Two undefeated teams met at Tartar Field on Friday night, and only one could walk away without a blemish on their record. After a tight-knit first half, Taylorsville pulled away in the fourth quarter to claim a 20-13 victory and remain unbeaten.
“Columbia is the best team, by far, that we’ve played,” said head coach Mitch Evans. “We knew coming in that they were physical, big upfront — everybody saw that — and they get after you for four quarters. It was a hard-fought game, and I thought we played our best game of the year by far.”
The Wildcats scored the first points of the night on their opening drive to take an early 6-0 advantage on what turned out to be the only score of the first quarter. The Tartars Tartars didn’t get on the scoreboard until late in the second quarter when Ty Keyes found Jalon Clark in the end zone for a touchdown on a 4th & goal conversion attempt. The Tartars and Wildcats seemed to be locked into a defensive battle thanks to a smart gameplan by the visiting team.
“Our offense was good, but we only had three possessions in the first half,” Evans said. They kept the ball with what was really a good gameplan on their part. They kept running the ball and driving down field, and we only got on the field three times. In the second half, I thought the defense did a good job of getting us the ball in good field position, and we took advantage of it.”
The Tartars defense certainly made their mark on the game with five forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries, winning the turnover battle for the fourth time in five games. Two of those fumbles occurred deep in the red zone and prevented the Wildcats from tacking on more points.
“We always just try to come out and play physical,” said linebacker CJ Williams. “We just stuck to the gameplan, and our offense did the rest.”
The Tartars’ offense then took control in the same way fans have become accustomed to seeing this fall: with two touchdown passes from Ty Keyes to Raven Arrington. Two duo has connected for seven touchdowns through five games this season, proving to be one of, if not the most dangerous quarterback/receiver combination in the Pine Belt.
“I’d like to give a shoutout to Raven Arrington,” Coach Evans said, “who lost his brother last week and his father this week. That was a gutsy performance from that kid tonight. Another shoutout goes to my kicker, Kenner Todd, who lost his grandmother this week. Those two kids are really special.”
Columbia tacked on a final score with under two minutes remaining, but Taylorsville recovered the ensuing onside kick and drained the rest of the clock to seal the win.
Now riding a 15-game winning streak — the third longest active streak in the state — Taylorsville will prepare to host the last team to defeat them, the Perry Central Bulldogs, next Friday night in a showdown of two Class 2A juggernauts.
