MaxPreps Florida Team of the Week: Columbia football

As the state's No. 7 football team, Columbia (Lake City, Fla.) has the right — and probably talent — to take its respective foot off the proverbial pedal now and again.

But judging from its scores, the Tigers have done no such thing including a 59-0 win at Englewood on Friday night.

Junior running back Lonnie Underwood rushed 19 times for 182 yards and five touchdowns as the Tigers improved to 5-0 on the season. They've outscored foes by a count of 233-44 or an average score of 47.9.

For their early-season success and non-complacency, Columbia has been selected the MaxPreps Florida Team of the Week, presented by the Florida National Guard.

Coach Brian Allen said Columbia is simply playing like it's practicing in the early going.

"We believe in the philosophy 'play the way you practice'," he said. "We try to make practice competitive to make the team work hard. With offense and defense, each play or drills has points. The athletes don't want practices to be the same thing or monotonous every day, so we try to keep things competitive."

More competitive than their games to this point.

Against Englewood, Terry Calloway, a senior middle linebacker, was awarded the team's top defensive player after recording nine tackles while junior Zedrick Woods and senior Carlos Vega added six tackles apiece.

Sophomore quarterback Nathan Taylor did a solid job by completing 6 of 9 passes for 126 yards and a touchdown, a 51 yarder to Akeem Williams.

For the season, Underwood, a 5-foot-10, 180-pounder, ranks fourth in the state in rushing at 967 yards on just 112 carries and a whopping 22 touchdowns. Without any college offers yet, Underwood continues to put up big numbers week after week.

"He has God-given abilities and is naturally a great athlete," Allen said. "We brought him up last year for the playoffs and the coaches could tell right away that he was naturally blessed with talent. But, he also puts in the work to get to that next level. He never misses school, practices or workouts. He is always willing to get after it. All year long, even in the off season he is in the weight room working and getting stronger and that is starting to pay off for him."

Taylor has improved with his accuracy and has thrown for 323 yards and five touchdowns and just one interception.

Williams has five catches for 138 yards and a touchdown. Calloway leads the team in tackles with 18 followed by junior Woods and sophomore Laquavious Paul with 15 apiece.

Columbia hosts Orange Park (2-2) on Friday night and hopes to win more than two playoff games as it did in last year's state 6A playoffs to finish 11-2.

"We are a one-game-at-a-time team," Allen said. "We believe in trying to be better than we were the week before. We try to get better each week so that we peak at the right time, so that we're ready for the playoffs."

Kirstin Beal contributed to this report.