LAKEWOOD - Give the Columbine football team an inch, and it's going to take a mile.

Give it a two-touchdown lead without the help of its offense, and a win is almost a sure thing. In the rivalry that is Columbine-Pomona, Friday night's game at Jefferson County Stadium was pretty atypical.

In what has been a series of nail-biters between the teams, defending state champion Columbine jumped to a three- touchdown lead, saw Pomona rally to within one touchdown, then put the Panthers away 35- 14 to advance to Class 5A state quarterfinals.

It was Columbine's 24th consecutive win.

"The teams are pretty similar but the coaching is similar, too," defensive back Scott Anundsen said. "We get up big, and (Pomona) knew how to fix things. (It) was a battle of coaching, we just went out and played for them."

Columbine got 100 yards on the ground from both Jeff Cicchinelli and Orenzo Davis, but the defense provided most of its early scoring.

On the game's opening drive, Brian Birkeness returned a Matt Castillo fumble 55 yards to get the Rebels (11-0) on the board.

Then, on the third play of Pomona's next drive, Danny Spond intercepted a Castillo pass that bounced away from Kurtis Baker and returned it all the way to the 4-yard line, where it took two plays to garner a 14-0 lead.

Castillo bounced back from his early struggles to get the Panthers back in the game in the second quarter. Less than one minute after Columbine notched a third touchdown, Castillo found Dustin Ebner on a sideline go route for a 62-yard score, then found him again in the middle of the field for a 34-yard touchdown.

The Panthers advanced a third drive to within field-goal range, but consecutive holding calls stymied the drive before halftime.

Pomona had two-second half possessions end with interceptions, but it was the first one that put the game away. After Columbine had extended its lead to 28-14, the Panthers had a solid drive come to an end when Nathan Wiggins picked off a fade pass in the end zone.

"You can't give a good team like that two touchdowns in the first quarter that they didn't earn," Pomona coach Jay Madden said. "We just gave those to them. But that's why they're good. They take advantage of every chance they get like that."

Pomona......0	14	0	0	-	14
Columbine......14	7	0	14	-	35

First quarter

C - Brian Birkeness 55 fumble recovery (Danny Spond kick). C - Jeff Cicchinelli 1 run (Spond kick).

Second quarter

C - Cicchinelli 4 run (Spond kick). P - Dustin Ebner 62 pass from Matt Castillo (Nathan Riley kick). P - Ebner 34 pass from Castillo (Riley kick).

Fourth quarter

C - Orenzo Davis 4 run (Spond kick). C - Davis 42 run (Spond kick).

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing - P, Donovan Bowens 23-91, Castillo 8-26; C, Cicchinelli 20-107, Davis 15-129, Jon Roberts 1-(minus-1), Kyler Brady 1-3, Chad Korodai 1-2.

Passing - P, Castillo 11-23-3-175; C, Brady 6-8-0-86.

Receiving - P, Ebner 5-134, Kurtis Baker 3-19, Buster Thede 2-12, Cameron Miles 2-17; C, Matt Birkeness 1-12, Davis 3-50, Cicchinelli 1-13, Roberts 1-11.

Fumble recovery - C, Brian Birkeness.

Interceptions - C, Spond, Nathan Wiggins, Scott Anundsen.

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