Ever since Columbia got bumped up to Class 4A and got placed in the same district as Poplarville, who has won three straight South State titles and four out of the last five, the Wildcats have had their matchup with the Hornets circled on their schedule. They knew the path to a state title would go through Poplarville, and they proved Friday night there is a new sheriff in town as they beat up the Hornets 27-3.
“It’s been about 10 months in the making,” head coach Chip Bilderback said after game. “When we got our district and knew what we wanted — we’ve never been afraid of any competition in district; I think we’ve proven that the last three years playing in great districts — the word got back to us that they have a sign in their locker room that says ‘beat Columbia.’ That’s really motivated our players the last 10 months. We’ve had this game circled, and this is something we’ve been working towards.
“It came down to we had a great week of practice and preparation. Our defense answered the call. Our offense did a great job. We hit a couple bumps in the second half that I think we can clean up, but I can’t say how proud I am. This was a total team effort, from offense to defense to special teams.”
Poplarville’s vaunted rushing attack entered the game averaging nearly nine yards per carry, but that all went away when it faced the Columbia front seven. The Wildcats held Poplarville to just 93 total yards offensively, including limiting the Hornets to just 2.6 yards per carry and forcing four turnovers.
“I think it was the best game a lot of our players ever played, but they knew what they had to do,” Bilderback said about Columbia’s defensive performance. “They were motivated because they’ve been hearing so much noise that we’re just a small 3A that moved up to 4A, but for us it was great opportunity to prove and let everyone know who we are at Columbia. We play some pretty dang good football.”
It didn’t start off great for the Wildcats though. After going three-and-out on the opening drive of the contest, Columbia’s punt traveled just 20 yards and gave the Hornets great field position at the Wildcats’ 45. Columbia linebacker Jaylon Anderson had back-to-back stuffs that would’ve forced the Hornets into third-and-9, but he was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct for standing over Poplarville running back Maurice Travis. Yet the Wildcats stood firm to force the Hornets into a 35-yard field goal, which they made to take an early 3-0 lead. But it was all Columbia from there.
Late in the first quarter, the Wildcats started rolling offensively as Omar Johnson ripped off three long runs totaling 52 yards and setting up first-and-goal at the 3-yard line. After the Hornets stopped Columbia on three straight plays, first-year offensive coordinator Matt Kubik went into his bag of tricks on fourth down. The Wildcats ran a reverse pass with receiver Josh Brown, who has played quarterback off and on throughout his Columbia career, throwing to quarterback Carter Smith. Smith, who isn’t typically known for his athleticism on the gridiron, outjumped Poplarville’s safety to come down with a difficult 5-yard touchdown reception. The Wildcats missed the extra point but led 6-3 with 10:33 remaining in the second quarter.
Poplarville started to gain some traction offensively on the subsequent drive until DJ Cloyd stripped Travis and Columbia recovered it to set up a 10-play, 64-yard touchdown drive for the Wildcats. After Smith converted a fourth-and-inches on a quarterback sneak, Johnson read the blocking perfectly and high-stepped into the end zone from 5 yards out. Columbia then converted the 2-point try and took a 14-3 lead into halftime.
To open the second half, the Hornets appeared to have sting left in them as they had a long kick return and a sideline warning penalty on Columbia set them up at the Wildcats’ 30. However, Will McLendon came up big with a strip sack that Cloyd returned 65 yards for a Columbia touchdown. Kicker Luke Stogner drilled the extra point to make it 21-3 just 20 seconds into the third quarter.
Columbia had every opportunity to blow the game wide open in the third quarter but couldn’t quite capitalize. On the ensuing kickoff, Jaylon Anderson forced a fumble that Miguel Cook recovered at the Poplarville 26. But two plays later, Johnson was stripped to end the scoring threat. Then after Wildcats edge rusher Peyton Anderson forced a third-down incompletion with a near sack, Johnson fumbled again inside the red zone.
Late in the third quarter, Columbia had three straight tackles for loss — two by Jaheim Oatis, who arguably played the best game of his illustrious career with 12 tackles and five tackles for loss — but Kentrell Jackson fumbled on a punt return for Columbia’s third turnover of the quarter. Following a Poplarville turnover on downs, Cook fumbled inside Hornets territory for the Wildcats’ fourth lost fumble of the second half.
Despite missing out on four likely scoring drives — Poplarville couldn’t stop Columbia’s offense at all without the takeaways — it didn’t come back to hurt the Wildcats. In fact, they ended up on the right side of yet another fumble early in the fourth quarter. Cloyd forced his second fumble of the game, and Jackson made up for his own fumble, returning it 57 yards for a Wildcat touchdown that put Columbia up 27-3 with 8:42 left. When Columbia got the ball back again after its defense forced the Hornets to punt, the Wildcats picked up two first downs to milk the clock and put the game away.
While the Poplarville game was billed as the de facto district title game, Columbia has to beat Lawrence County this week to claim the Region 7-4A title.
Lawrence County (6-3, 3-1) can win the district title through a head-to-head tiebreaker if it upsets Columbia Thursday night. Kickoff at Walter Payton Field is at 7 p.m.
