How Columbia football got the big play it needed to beat Petal and avenge only loss from 2021

PETAL — After 43 minutes of dominance, the Columbia defense started to crack.

Taking over on its own 11 with 4:33 remaining, Petal rattled off four run plays of at least 10 yards to cross midfield and set itself up at the Columbia 40, needing a touchdown to overturn a 20-14 deficit.

The door for a Panther comeback victory was ajar, but Jeremiah Tatum slammed it shut with an interception forged out of nothing but sheer determination.

"I gotta get the ball for the team," Tatum said he told himself in that moment.

Petal (2-1) quarterback Deljay Bailey hit tight end Dylan Davis on a seam route in plenty of space, but a slight bobble allowed Tatum to close in. A comfortable catch became a 50-50 ball.

Tatum ripped the ball from his opponent's clutches, rose up, and scampered toward his sideline in celebratory glee. Three kneel-downs and an intentional safety later, Columbia (3-0) emerged with a 20-16 victory.

"It means a lot," he said. "It means we can fight with anybody — and I mean anybody."

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Tatum's effort signified so much of what this victory was about for the Wildcats and coach Chip Bilderback.

Neither offense produced spectacular results. Penalties plagued both sides. Rain in the second and third quarters seemed to make the football hard to handle and led to some miscues.

This was a win to be dug out of the mud, not chiseled from stone. Bilderback expected it would be that way from the onset.

"Our kids wanted tonight bad," he said. "The guy was open, (Tatum) made a great play. The challenge was not to quit no matter what tonight. We were just going to lay it on the line for four quarters and see where it led after the game."

The Columbia defense shouldered most of the burden in this battle of unbeaten teams. The offense turned the ball over three times, and the special teams units didn't provide much help from a field position perspective, either, allowing the Panthers to recover two onside kicks and muffing a punt.

The Wildcats limited Petal to 61 yards of total offense in the first half. When they did bend, they rarely broke, keeping the hosts off the scoreboard on drives of 61 and 49 yards in the second half. Columbia came away with three takeaways of its own on defense, too.

"Our kids buy into playing defense," Bilderback said. "We want to play a tough brand of football. We want to run to the ball. We want to hit people. That's what we pride ourselves on, and I can't say enough about our players and our coaches."

One explosive play on offense ultimately decided the game. Quarterback Collin Haney found wideout Kendale Johnson on the right sideline for a 65-yard touchdown in the third quarter, which put the Wildcats up 20-7 and gave them the cushion they needed to avenge their only loss from last season's state title run.

"They beat us on our new field," Tatum said. "We came here and beat them."