less than four minutes later with a 20-yard TD run by the Knights. 

Triad tacked on another TD with about two minutes remaining in the contest. 

Sayles led the way for Waterloo with 78 yards on 10 carries. 

Meanwhile, Triad rushed for 316 yards as a team and averaged nearly eight yards per carry. 

Some highlights for Waterloo’s defense included an interception by Justin Manning and a sack by Patrick O’Donnell. 

Up next for Waterloo is a home contest against fellow MVC foe Highland (2-2) this Friday. 

At Columbia, the host Eagles were able to keep Roxana’s high-powered offense mostly in check but unfortunately couldn’t muster enough offense of its own. 

The Shells scored on a short TD run at 5:24 of the first quarter, and then again on a long TD pass late in the second quarter. 

The game remained 14-0 in favor of Roxana until the final minute of regulation, during which Columbia’s Cameron Janik broke through with a two-yard TD run. 

For the night, Logan Hicks led Columbia’s rushing attack with 88 yards on nine carries. On defense, he recorded eight tackles and two assists.

Columbia quarterback Mason Voegele threw for 146 yards and ran for 71 more. He led the Eagles on defense with 10 tackles and three assists.

Columbia will try to get back in the win column as it welcomes familiar Cahokia Conference rival Freeburg (1-3) to town this Friday night. 

Per Columbia’s Hall of Fame statistician Howie Knapp, the Eagles’ victory Sept. 13 at Taylorville was the 300th win in program history, which spans 53 years.