The Columbia Wildcats are heading to state. The last state title the Wildcats played for was in 1998, but Columbia will be taking on Senatobia Saturday morning at Southern Miss for the Class 4A State Championship after knocking off Poplarville Friday night 12-7 in South State.
While Columbia (13-1) rolled to a 27-3 win over Poplarville (11-3) the first time it played the Hornets, the Wildcats needed a full four quarters and a tremendous effort from the entire team to get it done this time around.
Head coach Chip Bilderback said the game came down to a few key areas, and Columbia’s biggest stars stepped up when they were needed most.
“Unbelievable effort (Friday) by our defense, and I thought Omar Johnson ran the ball the way Omar Johnson has ran for the past four years and he put us in position to win the game,” he said. “I can’t say enough about Jaheim Oatis and the defensive line, along with the rest of the defense. They played lights out for four quarters, and that’s what we asked them to do.”
Columbia started off the game showing it could move the ball quite easily as Johnson ran for 26 yards on the first three plays, but the Wildcats’ drive stalled out in Poplarville territory. Facing a fourth-and-5, Carter Smith’s pass fell incomplete as he tried to connect with Peyton Anderson. The field position gained paid off though.
Columbia’s defense forced a three-and-out to get the ball back at midfield and set up the game’s first touchdown, which also came down to a fourth down for the Wildcats offense. On the first fourth-down attempt, a first-down completion to Josh Brown was called back because of an illegal man downfield penalty, but that didn’t matter. On the second try, on fourth-and-8, DJ Cloyd ran a deep fade but was covered well. Smith’s back shoulder pass naturally allowed Cloyd to adjust to the ball away from the coverage and haul in a 33-yard touchdown. However, a pair of penalties on the PAT forced the Wildcats to have to go for the 2-point conversion, which they were unable to convert, keeping the score at 6-0 with 4:20 remaining in the first quarter.
The Wildcats’ next possession came down to another fourth down, but this time it didn’t go quite as well. On fourth-and-1, Columbia lined up in its heavy package with Oatis as a 6-foot-6, 350-pound move tight end. The week before against Newton County, the Wildcats used that package to perfection with Oatis clearing a huge hole for Johnson to score a touchdown. This time, though, Smith faked the handoff to Johnson and tried to throw an out route to Oatis. However, Smith’s throw was slightly late and picked off, and the Hornets returned it to the Columbia 15-yard line.
Yet the Columbia defense turned around and forced a turnover to end the scoring threat. With the Hornets in the red zone, Wildcats cornerback Amarion Fortenberry, who played the game of his life with several big stops, recovered a fumble to get the ball back. Columbia’s advantage on the scoreboard nearly doubled on the ensuing possession as Brown got behind the Hornets defense and nearly hauled in a 65-yard touchdown on a deep ball, but the ball just went through his fingertips.
Following Columbia’s punt, the Hornets marched down the field until they were facing a fourth-and-goal from the half-yard line with a chance to take the lead. But rather than Poplarville tying the game or taking the lead, Oatis shed his block to wrap up Maurice Travis in the backfield to prevent the touchdown and keep the score 6-0 going into halftime.
After Isaiah Bolton broke up a third-down pass on the opening possession of the second half, Columbia drove past midfield behind strong running by Johnson, but disaster then struck for the Wildcats. On a third-and-9 pass, Smith tried to step up in the pocket to make a throw but was leveled with a big hit and fumbled. Poplarville’s Nakiel Trotter scooped up the loose ball and returned it 50 yards with a convoy of Hornets beside him for a scoop-and-score. The Hornets took a 7-6 lead with the extra point with seven minutes to play in the third quarter.
Both defenses dominated the next four possessions as Poplarville’s defense seemed to figure out how to defend Columbia’s vaunted offense. That was until the second play of the fourth quarter when the Wildcats went into their bag of tricks to make a big play. Columbia ran a jet sweep pass to Brown, a play the Wildcats have run at least 40 times this year and had the entire Hornets defense flowing to Brown. But Brown then handed it to Cloyd going the other way on a reverse, and Cloyd took off for a 60-yard gain down to the Poplarville 5. Two plays later, Johnson found his way into the end zone from 4 yards out to give Columbia a 12-7 lead with 11 minutes to play.
Bilderback said the Wildcats installed that reverse from day one—the same day they installed the regular jet sweep — and they had been waiting all year to find the right time to use it.
“Everyone was flowing so hard on (Brown), so it was great opportunity and great call,” he said.
Up just five points and Poplarville having a great kicker, Bilderback opted to go for the 2-point conversion to try to go up by seven. But Johnson was stopped cold in the backfield to keep the game 12-7.
On the ensuing possession, the Hornets chewed up four minutes off the clock but only picked up one first down and had to punt it back to the Wildcats. With 4:46 to play, the Wildcats were facing a fourth-and-1 from their own 30 — a situation most coaches decide to punt in. Columbia lined up to go for it but just tried to draw the Hornets offsides before calling timeout. During that timeout, Bilderback huddled with the offense and the players convinced him to go for it. If Poplarville stopped the Wildcats there, it would have needed just 30 yards to win the game, but Johnson picked up just enough to get the first down. Although Columbia was immediately forced to punt after picking up the first down, the Wildcats managed to take nearly two more minutes off the clock while forcing Poplarville to burn its last timeout.
“I know this about coaching — if the kids believe in something, they will get it. They believed we were going to get that fourth down, and they did it,” Bilderback said.
The Hornets got the ball back at their own 28 with 2:48 remaining and no timeouts left, so they were forced to try and throw their way down the field. Columbia quickly forced three incompletions and stopped a run for six yards to force a turnover on downs, allowing the Wildcats to kneel out the clock and win their first South State title in 23 years.
Kickoff against Senatobia is at 11 a.m. Saturday at The Rock.
