High School Football: Buchholz Takes On Columbia

The Buchholz Bobcats will head to Lake City to take on the Columbia Tigers. Buchholz is coming off a tough 44-33 loss to Vanguard last week, while Columbia cruised to a 48-0 win over rival Suwannee.

Change of Plans

With Hurricane Irma threatening Florida in the upcoming days, many games have gotten moved up or canceled all together. Like many other high school games, the match up between Buchholz and Columbia has been moved to Thursday. Both head coaches discussed how their team’s will be impacted by the loss of an extra day of preparation. Almost every team has a weekly ritual that they follow according to the day of the week, Buchholz and Columbia are no different.

Buchholz Head Coach Mark Whittenmore said that despite the short week, both teams will have to come out strong on Thursday night. Columbia Head Coach Brian Allen said that Coach Whitemore has done a lot to turn his team around. He added that his team’s preparation this week will also be crucial in order to come out victorious. However the Tigers have great momentum going into game three. In just two games the team has scored 100 points and held both opponents to 34.

Columbia records first shutout over rival Suwannee since 2012 when the Tigers blanked the Bulldogs 40-0.

— Eric Jackson (@epjackson) September 2, 2017

What to Expect

Last year the Tigers lost 26-23 to the Bobcats when the two faced off in Citizens Field. For the Bobcats to come out on top, coach Whittemore said that his team will need to have a strong stand defensively. He said in last week’s loss to Vanguard, the defense struggled to make tackles. Vanguard’s athleticism gave the Bobcats problems on defense and offense, unfortunately for them, the Tigers play very similarly.

On the other hand, for the Tigers, the team has not had too many issues in their first two games. Coach Allen said that he is proud of the way his team has played so far, but what really matters is the weeks to come when they get further into the season. He also added, how important the first few games are for preparing for district.

It is official:
JV Football hosts Columbia tonight at 6:30; Varsity travels to Columbia on Thursday night for a 7:30 game

— Buchholz High School (@BuchholzHigh) September 6, 2017

Kick off is set for Thursday at 7:30.