Midway through the fourth quarter, Columbia senior Tra Lewis laid on the Davis Wade Stadium field and screamed in agony and frustration after suffering a lower leg injury. But Lewis is a warrior. Despite limping heavily between plays, he not only returned to the game but rumbled his way into the end zone with 15 seconds left to lead Columbia to a 6-0 victory in the Class 4A State Championship over Kosciusko.
"If it was any other guy on this team, they would've done the same for me," Lewis said about playing through the pain for his teammates. "These guys push through so much for this team. I knew I had to finish for these guys. Win, lose or draw, I was coming in to finish with my guys."
"He's a dog," quarterback Clydarrien Peters said of Lewis. "That's all there is to say — he's a dog."
"You know Tra Lewis, ain't nothing going to keep him down," Wildcats head coach Chip Bilderback said. "He just loves football but more importantly, what I think people don't know, is he loves his teammates. He loves playing football at Columbia High. I don't think you could take him away from Columbia — this is where he loves. There's nothing I think he wanted to do than win a state championship and the same goes for Clyde (Peters) and the same for Ashton (Daniels) and this whole senior class."
The Wildcats turned it over 4:20 remaining in the fourth quarter and the Whippets immediately established momentum by picking up 23 yards with a hook and ladder. But then the Columbia pass defense — both the pass rush and secondary — stiffened up to get the Columbia offense the ball back with 1:42 to play and no timeout.
That's when Daniels took over. Two plays after starting the drive with a 12-yard run, he broke free for 20 yards and had an additional 15 tacked on thanks to Kosciusko hitting him out of bounds. The Wildcats got inside the 10-yard-line with Lewis catching a screen pass from Peters to pick up 11 yards. Three plays later, Lewis took a handoff up the middle and powered through a pair of Kosciusko defenders at the 1 to get into the end for the game-winning touchdown.
"We just play for our brothers," Daniels said. "Everybody is brothers here."
Columbia limited the extremely potent Kosciusko offense all game and never allowed the Whippets inside the red zone.
"Everybody was doubting us, and we proved everyone wrong," Daniels said.
