As if the Columbia Wildcats would have it any other way, the South comes down to a 48-minute battle with Poplarville and arguably the top player in Mississippi.
With a dominant 35-point win over Pass Christian in the third round, Columbia (13-0) will play host to Poplarville (8-4) and junior running back Ty Keys Friday night for the South State title. The Wildcats beat the Hornets 49-28 during the final week of the regular season to remain undefeated and claim the district title despite 238 yards on the ground by Keys, but he is coming off a 436-yard, seven-touchdown performance against McComb.
While it would be easy for the Wildcats to point at their 21-point win over Poplarville Oct. 30 as evidence they’re in the driver’s seat to reach the state championship, head coach Chip Bilderback said that would be a mistake.
“The last game really has no effect on this game. Every week is its own week. What we’re going to do is go out, prepare the best that we can and get ready to play a physical game,” he said. “There’s a lot of tradition in that program, but there’s a lot of tradition in our program. Everyone’s going to talk about the two games — last year (in the playoffs and this year’s game) — but none of that matters. What matters is getting out and having a great week of preparation.”
Heading into the October matchup with Poplarville, Bilderback said it was a great opportunity to face a talent like Keys. But while Keys’ final stats did appear dominant in that game, Columbia bottled him for the most part as he did most of his damage on three plays.
Columbia’s goal every year is to be practicing on Thanksgiving because that means the Wildcats are one game away from reaching the state championship. Yet, the job isn’t done.
“We were able to do it, and we don’t shy away from that. We talk about that all the time. We’re definitely proud that we’ve got to do that, that we’ve notched our goal, and now it’s on all of us coming out and playing the very best we can,” Bilderback said.
The Wildcats are used to their stadium being packed for big games, but that hasn’t been the case in recent weeks. Bilderback said the fans are going to need to show up for this one.
“It’s going to be really important to have a great crowd to create a homefield advantage. We know they’re going to bring a lot of people, but I’ll be danged if Poplarville comes in here and is louder than us and has more support than us,” he said. “I expect all of our Wildcat fans to be cheering us on for a chance to get to Starkville.”
With a victory over Poplarville, Columbia would play the winner between Kosciusko (11-1) and Louisville (10-2) for the Class 4A State Championship at Mississippi State. Louisville won the regular season matchup 29-24 against Kosciusko and beat Columbia for the state title in Oxford two years ago.
Kickoff for the South State title will be at 7 p.m. Friday at Walter Payton Field.
