Why not two?
That’s the mind-set Columbus High School football coach Tony Stanford hopes his players will take at 7:30 tonight when they take on Southaven in a Class 6A, Region 1 game.
Columbus (4-1, 1-0) is coming off a 24-23 victory against Tupelo last week. An interception by Quan Latham helped the Falcons hold on and snap a five-game losing skid to the Golden Wave.
More importantly, the win helped Columbus join Olive Branch, Grenada, and South Panola as winners who have a jump on the rest of the pack in the region.
Stanford feels tonight is the ideal time to build on the momentum gained last week.
“Our kids have been pretty calm this week,” Stanford said. “It has really been like a lull. I hope it is the lull before the storm.”
The trip north is one of three Columbus will take in region play. With plenty of juniors and seniors on the roster, Stanford hopes the Falcons are mature enough to prepare themselves mentally and physically for a long bus ride and then take care of business when they get there.
If the Falcons need a spark, they can look back on the victory against the Golden Wave. The win erased the bad taste of close losses to Tupelo the past two seasons that Stanford feels played a big part in preventing Columbus from advancing to the playoffs.
With a region victory to add to the confidence the team gained in wins against Aberdeen, West Point, and New Hope, Stanford feels the team can take an even bigger step tonight.
“Now we have something to build on, and we tell them we need to get No. 2 right here,” Stanford said. “If we get it, we’re a step close to making the playoffs. Each week is important, and winning the division is not out of reach.”
That is heady talk from someone who is in his second season as head coach (fourth overall) of a program that hasn’t had a winning season since 2007 and hasn’t reached the playoffs since 2005.
But Stanford said his team has refused to quit several times and has battled back to win. He feels that maturity is a sign of a team that has learned to win and has dismissed thoughts of “Oh no, here we go again.”
Now, he said, the trick is to do it at home and on the road and in back-to-back games.
“In the past, they didn’t think they had a chance,” Stanford said. “Now they think they might have a chance to win the division. Our kids are upbeat. They want to try to play as good as they can play.
“One of our main things this year is let’s finish. There have been two tight ballgames and we have finished. I really felt like at Louisville when we got it back to 16-10 that we were going to win the ballgame 17-16, but we let them break for a long run (and lost 22-10). In the past, we have let people throw the long pass to beat us when we had a chance to win a ballgame. This year, we have made a few turnovers and kept people from scoring. I think that is showing some maturity. We have juniors and seniors who have played a lot of football. Maybe it is time for them to feel like they can take charge of a ballgame and win a tight one, which what they have done in winning two tight ballgames.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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