BRANDON — With four weeks left in the regular season, the Columbus High School football team vows to continue working.
Considered by many to be a contender for the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 6A, Region 2 championship, the Falcons were left shaking their heads in disbelief Friday night. Northwest Rankin celebrated Homecoming at Columbus’ expense with a shocking 13-6 victory.
With the defeat, Columbus fell to 3-4 and 1-2 in region play. The Falcons were trying to win back-to-back games for the second time this season. A region loss to Starkville, last season’s Class 5A state champion, was one thing. A region loss to a struggling Northwest Rankin squad was another thing completely.
“We will keep working until we get this right,” Columbus senior quarterback Trace Lee said. “Through the down times, we give God the glory. He has a reason for these things happening to us. We will make a push and be stronger in the end. We just have to keep working right now to get better.”
Northwest Rankin (2-5, 1-2) entered the game on a four-game losing streak. In region play, the Cougars hadn’t scored in blowout losses to Warren Central and Starkville.
The drought ended quickly as the Cougars scored on their second possession. After Columbus muffed a punt, Northwest Rankin took over at midfield and needed six plays to cover that distance.
Northwest Rankin only had 71 yards of offense, including 40 on that drive. However, the Falcons established two disastrous themes early
On that drive, Columbus had a critical defensive holding penalty, one of 11 for 103 yards. The muffed punt was the first of five turnovers by the Falcons.
“We didn’t come out with any sense of urgency,” Lee said. “This is not to take anything away from Northwest Rankin because they made enough plays to win the game. But we didn’t have that spark or that enthusiasm. When the game started, we were flat. It doesn’t matter how good your opponent is, you have to come out with a better sense of urgency. For whatever reason, we didn’t have that early.”
Northwest Rankin extended the lead minutes later. Columbus punter Michael Sturdivant barely avoided the rush and got off a 3-yard punt. The ball bounced between players for both teams before Cannon Gibbs grabbed it and raced 40 yards for a touchdown.
“We just keep digging a hole,” Columbus coach Tony Stanford said. “We are going to eventually get to a point where the hole is too deep to work our way out of it. I just don’t know. When we are good, we are really good. When we are bad, we are really bad. There is no in between.”
Northwest Rankin had to abandon all hopes of having a successful night on offense. Instead, the Cougars wanted to run the clock and escape. Corey Brown, Jalen Stewart, and Alex Lipscomb led a dominant defensive unit for Columbus. After the initial quarter, Northwest Rankin managed 19 yards and two first downs.
“You can’t pin anything on the defense because they gave us chance after chance,” Lee said. “We just could not get the ball in the end zone. That is totally on the offense. You would have thought eventually it would come together, but it didn’t. You can’t make mistakes and beat anybody.”
Columbus learned that the hard way.
On its second possession, Columbus drove to the Northwest Rankin 11-yard line but was turned away on downs. In the second quarter, Columbus drove to the Northwest Rankin 5 only to give the ball away on a fumbled option pitch.
The first possession of the third quarter saw Columbus move to the Northwest Rankin 15 only to see Lee sacked and the ball fumbled there. It was the first of three second-half turnovers by Lee.
Columbus finally broke the shutout late in the fourth quarter. The Falcons moved 59 yards on seven plays. Lee hit Alex Lipscomb on a 31-yard touchdown. The try for two failed and the score stood at 13-6 with 3 minutes, 47 seconds left.
Northwest Rankin recovered the onsides kick but fumbled possession back. This time, the Falcons moved to the Cougars’ 38 before Lee suffered a controversial interception along the Northwest Rankin sidelines. It appeared Darius Gary was out of bounds when he made the theft, but the call stood after a lengthy discussion.
Not deterred, Columbus called its timeouts and got the ball back. This time, the Falcons drove from their 35 to the Cougars 4. Up against an expiring clock, Lee appeared to be ready to break the plane of the end zone before he was hit and fumbled into the end zone for a game-ending touchback.
“We are just making way too many mistakes,” Stanford said. “Last year’s team did not make mistakes. There might be one here or there but there wouldn’t be a series of them. Tonight is another night where you could just make a long list of reasons why we didn’t deserve to win. I hope we can get out of this.”
Lee was 28 of 46 for 291 yards. The Falcons couldn’t generate a ground game against a dominant front four. Still, Columbus totaled 383 yards on 18 first downs.
As exhilarating as last week’s region victory against Clinton was, this outcome was as equally disappointing. Still, the Falcons have four region games remaining and the race remains wide open for the region’s four playoff spots.
“There is a lot of football left,” Lee said. “However, we got to find a way to start winning back-to-back games on a consistent basis, and we got to do that quickly.”
Follow Scott Walters on Twitter @dispatchscott.
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 43 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.