The Wildcats (8-0, 3-0) will remain at home Friday as they play host to Seminary (5-4, 1-2) for senior night, while West Marion travels to Tylertown (3-6, 0-3).
Seminary is coming off an 18-12 road overtime loss to Jeff Davis County and needs a win to keep its playoff hopes alive. The Bulldogs beat Columbia 21-14 in the final week of the regular season last year to claim the Region 8-3A title and made it to the state championship game. However, they graduated the majority of their starters and are currently in fifth in the district standings.
Seminary operates out of the Wing-T offensively with three rushers with more than 450 yards this year, and Columbia head coach Chip Bilderback said it’s going to be all about alignment and assignment football.
“They’re not going to lay down. They’re going to get after it. They have a great player in (linebacker) Austin Keys, who is committed to Ole Miss, and he’s a great football player. I expect them to bounce back and give us a game that’s going to be a four-quarter battle,” he said. “They play very aggressive on defense and play a lot of man-to-man and pressure you with blitzes from a bunch of different areas.”
Tylertown has lost five straight games and has lost its three district games to Columbia, Seminary and Magee a combined 119-13. Trojans head coach Brad Duncan said the Chiefs tend to give West Marion a fight regardless of their record, and the Trojans need to be prepared.
“They do a lot of things offensively. They’ll be in spread some; they’ll be in two tights some. They give you a lot of different looks,” he said. “They always play us tough. We have to regroup, and hopefully we can learn from what we did and didn’t do (against Columbia) and be ready to play.”
Pictured Above: West Marion's Qavonte Swanigan catches a screen pass and picks up a block from Ott Mitchell against Columbia. | Photo by Joshua Campbell
