Steven Cattledge lay on his back in the corner of the end zone with half the Columbus defense draped around him in exhausted exuberance.
Columbus head coach Joshua Pulphus even ran up to join the party that ensued as the junior linebacker sprinted into the end zone unchallenged, scoring the touchdown that sealed the Falcons’ 28-14 win over New Hope on Friday. Senior Jaelan Craddieth, who had scored five minutes prior to give the Falcons an eight-point lead, hoisted freshman linebacker Christopher Jones in the air nearby, both yelling with excitement.
Roughly 30 yards away, New Hope quarterback Ryan Burt stood still. He’d had a shot — a long shot, but a shot nonetheless — at recovering teammate Malachi Clay’s backbreaking fumble by breaching a writhing mass of white road jerseys.
“There’s a chance I could dive into the pile and get the ball, but I’m taught not to do it because of the position that I play,” Burt said. “At that moment, I don’t really know what to do.”
The senior signal caller did all he could do, as it turned out. He watched Columbus defenders kick and bobble the ball in their haste to pick it up. He watched Cattledge finally come up with the ball and effectively seal the Trojans’ fate, flanked by joyous teammates, as the Columbus sideline moved down the field en masse to join in.
Cattledge’s fumble recovery came with less than a minute to go in the fourth quarter and on the very first play of a short-lived New Hope drive aiming to tie the score. With New Hope down eight points, Burt handed the ball to running back Braylen Miller, who flipped it in Clay’s direction, but the receiver couldn’t get the handle. Cattledge eventually did, giving Columbus a two-score lead and the victory — its second straight after snapping a 20-game losing streak — in a pivotal district opener for both teams.
“There were so many times in the game when we could have easily gotten down and quit, but we didn’t,” Pulphus said. “We kept fighting, and we kept playing hard. The one big play, it goes to the whole team.”
Cattledge’s touchdown sealed the game, but a play less than a minute before carried nearly as much weight in the outcome.
New Hope had been feeding Miller consistently throughout the contest, and facing fourth-and-goal from the Falcons’ 3-yard line, the Trojans couldn’t stray from their best playmaker.
But Columbus’ defense, which has been strong all year, came up big once again, stuffing Miller for no gain and giving the ball back to the Falcons.
“I commend the defense for another fourth-down stop and a fourth-down turnover,” Pulphus said.
New Hope got an unexpected last chance when Columbus quarterback Ethan Conner, who broke a 51-yard touchdown run on the second play of the game, stopped the clock by running out of bounds on third down, saving the Trojans about 40 seconds of game time.
“We didn’t rep that enough in milking the clock, so that’s on me,” Pulphus said. “That’s not Ethan’s fault. He’s just inexperienced. I take that as a Coach Pulphus learning experience.”
The Trojans got the ball back at their own 26-yard line with 56 seconds to go, needing a touchdown and a two-point conversion to tie up the ballgame.
New Hope went with trickery in running the reverse play, but Clay couldn’t secure Miller’s toss, and New Hope’s last hopes were dashed from there.
It was a tough ending for Clay in particular after a game in which he scored both of the Trojans’ touchdowns. Clay took a handoff for a 6-yard score in the first quarter and scored from 11 yards out late in the second quarter.
His second score cut a 16-7 Columbus lead to 16-14 and gave the Trojans much needed energy heading into the second half.
New Hope’s momentum was perhaps never greater than with 2 minutes, 18 seconds to go in the third quarter, when the Trojans recovered a fumble by Columbus running back Jakaylin Lewis.
But on the very next play, Miller coughed up the football, and the Falcons got it right back.
It was just another example of how close the Trojans came to getting a home district win over a crosstown rival.
“It’s just a gut check, really,” Burt said. “It’s just another one of those where we felt like we were the better team, but you can’t think all the time. You gotta know.”
Burt knows the Trojans have time to rebound — they’ve still got plenty of games left to make a run in their district. But it’s still a tough loss to swallow, he said.
“You win as a team, and you lose as a team,” Burt said, “and tonight, we lost as a team.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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