Through the first four weeks of the 2022 high school football season, it’s been a rough go of things for Columbus.
The Falcons (0-4) were shut out through their first three games, not scoring until the third quarter of last week’s 28-6 loss at home against Tupelo.
Last Friday was the beginning of three straight home games for Columbus, which was 1-3 at this point last season.
The 2021 and 2022 season schedules are identical — with home and road games flipped — and the Falcons are hoping to repeat what happened in Week 5 last year, a 10-0 victory over the Trojans.
“The biggest thing for us over the past three to four weeks is to try to get better every week,” Columbus head coach Joshua Pulphus said. “It’s not so much about focusing on our opponent, but it’s a lot of stuff that we have to take care of ourselves.”
Columbus has had massive struggles on offense in these first four weeks, having given up 28 points in each game thus far while scoring just the one touchdown.
It’s not surprising to see these offensive struggles end up in losses, as Columbus is 3-78 since the turn of the millennium when scoring 10 or fewer points in a game.
However, in talking with the Falcons this week leading up to Friday’s local clash, practice has been good even with a heat wave coming through the area, pushing temperatures into the mid-to-high 90s.
“Players are going at it,” senior Deroyce Williams said. “We’re all here for each other. Practice makes perfect. Every play, we’re going 100 percent.”
That level of preparation is going to be needed against a New Hope team that came off a bye week and lost its final non-district game at home against Itawamba Agricultural.
The Trojans (2-1) kept things close in the first half, but two quick touchdowns in the third quarter basically put the nail in the coffin.
Itawamba running back Isaac Smith had his way with New Hope’s defense, running for over 200 yards and three rushing touchdowns. Knowing that Columbus is going to do its best early to establish the run, the Trojans have made that a focus of practice this week.
“We didn’t live up to our standard last week and that’s in all phases of the game,” New Hope head coach Seth Stillman said. “We just came out really flat … The team that plays harder usually wins 90 percent of the time in high school football. Last week, we weren’t the team that played harder. We pride ourselves on playing hard, and that’s been our driving factor this week.”
New Hope has a point to prove in this game, with it being the first district game of the season for either team, and the Trojans need to make up some ground in the all-time series between the two programs.
Coming into Friday night, the Trojans haven’t defeated the Falcons since 2014, and coming off a loss of its own, New Hope is looking to start up a new winning streak.
“It’s going to be a really big, physical game for both teams,” New Hope quarterback Hayden Dodson said. “It’s the first district game of the year, crosstown rivals. Obviously it’s going to be a packed house, but it all comes down to execution. Whoever can do that for all four quarters is going to come out on top.”
Despite Columbus carrying a winless record into Friday’s game, the Falcons have just as much of a point to prove as New Hope does.
The start of district play is going to bring out the best in both teams, and this game should be competitive the entire way through.
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