RIVERSIDE

The track meet began early in the night.

Columbus junior running back Kaden Amigon took a handoff, darted to his left and then took off for the end zone. Several seconds and 68 yards later, Amigon was dancing in the sunlight in the end zone.

The play began a night in which Amigon ran for 142 yards and two touchdowns and the unbeaten Wildcats pinned a 55-0 loss on Highland in the Huskies home opener Sept. 2.

Triston Miller and Riley Kaalberg each also had two touchdowns for Columbus, which ran past a young Huskie defense for 416 yards.

It has been a rough start to the season for the Huskies, who lost a large senior group from last year’s Class A playoff team and began the year with challenging games against East Buchanan, which is ranked No. 4 in the state, and Columbus, which has scored 110 points in its first two games.

The result is two Huskie shutout losses, giving up 109 points on back-to-back Friday nights.

“We are a young program and knew we would go through some growing pains,” said first-year head coach Cory Quail. “The kids are putting their all into our program. They’re learning how to play varsity football on the fly.

“They’re also doing a great job of learning how to lead through actions and supporting each other at all times,” Quail added. “I’m excited where the future of our program can go. Just need to continue focusing on the things we can control.”

The Wildcats scored four touchdowns in the opening quarter and three more in the second quarter to go up 48-0 at halftime. Miller followed up Amigon’s TD jaunt with an 80-yard scoring run later in the first quarter. Kaalberg, a sophomore, scored on both of his carries, covering 93 yards total.

While the Huskies did not score, the rushing game showed encouraging signs. Luke Guseman, a junior, ran for 82 yards, leading a 204-yard running attack. Colten Sypherd, a sophomore, ran for 66 yards and Sage Hartley-Norman, a sophomore, ran for 47.

“I thought we improved this week from last week. Especially on offense,” Quail said. “The score doesn’t look any different, but our base plays averaged over 5 yards per carry.”

But the Huskies didn’t have any passing yards and had two passes intercepted. Those are mistakes that Quail hopes they can correct.

“It was our secondary plays and untimely mistakes that got us in long situations that we just couldn’t overcome,” he said. “We had opportunities and couldn’t take advantage of them. I’m optimistic about our continued growth.”