Tide wins league opener

It's been a while since Columbia dominated a football game on both sides of the football.
One might have to go back to the 2007 season when the Tide put up 66 points in a 66-0 win over Pequea Valley. That  was 25 games ago.
Friday nught the Crimson Tide celebrated Homecoming with a 26-6 Section 3 opener win over Elco.
The Tide is now 1-0 in Section 3 and 2-3 overall heading into Friday's game at Northern Lebanon.
Defensively, a sign that it was going to be a good night for the Tide came on Elco's first offensive play of the game. Tide LB Seth Lefever crushed Elco receiver Eric Ondo for a 4-yard loss.
The Raiders finished the first half with seven yards on the ground and just 30 through the air. They also had just one first touchdown.
The success continued on the first offensive series for the Tide.

On their opening possession of the game, the Tide used five different backs and a couple of completed passes by quarterback Tyler Harrison to move 68 yards in 15 plays, scoring on a 1-yard run by Keenan Edmond with 4:33 left in the first quarter. On the drive, Edmond, Harrison, DJ Wells, Brock Taylor and Johnny Vazquez carried the pigskin. Harrison’s two pass completions on the drive were to Wells and Michael Burke.
Elco then went three and out on their first possession.
The two teams exchanged a couple of punts before the Tide started at their own 20. The running back by committee effort continued as the Tide moved to the Rader 24. But Harrison was picked off at the one on second down, ending the threat and the half.
Elco finally got something going on their second possession of the second half. Behind the running of Dylan Hickernell and Cameron Strausse, the Raiders moved in for the game-tying score, which edned at the Tide 26 when quarterback Tyler George was stopped just short of a first down on a fourth down scamper by Burke.
But the Tide quickly gave the ball back to the Raiders.
This time, Elco cashed in. On the last play of the third quarter, George and Ondo combined for a 20-yard score to deadlock the game. On the PAT, Elco was called for illegal procedure, moving the ball back five yards. It hurt Elco as Austin Lawrence shanked the PAT and the game would remained tied.
But on this night, a day after rains soaked the Columbia area, “High Tide” was about to roll in.
Starting at their own 27, Columbia went to work to take control of the game. Behind the running of Edmond and Vazquez and a Harrison pass completion to Lefever, the Tide had the ball at the 18. On fourth down, Burke took a handoff on a reverse from Harrison, converted the first down and more, scoring with 9:23 left in the game. At that point, Columbia led 12-6.
After forcing Elco to punt, Columbia needed just four plays to score. Harrison went up top and found Burke wide open behind the Elco secondary froa 44-yard score. This time, the Tide converted the two-point score as Harrison played pitch and catch with Lefever to give the Tide a 20-6 lead.
Columbia then turned up the defensive pressure. Kevin Simms had a sack and there were a couple of tipped passes by Taylor and Burke and the Tide got the ball back near midfield. And it was game over, turn out the lights as two plays after stopping Elco, Edmond sprinted 49 yards for a score and the Tide finished off the scoring with a 26-6 win.
Burke ended Elco’s night with a pick of George with 1:06 left in the game.