Rally falls short

Columbia's bid for its second win of the 2010 football season fell a little short Friday night.
On the turf at Northeastern, the host Bobcats scored 24 straight points to rally to beat the Tide, 32-26.
It was one the Tide left get away.

\Coach Michael Burke III’s team used its ground game on their first possession to move 68 yards in 13 plays to score. That came with 4:47 left in the first quarter on a 1-yard sneak by quarterback Tyler Harrison. Twelve of the 13 plays on the drive were runs by either Harrison, Dominic Trout or DJ Wells. A big play on the drive was a 21-yard pass from Harrison to Michael Burke IV late in the drive. The PAT was blocked and the Tide led 6-0.
It got better on the ensuing kickoff. The Bobcats mis-handled the kickoff as Columbia recovered at the Bobcat 31. Five plays and a couple of penalties later, the Tide scored again on a 15-yard [ass from Harrison to Burke. Again, the Tide couldn’t convert the PAT, but still led 12-0 with three minutes left in the first quarter.
On their next possession, the Tide drove to the Northeastern 11 early in the second quarter before running out of downs.
The Bobcats got back into the game when they picked off a Harrison pass with 7:30 left in the first half. That led to the first of four touchdowns by Aaron Greene, who scored on a 16-yard sprint. The Bobcats, unlike the Tide converted the two-point PAT and trailed 12-8.
Once again the Tide put another late first half score on the board on a 15-yard pass from Harrison to Burke with 25 seconds left in the half. Columbia led 18-8 after not converting the PAT for the third time in the half.
Even without making the extra points, the Tide was in control of the game.
That all started to change on the Bobcats’ first possession of the second half.

Greene, who rushed for 226 yards in the game, was tough to bring down for the Tide. Northeastern pulled within two points on Greene’s 2-yard run with 6:19 left in the third quarter. The two-point PAT was converted and all the sudden it was 18-16, still in favor of the Tide.
As easy as the Tide was moving the football in the first half, they struggled in the second half.
After two possessions, the Tide had minus 14 yards in the second half.
Northeastern finally took the lead three minutes into the fourth quarter on a 1-yard run by Greene, 24-18 and with under two minutes left, the Bobcats took even more control on Greene’s fourth score of the game. NE converted the two-point PAT and led 32-18.
The Tide finally got some momentum in the final minutes when Harrison and Burke combined for a 63-yard score with 53 seconds left. This time the Tide converted the PAT as Harrison found Wells for the conversion to make it 32-26.

All Columbia needed to do was recover the onsides kick and get an attempt to win the game. They didn’t and the Bobcats ran out the clock.