COLUMBUS — Fourth down and goal to go. 

Columbus had a chance in the second quarter to answer an early score by visitors Southaven, driving to their opponents’ two-yard line. Quarterback Dkyren Henderson kept the ball on a speed option to the right, but there was nowhere for him or running back Jamario Latham to go as the Charger defense met him at the line of scrimmage. 

It was the first of three trips deep into enemy territory by the Falcons, and the first of three times they came up short with a chance to get back in the game. 

Southaven, 2-0, won 28-0, scoring two late touchdowns in the fourth quarter to seal the deal as Columbus, 1-1, just couldn’t find a way to finish. 

“We’ve got to finish, man,” Columbus head coach Barrin Simpson said after the game. “We’ve got to take advantage of the opportunities that we get. There’s momentum that happens in the game, and you’ve got to make good on it. If you don’t, the other team does, and that’s how you take an L.”

The Falcons weren’t short of mistakes. Twice on special teams they handed the Chargers extra field position on kick-catch interference penalties, and on offense there were several third downs that became longer because of pre-snap penalties. For the most part though, the Falcons looked and felt as though they deserved more from the game. 

The empty red zone trips aside, the offense proved it could move the ball, they just couldn’t deal with short yardage as the Chargers sold out to stop the run. 

“We’ve got to be better about just putting the ball in the end zone, and get better in all three phases,” Simpson said. “We had a lot of opportunities, we just didn’t convert tonight.”

The Falcons defense deserves much of the credit for keeping the team in the game. Two first half scores were hard-earned by the visiting Chargers, and the defense also forced two fumbles to give their offense the ball around midfield with opportunities to drive. 

“The defense did a good job of getting some turnovers,” Simpson said. “We’re trying to get the whole name of the game on defense to be taking the ball away. We were on the field a long time tonight, played a lot of snaps, so if you keep giving them the chance they’re going to take advantage of it. We’ll go back to the drawing board and put the work in on Monday.”

The Falcons are back at home next week against Lake Cormorant in nondistrict play, another chance to get the home crowd to turn up. For Simpson and his squad, they’re going back to work next week to work on the fundamentals and get right to face the Gators. There are three weeks before the games matter a bit more in district play, and the Falcons aim to be executing by then. 

“You’ve got to win the pregame, before the game even starts,” Simpson said. “Everything leading up to it, we’ve got to get our execution down there, and then that problem is gone.”

        1   2   3   4       Final

Columbus –   0   0   0   0   –   0

Southaven –  7   7   0  14  –   28

Q1

S — Dylan Arnold run 3, (Hector Montoya kick), 6:11

Q2 

S — Arnold run 10, (Montoya kick), 1:14 

Q4

S — Arnold run 1, (Montoya kick), 6:51

S — Fumble return 60, (Montoya kick), 5:11