An hour-and-a-half lightning delay didn’t stop the Columbia Wildcats from going on the road Friday night and flexing their muscles in Summit.
The Wildcats (2-0) dominated North Pike from start to finish to come away with an impressive 27-7 victory. The delay didn’t hinder the Wildcats who started off firing on all cylinders both offensively and defensively, according to head coach Chip Bilderback.
“We made the amount of improvement you want to make from Game 1 to Game 2. I was really proud. On special teams we handled that a lot better this week,” he said. “We were able to do some things to take away some of their better players. I was really pleased with our week’s preparation, and I think that’s why we were able to play so well.”
The Wildcats ran wild with 300 yards and four touchdowns on 47 carries (6.4 yards per carry) with Johnson and Jonathan Wiltz leading the way. Johnson picked up where he left off in Week 1 with 146 yards and two touchdowns, while Wiltz was the perfect complement 80 yards and a score on 10 carries. Josh Brown showed his “slash” capabilities with 39 rushing yards and a touchdown and 32 yards receiving.
“Carter Smith threw a really good pass to Josh Brown early in the game that really softened (North Pike) up,” Bilderback said. “There were a lot of good things. I thought we did a great job with moving the chains.”
In the opener Columbia turned it over five times and reduced its giveaways to two against the Jaguars. Bilderback said some early-season mistakes are expected, especially this year after missing spring football and some time during the summer.
The Wildcat defense forced four turnovers and allowed just one score in a dominant outing.
“I thought our defense played really, really well. We gave up two explosive plays, but other than that I think we did a great job of keeping the quarterback contained and limiting them getting first downs,” Bilderback said. “We had two fourth-down stops that were big and helped swing the momentum our way. Defensively we’re maybe not as pretty as we were last year, but the kids are playing every bit as hard and each week a different player has stepped up.”
Bilderback added that Greg Fortenberry, Jaheim Oatis, DJ Cloyd, Dashod Ball and Johnson have all been playing well for the Wildcats defense. Oatis forced three fumbles against the Jaguars, Ball had an interception and Cloyd had a sack.
“That joker (Oatis) is really playing good right now,” Bilderback said.
In a rematch of what turned out to be one of the hardest games the Wildcats played last year, Columbia travels to Lawrence County Friday night to take on the Cougars. Lawrence County (0-1) played for the South State Championship in Class 4A last year and return a quality team once again. The Cougars lost their opener Friday to Jeff Davis County 25-14 in a hard-fought battle.
Bilderback said it’s going to be key for Columbia to stop the Cougars’ hard-nosed running game, but the secondary can’t get lulled to sleep keying on the run and get beat over the top on play-action, which Lawrence County was able to do a couple times in last year’s matchup that Columbia won 20-13.
