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NORWALK-  The dominance of the Tiffin Columbian Tornadoes over Norwalk continued last night, as "one of their own" returned to enjoy a 48-9 win. Columbian still is in the driver's seat for yet another league title, as they improved to (5-2, 3-1) while another long season continues in Norwalk, as they fell to (1-6, 1-3).

Columbian is coached by Steve Gilbert, a former assistant at Norwalk in the early 80's on Chuck Palsa's staff, while new to his staff this year is 1999 Norwalk graduate Tom Deluca. Deluca finished as one of the all-time greats at Norwalk, amassing 340 tackles (1st all-time) while becoming the only player in school history to be a 2-time selection to the first team All-Ohio team in 1997 and 1998.

Columbian has now won 13 straight over Norwalk, with the last Trucker win a 19-17 victory at Columbian in 1992. The win was Norwalk's lone win of the season, while Columbian went 0-10 that season.

The powerful Tornadoes raced out to a 35-0 halftime lead before Norwalk knew what had happened. Below is a scoring rundown in the first half for Columbian:

- Judd Lutz 13-yard run
- Josh Smith 37-yard INT return
- Greg Bishop 23-yard run
- Josh Moore 45-yard catch
- Josh Moore 83-yard catch
- Kyle Kurtz intentional grounding in end zone, 35-0 halftime.

In the second half, Moore caught his third touchdown on a 22-yarder, and Dusty Krupp added a 5-yard score to wrap up the Columbian scoring. Norwalk earned a safety on the Columbian backup quarterback to trail 48-2, and then Kyle Kurtz scrambled in on a 5-yard run in the final minute to wrap up a 48-9 loss.

In all, Tiffin piled up 371 yards of total offense, while Kurtz led Norwalk with 9-of-23 passing for 185 yards, with his brother Brandon taking a couple fullback screen for big yardage late, as he finished with three catches for 86 yards.

Senior captain Mario Ramos said the outcome was pretty textbook.

"We just don't have the offense of yesteryear," he said. "And we just got outplayed. They are a typical Columbian team...nothing fancy, but you know what they are going to do and they still beat us. Just big and strong, and of course they know how to win."

Junior Jake Vislay agreed with the assessment.

"I just think we played horrible," he said. "We weren't mentally prepared to play and that is our fault."

Although they fell to (3-4, 2-2) after a 6-0 loss to Willard, Fostoria, Norwalk's next opponent and final road game, will bring a tough task with Marcus Hyde, a Bowling Green recruit at quarterback.

"We have to do something about the offense," Ramos said. "We have the weapons we just need to use them the right way, and we need to work on tightening up the secondary on defense against Hyde."