With the district title on the line Friday night at Walter Payton Field, Columbia cruised in the second half to claim the Region 7-4A championship with a 41-14 win over Lawrence County.
While the final score was anything but close, the Wildcats (9-1, 5-0) found themselves in an early dog fight against Lawrence County. They started off the game in style, though, as quarterback Carter Smith completed passes of 44 and 19 yards to DJ Cloyd and Josh Brown, respectively to set up a 2-yard Omar Johnson touchdown run just over two minutes into the game.
On Lawrence County’s first possession, penalties and a big tackle for loss led to the Cougars having to punt on fourth-and-37. The Wildcats were on the move again trying to go up two scores in Lawrence County territory, but Jonathan Wiltz fumbled and the Cougars recovered. Two plays later, Kannon Cato took a big lick in the hole from Wildcats safety Isaiah Bolton but managed to spin free and take off for a 57-yard touchdown to knot the game at 7-7 going into the second quarter.
The Cougars seemed to have all the momentum on their side as they picked off Smith, who was trying to throw an out route on third down but threw it too far inside, but the Columbia defense stepped up. Lawrence County started its drive at the Columbia 38, but the Wildcats didn’t give up a single first down as cornerback Amarion Fortenberry made a key tackle on a fourth-down toss.
However, the bad luck for the Wildcats immediately resumed. On the first two plays of the ensuing drive, both Johnson and Wiltz had to come out with ankle and knee injuries, respectively, forcing Miguel Cook into the lead-back role. While Cook has been involved heavily in the Wildcats offense this season, this was first shot to get the majority of the carries without Johnson and Wiltz. He responded by averaging nearly 10 yards per carry and going over 100 yards, but it was Kentrell Jackson who gave the Wildcats the lead.
On second-and-9, Jackson was wide open for a would-be touchdown, but Smith got hit as he tried to throw it deep. Columbia went back to Jackson again on third down, and he delivered one of the best plays of his career. He took a jet sweep handoff to the left side, broke a couple of tackles near the line, reversed field and turned on the jets to race 44 yards for the score to put Columbia up 14-7 midway through the second quarter.
Lawrence County’s Ahmad Hardy opened the second half with a long run before the Wildcats came up with another fourth-down stop. Hardy is the nephew of Columbia running back coach Kendrick Hardy, who had an illustrious prep and collegiate career in his own right as a four-star prospect from Lawrence County who started at Southern Miss.
After the turnover on downs, Johnson got through the second level for a 25-yard run but was noticeably not himself, and he only had one more carry the rest of the game. But on the next play, Smith delivered a dime to Cloyd, who outran the coverage, on a deep post for a 54-yard touchdown to make it 20-7 with 8:42 on the clock in the third quarter.
When Columbia got the ball back, the Cougars took the bait Columbia offensive coordinator Matt Kubik was showing them all night. Up until that point, the Wildcats had put Peyton Anderson in at tight end on a handful of run plays. Anderson, who is Columbia’s best edge rusher, has played tight end sparingly this year, and his only catch of the year was a touchdown in Week 1 against Mendenhall. But twice on the drive, the Cougars practically ignored him as he had a 33-yard catch-and-run on an easy throw in the flat and a 13-yard touchdown reception over the middle from Smith. The Wildcats couldn’t convert the 2-point try but led 26-7 late in the third quarter.
Following a Columbia fumble recovery, Cook had back-to-back runs total 36 yards with the second going for a 17-yard touchdown. But the Cougars answered right back with Hardy returning a kickoff to the Columbia 25 and Jaheim Ball scoring on the next play to cut the deficit to 33-14 with just under 10 minutes to play.
But then the Smith-to-Cloyd connection took over for the Wildcats to put the game away for good. Smith scrambled to his left, stopped, planted his feet and delivered a strike back to the other side of the field to Cloyd for a 40-yard gain. Two plays later, Smith threw a jump ball in the end zone to Cloyd, who leaped over the cornerback to snag it for an 8-yard touchdown that made it 41-14.
Columbia will take on South Pike (3-7) in the first round of the 4A playoffs Friday at home. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
Head coach Chip Bilderback could not be reached for comment.
