Nieves, Strong Defense Powers Cougar Football

The Cougars' season opener at Lynn V. Profeta football field on Saturday afternoon turned into the Denzell Nieves show. The Columbia senior running back scored four touchdowns to lead the Cougars to a 28-7 victory over Kearny for their fifth straight home win.

An early miscue on a poorly executed wide receiver screen left, ended with a fumble recovered by the Kearny Cardinals, resulting in an early 7-0 lead for the visitors on a qb keeper.

On the first play of the ensuing possession, Nieves took a handoff left on a draw play, broke two tackles at the line of scrimmage and exploded down the sideline for a 71-yard touchdown.

"He is one heck of an athlete. He has got great vision, and like I said last time, he has got great hips and quick feet. He's able to plant it and go," said Columbia head coach Dave Curtin. "He is as strong as an ox. …He is the squat king and he is the poster child for the weight room."

Columbia's defense took care of the rest, allowing just 65 total yards and three first downs after the first quarter Kearny touchdown.

The defense allowed a total of 115 yards and put constant pressure on the Cardinal quarterback, Damaso Rodriguez. Kearny employed a split backfield and used a lot of disguises and chicanery to confuse the defense as to who had the ball. After the first few minutes of the first quarter, Columbia's defense was not fooled at all.

"Until our offense gets going - we've got a sophomore quarterback, our offensive line is two juniors, two sophomores and a freshman and only one played last year," Curtin said. "So until we get that going, we can't just be good on defense, we have to be great."

An interception returned by Columbia's Daquan Frazier to the Kearny 14-yard-line during the Cardinals' third possession of the game, led to Nieves's second rushing td, this one from three yards out. Frazier also intercepted another pass in the fourth quarter and recovered a fumble, forced by a vicious hit by Richard Goodluck on Rodriguez.

Columbia's defense forced a three-and-out in the next Kearny possession and Nieves delivered a body blow, returning a punt 65 yards through the Cardinal special teams to put the Cougars up 21-7 early in the second quarter.

Nieves, who added the final touchdown of the game in the third quarter from a yard out, totaled a career-high 176 rushing yards and accumulated 289 total yards in the Cougar win. He was a one man army for the Cougars on Saturday, as Kearny had no answers.

"I just read the blocks, hit the holes and kept my legs moving," Nieves. "I just got tired of people doubting us, because they [The Star Ledger] picked us to finish fifth in the conference and I know we were way better than that. People keep doubting us after we just had an 8-2 season and I had a grudge."

Coach Curtin said his team would throw a little more this year, and in the first game of the season he lived up to his word. Sophomore quarterback Deion Hudson dropped back 13 times to pass, lining up mostly in the shotgun, and went 6-of-13 for 95 yards, he also rushed for 30.

For the second consecutive season, the local boys have gotten off to a 1-0 start behind a blowout win over Kearny. The Cougars face Eastside at The Hill on Sept. 25 for their next contest.

"It's good for the young guys to really feel how it is to win," Nieves said. "We just don't want to lose anymore. We still have a lot of mistakes to correct, we've got two weeks to do that."