STARKVILLE — Maybe this is the season Columbus High School becomes part of the playoff conversation in Class 6A football.
Columbus sent a message quickly to the Class 4A North Half finalists Noxubee County with a 27-12 victory Saturday in the Fall High School Jamboree at Mississippi State”s Davis Wade Stadium.
“We”ve been waiting on this bunch and thought they”d carry us as sophomores. They didn”t, and (they) didn”t do it as juniors,” Columbus coach Tony Stanford said. “Now that they”re seniors, it”s time for them to do something.”
Columbus utilized two offensive looks with senior athlete C.J. Jackson and sophomore Trace Lee. With Jackson behind center, Columbus used more of a scheme spread-option look with trick plays similar to what Boise State has perfected in the past five years to make defenses question who has the football on a given play.
“I think we had them confused with all the misdirection stuff we were running early and then we just started hammering,” Stanford said.
The first offensive play of the game was Lee handing the ball to Jackson on a swing play to the left, but then Jackson hit Deontae Jones for a 40-yard passing plays down the left sidelines.
The Falcons, who finished 4-7 last season, needed only four plays to march 65 yards and put points on the scoreboard on a 6-yard touchdown run by tailback Damian Baker.
“When Ced is in the game, he can run it but also throw the ball real well, too,” Stanford said. “When Trace comes in, he just sees things other kids don”t. He”ll be a real good player for us and that”s why we”re going to try and get him playing time (this season).”
Columbus then made it 13-0 mostly due to the feet of Jackson either on designed running plays or scrambling around defenders to create plays in the passing game. Jackson had 120 total yards and two touchdowns in a 40-minute running clock scrimmage.
“The team is mostly based on seniors, so there”s no more slacking and excuses,” Jackson said. “We know we can win, and we”ll expect to do that all season long.”
After securing an early lead, Columbus opened up the vertical passing game with the classic drop-back style of Lee, who hit Jones down the middle of the field for a 33-yard gain that led to a four-yard touchdown run by Baker. The score helped Columbus take a 21-0 lead after the first quarter.
Noxubee County coach Tyrone Shorter said his staff will meet today and the obvious major topic of discussion will be the Tigers” inability to seemingly get any stops on defense.
“I knew coming into this game we had holes on defense and we”re trying a lot of different people trying to get that unit right,” Shorter said. “That”s my biggest concern because if don”t stop people like we didn”t do today, we won”t win at all.”
Noxubee County, who lost to the eventual Class 4A state champion Lafayette last season in the North Half final, rallied with a 59-yard touchdown connection between quarterback Deangelo Ballard and senior flanker Terrence Barron.
A Columbus fumble led to a Ballard to Barron pitch-and-catch on the next play for 8 yards.
Once the score got close to 21-12, Columbus allowed only two more first downs.
Columbus will open its season Friday at Aberdeen, while Noxubee County will play host Starkville.
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