It’s been a rough start to the football season for Columbus and Caledonia, which both suffered defeats last Friday in different manners. The Falcons failed on a last-second opportunity to steal a win from Meridian, while the Cavaliers’ gave up big play after big play in a rout. In Macon, Noxubee tallied its third win on the season with a second-half resurgence.
Meridian 21, Columbus 18
Despite stalling out multiple times in the red zone, the football gods still gave the Falcons a chance to win.
Backed up near his own end zone on fourth down with the final seconds running out in the game, Meridian’s quarterback felt the pressure from Columbus’ all-out blitz and opted to slide instead of getting tackled in the end zone for the safety. The safety would’ve cut Meridian’s lead to just one point, but would have forced the Falcons to try to win the game with a kick return. Instead, the slide resulted in a turnover at the Wildcats’ 1-yard line, and head coach Barrin Simpson used his last timeout to save one precious second on the clock to give his team a chance to win.
Simpson dialed up a running play, but it never got the chance to realize itself. The snap was fumbled and the ball hit the grass, and with it Columbus’ last chance at winning the game.
“There was a scrum there, but obviously we didn’t get it and it was down right there on the 1-yard line,” Simpson said. “Definitely an unbelievable situation where you’re like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ Like they gift wrapped the game to us, we had plenty of other chances to win, but in that situation we have to win that game.
“That was a tough situation for us – a tough loss,” Simpson said. “(It was) a game I thought we should have won, but we have to be better in the red zone. Defensively, we have to be better at eliminating explosive plays. I think we played well enough to win defensively and special teams-wise, it’s just that we have to be good in all three phases of the game to get it done. We’ve struggled offensively the last three weeks punching it in and we ended up coming up short on the last play of the game.”
Derek Waller returned a kickoff for a touchdown, and Jeremiah Bluitt had a pick-6 for the majority of Falcons’ points. The team’s offense chipped in a touchdown pass from quarterback Dkyren Henderson to Michale Brewer Jr.
The Falcons (1-3) have struggled to find touchdowns on offense in their last few outings, something Simpson said they are working to fix in practice. But overall, he’s seeing some growth from his young team.
“We’ve been a resilient bunch,” he said. “The growth and resiliency, the growth in playing as a team and not finger pointing, I think that’s been the growth from Week 1 to where we are now. Just finishing games. We have growth and are moving toward finishing games. I say finishing games, we needed to finish last week to get that win, but we’re playing for four quarters. We still have to tweak a few things, but having that growth, that culture growth and continuing to play through those four quarters was something that we didn’t really accomplish last year. We’re doing that a lot better this year.”
Columbus (1-3) has a chance to end its three-game slide on Friday at Neshoba Central.
Noxubee County 28, Shannon 6
The Tigers’ defense stood tall in rebound win last Friday, forcing two fumbles and notching two interceptions to keep Shannon’s offense from finding any rhythm.
“I think we were really led by our defense,” head coach Teddy Young said. “Our offense came out slow to start the first half. Our defense held them to just six points the whole game until the offense started clicking a little better. I was proud of our defense.”
It was a bounce-back win for the Tigers after dropping a close loss to West Point on Sept. 12, its only blemish on the season, and Young said he was glad to see his team put it behind them and move forward.
“I liked the way they responded. We had a tough battle against West Point, I felt like we should have won – a couple plays here and there. But we responded well,” Young said. “They responded on the read against a good Shannon team and we came out prepared to play and came out with a victory.”
The game was tied 6-6 at halftime and Noxubee took a 14-6 lead to the final quarter. Jykeim Goodwin threw for 108 yards on 8-of-11 passing with two touchdowns lobbed to Jadien Taylor and Chadrick Skinner. Goodwin also led the team in rushing with 100 yards on 14 attempts.
“He was comfortable running the ball,” Young said. “He made some throws when we needed him to. He took what the defense gave him. When it was time to make a throw, he made the throw. When he was able to run the ball, he ran the ball very effectively.”
The Tigers (3-1) got the win without bell-cow running back Laderoun Mosely, who missed the game with a non-serious knee injury he sustained during the team’s loss to West Point. Young said the team is “hoping” he will be back in the lineup on Friday when the Tigers host Louisville for their next game.
New Albany 66, Caledonia 21
Caledonia started off its game with a great example of team ball.
Its defense secured an interception on New Albany’s opening drive, and the Cavs’ offense capped the sequence off with a touchdown for an early 7-0 lead.
But from that moment on it was all New Albany. The Bulldogs used a number of explosive plays to overwhelm the Cavs’ defense on the ground and in the air. New Albany quarterback Braden Shettles threw for four touchdowns and 237 yards and running back Kylen Knox carved up 209 yards for another score to hand the Cavs their fourth straight loss to open the season.
“I think we left some points on the field offensively,” head coach Michael Kelly said. “Just stopping ourselves (with) dropped footballs, bad reads in the throwing game and a couple missed reads in the option game that were for the taking. (We) maybe not would have won the game, but I think we could have put some more points on the board to make it a more competitive game, especially keeping our defense off the field. We’re just struggling right now.”
In the loss the Cavs’ offense produced some positive moments to build upon: Cohen Clark hauled in a 35-yard touchdown pass from Tyler Long, Owen Byrd ran for a 72-yard touchdown and also caught a 3-yard touchdown from Clark. Those big plays, though, happen too infrequently, Kelly said.
“When I turn the tape on, it’s not all negative, it’s not all bad,” he said. “Our guys have to consistently do that. We have to do it more than three or four times. We have to be able to sustain some things 7-8 times in a row, and right now we just can’t do that on either side of the ball.”
This week at practice the motto is, “Just get better.” That goes for everyone on the team.
“There ain’t no other way to look at it,” he said. “I don’t care what position it is or what side of the ball it is, we just need to get better.”
The Cavs (0-4) have an opportunity to end a four-game skid on Friday at East Webster.
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