As Columbia proved Friday night against South Pike, it’s not how you start – it’s how you finish.
A sloppy start put the Wildcats behind the 8-ball, trailing 22-8 at the end of the first quarter. But Columbia (9-0, 3-0) roared back ferociously, scoring 26 unanswered points in the second quarter to take a halftime lead and escape Magnolia with a 49-36 victory.
Wildcats head coach Chip Bilderback said he wasn’t surprised at how explosive the Eagles were, notably not punting against Poplarville the week before, and Friday’s back-and-forth affair was exactly what his team needed.
“They’re a very talented team. They have a couple Division I players. They had some good things happen early and that can happen to you when you’re on the road late in the year. They’re a better team than they were a month ago,” he explained. “We had a solid week of practice and knew we were going into a tough environment in the sense that we were playing a team who played their best football the week before. They have playmakers everywhere, so we knew they would be a handful.
“We didn’t get off to the start we wanted. We haven’t had many of those moments this year, and we couldn’t have asked for a moment. We were on the road and down two touchdowns in the first quarter. We haven’t had that. We rallied in the second quarter and were able to get ahead, but we knew it was far from over. I think it was really good for us to check our team’s toughness, courage and resolve on the road.”
The veteran coach added that if the Wildcats want to make a run at the state title, Friday’s slugfest was necessary because he wouldn’t want them to face their first real adversity during a playoff game.
The Wildcats appeared to be in for a long night based on how their first play of the night went — a fumbled snap that quarterback Clydarrien Peters wasn’t ready for. Ashton Daniels jumped on the loose ball to retain possession for Columbia, albeit on a big loss. Two plays later, Peters threw an interception, which gave South Pike a short field. It took only four plays for the Eagles to take the lead, using a long gain on a quarterback draw to set up a short rushing touchdown, with a successful two-point try making it 8-0 with less than three minutes elapsed.
When Columbia got the ball back, the Wildcats took to the skies to respond. On first-and-15 from the Columbia 40, Peters rolled to his left, looking downfield. He fired to Christain Expose, who came back to the ball to make the catch. After securing the reception, Expose spun around, eluded a defender and hit the jets down the sideline for a 60-yard touchdown catch-and-run. A successful two-point conversion came on a flip from Tra Lewis to Daniels, tying the game at 8-8.
South Pike was behind the chains on two separate occasions on its next drive, once after a tackle for loss by a host of Wildcats and another time on a sack by Lewis. But the Eagles managed to overcome both times, first on a long run against a light box to reach the Columbia 29. Then, three plays later on third-and-long, South Pike connected on a 31-yard passing touchdown, with the pass being just out of reach for a diving Expose. A successful two-point try made it 16-8 South Pike.
The Wildcats were forced to punt in South Pike territory on the next drive following an intentional grounding penalty on third down, leading to the Eagles getting the ball at their own 12. On South Pike’s first play, the quarterback threw a swing pass to Micah Nickerson, a 6-foot-5 Missouri commit. Daniels read the play the entire way, but he was unable to time the pass, with Nickerson making the catch and taking off down the field with a convoy in front of him en route to an 88-yard touchdown. With the score 22-8, Columbia had quite a deficit on its hands, leading to Bilderback gathering his team together and delivering a message that clearly resonated with the Wildcats.
They responded in short order on a 1-yard touchdown carry by Tra Lewis, who tallied 223 yards on 21 carries, to make it an eight-point game. The scoring drive was aided by a 30-yard passing play from Peters to Expose on a wide receiver screen, which was a perfect play call against a blitz on third-and-10.
Columbia then forced a three-and-out after two incompletions and a tackle-for-loss by Lewis. The Wildcats then began leaning on South Pike through the ground game, with Daniels and Lewis gaining all 52 yards on the drive. Lewis gained 17 to make it a goal-to-go situation, and the Wildcats quickly ran to the line of scrimmage to run another play. Lewis got the ball once more, and he spun his way for a 7-yard touchdown to make it a two-point game.
Greg Laird recorded a tackle for loss to force the Eagles in a third-and-long, leading to a desperation heave by the quarterback downfield for Nickerson. Instead of the Mizzou commit coming down with the ball, it was Jonathan Lowery making an interception.
Four plays later, Peters and Lewis perfectly executed a speed option to the right, with Peters flipping it to Lewis at the last possible second. Forty-four yards later, Columbia led for the first time of the night, 28-22.
Apropos with the momentum shift in the game, South Pike went completely backwards on its next drive. The quarterback mishandled a snap on first down, Kavion Newson recorded a tackle for loss on second down and Drew Bilderback, called “Bilder-sack” on the Columbia livestream — brought down the quarterback on third down to force the Eagles to punt from their end zone. The short punt rolled dead at the Wildcat 30, and two intermediate passes to Expose set up a 3-yard touchdown run by Daniels to put Columbia up 34-22 with under a minute to go in the first half.
Although the Eagles appeared to have returned the ensuing kickoff back for a touchdown, an illegal block in the back penalty wiped off the big play. The Wildcats then pinned their ears back as Achilles Pittman recorded a sack to bring the second quarter to a close.
Bilderback said once the defense withstood the early storm and settled into the game, it played well and got the stops it needed.
“I didn’t really have a lot of panic early because I knew it was such a long game,” he said. “Defensively, there were a lot of people who made great plays. I felt like our pass rush — Achilles Pittman and Drew (Bilderback) both had huge sacks and Keelan Williamson was very relentless there too. Jonathan Lowery and Clyde (Peters) had two really good interceptions that helped stop drives, and both were due to the pressure. We were happy to get out of there with a win and happy that we got tested. We needed that going into the stretch we have in the next month.”
Coming out of the locker room ahead of the third quarter, South Pike wanted to make a statement that it wouldn’t just roll over. The Eagles executed a double pass on the first play of the second half, gaining 37 yards to help set up a short rushing touchdown to cap off a five-play scoring drive.
Up 34-28, all the Wildcats needed to do to maintain control was to stick to its bread and butter — a heavy dosage of Daniels and Lewis on the ground. Daniels gave the Wildcats a first down after three carries netted 13 yards, and Lewis gave the Wildcats a touchdown after making a cut upfield and hitting the turbo button for a 52-yard touchdown. Daniels converted the two-point try to put Columbia up 14.
After forcing another three-and-out, Lewis and Daniels once again punished the Eagles on a run-heavy drive. The duo combined to gain 68 yards on nine carries, with Lewis scoring his fifth touchdown of the night on a 3-yard run.
The Wildcats lined up in extra point formation for the first time in a while as Tanner Killgore, who handled kickoff duties Friday night, attempted his first-ever varsity extra point. The senior captain put it right through the uprights to make it a 49-28 game.
South Pike added a 16-yard rushing touchdown to make it a 13-point game early in the fourth quarter, but the Wildcats made a red zone stand with under four minutes left to preserve their lead and allow them to run out the clock on offense.
The Wildcats return home Thursday night for the matchup many fans circled at the beginning of the season — a rematch with Poplarville (5-3, 3-1) with a district title on the line. While Lewis, Peters and Daniels are all rightfully in the conversation for best player in the state in Class 4A, it’s Hornets running back Tylan Keys who will likely be crowned Mr. Football for the classification with his gaudy numbers. The junior has rushed for 1,813 yards and 26 touchdowns this season, averaging 10.9 yards per carry and 226.6 yards per game.
With Poplarville’s vaunted rushing attack, Bilderback said the Wildcats have to win on first and second down to force the Hornets into third-and-long situations. He added that Columbia's offense extending drives may be the team's best defense against Keys and the Hornets.
“Everyone says the Keys kid is the best player in 4A and what an opportunity for us to face him. I think our kids are going to be excited and ready to play,” Bilderback said. “We’ve been tested throughout the year to be ready for this game. Having it at home makes it even more exciting. It’s kind of what you love as a competitor is having the district championship at your house for the last game of the year. Now we have to be at our best this week and know that whatever happens this week, we have to be ready for the playoffs.”
Kickoff from Walter Payton Field is set for 7 p.m.
