NEW YORK—Al Bagnoli knows there's an amount of intrigue and unknown to the start of every season. But after COVID-19 knocked out the 2020 Ivy League football season, that mystique was larger than it's ever been in his four decades as a college head coach.
 
One thing he found out is his team knows how to take a punch and come back swinging.
 
Sophomore Joe Green was 13-20 for 155 yards and a touchdown in his Columbia debut, Dante Miller and Ryan Young combined for 215 rushing yards, while Ernest Robertson caught a touchdown and ran for one to lead the Lions past Marist 37-14 in the season opener. 
 
Playing its first game in 664 days after COVID-19 canceled the 2020 season, and missing All-American returner Mike Roussos, Columbia's normally crisp special teams had to shake off some rust. And it cost the Lions early.
 
Marist (0-1) struck first with an 82-yard punt return by Dwayne Menders Jr. to make it 7-0 with 11:36 left in the first quarter. The Red Foxes recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff and scored on the following play on Austin Day's 42-yard touchdown pass to Scott Scherzer to make it 14-0 with 11:19 left in the first quarter.
 
"Obviously it wasn't the start we were looking for, and I was telling people that it's hard to simulate some of these plays we haven't done live — tackling on punt return or live kickoff return, so there are really hard plays to duplicate in practice," Bagnoli said. "So, it's good to get a game under our belt. Kids hung in there and made some plays and things started clicking and we settled down on defense and it felt pretty good and got on the board and got a little momentum."
 
It was all Columbia after the game's first five minutes. Columbia (1-0) answered when Joe Green completed an 18-yard pass to Wills Meyer on fourth-and-4, Gabriel Hollingsworth subbed in for Greene at quarterback on the ensuing play for a 15-yard touchdown run — his first career touchdown for the Lions — to make it 14-7 with 2:13 left in the first quarter. The score capped a seven play, 90-yard drive.
 
The Lions continued to come roaring back with an interception by Cam Dillon. The middle linebacker stretched out to make the athletic play and set up Columbia on Marist's 21-yard line early in the second quarter. CU would settle for a field goal by Alex Elkins to make it 14-10 with 9:42 left in the first half. Columbia would take its first lead of the game at 17-14 with 5:24 left in the second quarter on a six-yard touchdown run by Broderick Taylor to cap off a 46-yard, seven play drive.
 
Green hit Robertson with a strike between a couple of defenders, who took it down the right sideline for a 69-yard touchdown to make it 24-14 with 2:27 left in the first half.
 
"A big thing about receiver-QB relationship is just trusting one another, trusting that the receiver is going to be in the right place, trusting that the ball is going to be in the right place. I think that's something we grew over preseason and prior," Robertson said. "It really just went down to trusting one another, being in the right place, putting the ball in the right place so it's something that we try to do and try to replicate and it just worked out for us today."
 
Columbia would open the second half with a methodical 10 play, 68-yard touchdown drive over 4:18, where Robertson, who is also a member of the track and field team, scored on a 17-yard end-around for his second touchdown of the day, ballooning the lead to 31-14.
 
Columbia outgained Marist 462 yards to 242 in total offensive yards. With 310 rushing yards, the Lions rushed for over 300 yards in a game for the first time since 1988.
 
The early miscues don't come as much of a surprise considering Columbia was the only Ivy League school to not have spring practice because of students taking classes virtually. However, 90 players were on campus this summer to prepare for the 2021 season with 14 total starters (six on offense and eight on defense) from the 2019 season returning. Overall, 72 lettermen returned while the Lions added 62 student-athletes that are first-years or sophomores who had never attended a class on campus before last week, and were playing in front of 3,479 fans at Robert K. Kraft Field at Lawrence A. Wien Stadium on a hot day with game time temperatures in the mid-80s.
 
"It's been tough, to say the least as everyone can pretty much tell with this COVID it has been really hard to deal with but I'm just so proud of our guys because we've come together, and we've been so good at getting past the hard times," Young said. "This summer we had people here, just trying to get back going. Even though we didn't play that past season, getting everyone on the offense ready, defense, getting all of our sets and all our plays, and just working that so much, as well as just building that culture. We built our culture to something that's different from last time we played and I think it's different for the better. And I think that we've just come together as a team and really done good things and I think this season it's going to really show that in our games."
 
Felkins added a pair of field goals, a 19-yard yarder with 6:14 left in the third quarter followed by a 36-yarder with 12:41 left in the fourth quarter, to extend Columbia's lead to 37-14.
 
The Lions have now won each of their last four season openers since 2017 and are now 5-0 vs. Marist since starting the series in 2007.
 
"The nice part about today is we can play much better. And I think everybody recognizes that on both sides," Bagnoli said. "Again, we have to get used to the game simulation and speed and all that other stuff that there's still quite a few things we can do that would help us. And I suspect that we're going to be a better team next week than we were this week just getting used to playing at that speed, getting used to playing for 60 minutes. Just pay attention to all the details that need to go into a game so it was good to get one under our belt. 
 
"I'm happy. Proud of our kids. Nobody panicked, and again it was one down and let's worry about next week."
 
Matt Sugam has been covering sports in the NYC Metropolitan area for over a decade. He has spent the last eight years covering college and professional sports as a stringer for the Associated Press, while also contributing to The New York Times, USA Today Network, NJ.com, and SNY.tv. He will be covering Lions Athletics for gocolumbialions.com while pursuing an M.S. in Strategic Communication at Columbia's School of Professional Studies. Follow him on Twitter @MattSugam