The Columbia Wildcats, who have averaged 60 points per game through three weeks, continued their blistering pace Friday night at Wilkinson County with a 61-22 blowout victory.
The Wildcats (3-0) scored early and often, putting up 34 unanswered points in a quarter and a half, and never looked back in the beat down.
Columbia, who is ranked No. 1 in the state in Class 3A, has another seemingly formidable non-district opponent up next with North Pike (1-2) coming to town Friday night. The Jaguars’ two losses were 37-33 to Parklane Academy on the road and 27-26 to Tylertown at home, and they picked up their first win Friday 63-22 over Franklin County. Bilderback said North Pike’s 1-2 start is kind of deceiving with the talent it has.
“Both their losses were within a couple of points, and they’re a really good football team. They’re a bigger school than us and have a Division I quarterback,” he said. “It’s going to be a great challenge for us. I think it’s going to be the biggest test we’ve had up until now in the sense that they’re a complete team, really aggressive on defense and offensively everything runs through their quarterback (Alijah Martin). He’s been offered by Southern Miss and a bunch of schools as a quarterback. That tells you he’s a really good player.”
Martin, a 6-foot-1, 198-pound, three-star dual-threat prospect according to 247 Sports, has thrown for 283 yards and four touchdowns and ran for 574 yards and six touchdowns through three games. The Jaguars also have a talented running back in Damuriyon Montgomery, who has 320 yards rushing and five touchdowns.
Kickoff is at 7 for Columbia’s second home game of the young season.
Quarterback Josh Brown got the scoring going against Wilkinson County with a 5-yard rushing touchdown and a 6-yard score shortly after. Dashod Ball then picked off a pass, and Kentrel Bullock added to the lead with a 15-yard scamper that made it 22-0 at the end of the first quarter.
The Wildcats got another interception compliments of KD Andrews that set up another Bullock 15-yard touchdown. Bullock added two more touchdowns on the ground of 32 and 75 yards that were sandwiched around a Wilkinson County touchdown pass to bring it to 42-8 going into halftime.
Sadarion Magee opened the second half with an 80-yard kick return for a touchdown, Daquan Ball returned a fumble 67 yards for a touchdown and Kentrell Jackson capped off the scoring with a 5-yard touchdown run.
“I think our kids played extremely hard. Our kids really just love playing football, and I think that’s a big part of it,” Bilderback said. “They got after it from the opening kick on Friday night, and they did not take their foot off the gas pedal. Our kids were really excited to play football, which is a fun thing for your team to have that. We were definitely excited about that.”
Bullock finished the game with more than 200 yards rushing and four touchdowns, while the Wildcats defense forced four turnovers.
“Kentrel had a great night running the ball. Defensively we did a great job,” Bilderback said. “We gave up a couple plays towards the end, but that can tend to happen a little bit. Defensively I thought we did what we needed to do. It was a fun night for the Wildcats.”
Wilkinson County was Columbia’s first real exposure to a passing team this season, and Bilderback said it was a test for the secondary without star safety Jamison Kelly, who is out with a hip injury. Bilderback said the secondary is getting closer to where it needs to be, and the injury to Kelly has improved the Wildcats’ depth.
“Obviously you know when you don’t have a guy like Jamison Kelly back there it’s going to hurt, but I think our D-line has done a great job by getting us a pass rush. You’re kind of seeing other players step up, which you want to see,” he said. “We were able to get a couple of interceptions from KD Andrews and Dashod Ball that really sparked our offense.”
While Bullock and the other offensive playmakers deserve a lot of credit, Bilderback said Columbia’s offensive line has been the silent group that has made the Wildcats offense nearly unstoppable.
“Any time you can (run for more than 300 yards) it’s because your offensive line is getting a hat on a hat and getting movement. Once again I felt like our offensive line controlled the line of scrimmage, and when you can do that and have some good running backs you have a good plan of success right there,” he said.
Pictured Above: Columbia head coach Chip Bilderback and defensive coordinator Milton Talbert celebrate a touchdown against East Marion Aug. 30. | Photo by Joshua Campbell
