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(Above, Ross head football coach Chad Long speaks to his team following is season-opening loss to Tiffin Columbian Friday night).

FREMONT – One yard forward. Two yards back.

For every flash of promise the young Fremont Ross football team showed Friday night, the Little Giants’ inexperience showed itself soon thereafter with an ill-timed miscue or penalty.

And against a veteran-laden squad, fresh off a playoff appearance a season ago, like Tiffin Columbian, Ross’ inconsistent play was a recipe for an opening-night loss, 35-7, to the Tornadoes.

“We knew coming in we were young, and we didn’t know how the kids would handle a Friday night,” head coach Chad Long said. “We had so many miscues, snaps over the head, a lot of dropped balls, dumb penalties, sloppy.”

When Ross made mistakes, Tiffin Columbian, as quality, veteran teams often do, made the Little Giants pay the price for them more often than not.

Following Ross’ first punt of the game early in the first quarter, Columbian returned a short, shallow kick into Ross territory. The Little Giants compounded the problem with a personal foul, putting the Tornadoes inside the 20. The first play of the series, Columbian’s Nick Jackson went up the middle for 17 yards and a touchdown for a 7-0 lead.

Late in the first quarter Ross fumbled the ball away inside its own 10-year line. Columbian once again immediately cashed in, this time from six yards out, for a 14-0 lead with less than a minute remaining in the opening period.

Ross, however, answered on its next possession. Senior running back Andrew Born went up the middle and took off for a 42-yard touchdown run to cut the deficit to 14-7 with 10:50 to play in the second quarter.

“We only had one great play and that was Andrew Born on the touchdown,” Long said. “But then he turns around and gets a penalty. They’re good kids and they’re young kids and they have to learn how to take success when they have something good go their way.”

The Little Giant defense did a nice job holding Columbian in check in the first half. The Tornadoes’ only points came on short-field situations as Columbian managed only 104 yards of offense in the first half.

Senior Dontrez Brown managed to get his hand on a Columbian punt late in the second quarter and Josh Adkins recovered, giving Ross the ball at the 21-yard line with just over a minute to play before halftime.

But instead of taking advantage of the opportunity, its first snap of the series sailed high over the head of quarterback Kaden Holmes, forcing Born to race to recover the loose ball for a 20-yard loss, its chance to tie the game going into halftime erased in a flash.

Columbian wasted little time adding to its lead in the second half. The Tornadoes scored on their first possession of the third quarter, keyed by a 32-yard passing play to get down to Ross’ 1-yard line. The following play, quarterback Nick Koerper scored for a 21-7 lead.

The Little Giants moved the ball on their next possession, picking up a pair of first downs and gaining into Columbian territory, but the drive ended in a Holmes interception. Eight plays later Columbian scored on a 37-yard touchdown pass.

Holmes, a freshman, made his first varsity start behind an offensive line of first-time starters and frequently found himself under pressure by swarming defenders. Holmes finished the night 8-for-19 passing for 71 yards.

Long said seeing Holmes handle the pressure and spotlight made him more confident the freshman is the right choice to lead the Little Giants under center.

“I think Kaden Holmes is our quarterback and I think he made some good decisions,” Long said. “Our receivers weren’t open tonight but there were a couple times when it was open.

“I think Kaden Holmes got better as the game went on and started feeling more confident.”

Entering the game, Long said the Little Giants needed to win in the interior. Columbian’s defensive front, however, controlled Ross’ offensive line while the Little Giant defenders wore down in the game’s latter stages. Columbian finished with 286 yards of total offense. Ross managed just 91 yards.

“To be honest with you, we knew for us to have success on the offensive side we had to dominate their front line and we did not do that at all the entire night,” Long said. “(Columbian) did a good job pressuring and there were no gaps in the middle to run, so where we had success was on the outside. That’s something we have to get better at.

“On the defensive side, I thought we played very well against them, but we did wear down in the second half, especially in the fourth quarter when they had those long drives.”

Ross (0-1 overall) travels to Toledo Start next Friday. Start lost to Whitmer, 48-0, on Thursday.

“We learned we have to get better before we can say ‘We’re OK,” Long said. “There’s not going to be a lot of yelling. We have young, inexperienced kids and we have to coach them up and teach them up.”

 

Tiffin Columbian 35, Fremont Ross 7

TC| 14 – 0—14 – 7 – 35

FR|  0 – 7 –  0 –  0 –  7

Scoring summary

First quarter

TC – Nick Jackson 17 run (Xavier Coppus kick), 8:45

TC – Nick Koerper 8 run (Coppus kick), 0:33

Second quarter

FR – Andrew Born 42 run (Alec Slemmer kick), 10:50

Third quarter

TC – Koerper 1 run (Coppus kick), 8:19

TC – Gunther Kissell 37 pass from Koerper (Coppus kick), 2:49

Fourth quarter

TC – james Gibson 6 run (Coppus kick), 1:01

 
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