VALDOSTA — Lowndes’ region title hopes rest in its own hands.

Lowndes sits in a three-way tie for first in Region 1-AAAAA. The two teams tied with the Vikings are the two teams they play to close out the regular season: Tift County and Warner Robins.

The Vikings’ region destiny is in their own hands. They are 4-1 in Region 1-AAAAA play (6-2 overall). Lowndes’ win over Colquitt County last Friday, combined with Tift’s 17-10 win over first-place Warner Robins, made it a three-way tie at the top.

“We’re tied for first with two other teams,” Lowndes head coach Randy McPherson said. “We’ve got two games left, and we know we can win the region if we win these last two games. But we also know we can still miss the playoffs if we lose both games.”

This week, Lowndes’ opponent is No. 5 Tift, which hasn’t beaten the Vikings since 1994. But this could be the Blue Devils’ best team since the 1997 state runners-up.

“Tift County’s got a good football team,” McPherson said. “I went and watched them play Warner Robins (on Saturday), and they’re very good.”

Last Friday, Lowndes routed Colquitt County 41-14 at Martin Stadium. The Vikings rolled up 332 yards of total offense in the rout.

Lowndes’ ground game was especially good, accounting for 310 of those yards. Two ballcarriers ran for more than 100 yards apiece. Greg Reid gained 116 yards on eight carries, scoring three touchdowns, while Darriett Perry rushed for 100 yards and one touchdown on 14 carries.

“I thought we ran the ball real well,” McPherson said. “Our offense has gotten a lot better since the start of the season.”

Lowndes only passed the ball twice on Friday (quarterback Christian Glisson completed both of those passes). When the Vikings only throw the ball twice all game, it’s usually a sign that things are going well for them.

McPherson also praised Lowndes’ defense, which shut out Colquitt in the first half and limited the No. 1 offense in the region to just 14 points.

“We played pretty good defense,” McPherson said. “We gave up a couple of big plays, which we don’t like to do. But other than that, I thought the defense did a good job.”

For the second straight week, Lowndes’ secondary knows it will have to step up, because Tift County, like Colquitt, throws the ball a lot. The Blue Devils often line up three or four receivers in their spread offense, most notably two-time All-State receiver Israel Troupe, who is headed to Georgia next year.

Last week, Lowndes’ secondary faced another Georgia signee, Colquitt’s Vance Cuff. Cuff caught a 96-yard touchdown pass, but had only one more catch, for three yards, the rest of the game.

“Our secondary is playing pretty well,” McPherson said. “They’ve got their work cut out for them this week, though, because Tift County likes to spread out and throw it. But they probably run it more than they throw it.”



Lowndes has re-entered the state poll. The Vikings are ranked No. 10 in the AAAAA state poll this week, after two weeks out of the rankings.

The Vikings are one of three 1-AAAAA teams in the top 10. Tift is ranked No. 5 and Coffee No. 8. All seven region teams have been ranked at some point this season, and three — Lowndes, Tift and Colquitt — have been at No. 1 (Norcross is No. 1 right now).



McPherson and Tift coach Jay Walls are no strangers to each other. From 1997-2001, the two faced each other every season, when McPherson was the head coach at Florida power Madison County and Walls was the head coach at Suwannee, Madison’s archrivals. Now they coach at Region 1-AAAAA rivals.

“Jay Walls is a good friend of mine. We go way back,” McPherson said. “Jay’s a good coach.”

The McPherson-Walls matchups have been very one-sided. The two coaches have faced each other six times, five in Florida and once in Georgia, and McPherson has won all six matchups.

Then again, what matters to Lowndes’ coach right now is not his first six games against Tift’s coach, but rather the one looming this Friday. That’s the one he’s focused on winning.

McPherson said Walls’ Tift County teams do a lot of the same things his old Suwannee teams did.

“There are some similarities,” he said. “But (at Tift), he’s using more of a spread offense, like VSU uses. But he still threw it a lot at Suwannee.”

On the other hand, McPherson runs the same offense (wing-T) and same defense (5-2) that he did at Madison. It worked with the Cowboys, and as the 2004 and 2005 state championship trophies in Lowndes’ trophy case will attest, it has been working for the Vikings.