VALDOSTA — On Tuesday, as he talked about last Friday’s game, Valdosta football coach Rance Gillespie had plenty of good things to say about his team.

Last Friday, Valdosta played well in a dominant 45-0 victory over Crisp County at Cleveland Field at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium.

“After going back and watching (the film), I thought there were some things we did really well,” Gillespie said. “What I thought that we did better than anything was I thought that we played hard. We came out from the get-go and we set a pace, and we played extremely hard throughout the game.”

On offense, the Wildcats collected 490 yards of total offense and scored six touchdowns. Nelson Herring rushed for 163 yards and scored three touchdowns. Malcolm Joseph ran for 86 yards and a touchdown and caught two passes for 61 yards and a touchdown. Quarterback Shelby Wilkes passed for 161 yards and a touchdown.

“Offensively, I was really pleased with the way that we were able to match up against all of their defensive pressures and get bodies on bodies in the run game and pass protection. I thought Shelby played better, made some good reads and made some throws. I was really pleased with the way he played, for the most part. I thought all three backs had a really good night. Any time you rush for that many yards, obviously your offensive line has played pretty well.”

Valdosta’s defense shut out the Cougars and only allowed 138 yards of total offense, despite using their second-team defense for much of the second half.

“We came out, we played hard, we set a great pace,” Gillespie said. “We put a lot of pressure on them. We matched up the counter pretty well. We didn’t let the ball get out in space on us. They tried a reverse, they tried a little flea flicker, they tried a hook-and-lateral play (and) we matched all of those things really well. Fundamentally, there’s a couple of things that we want to do better. We busted one blitz, and it cost us about a 15-yard gain, and in fairness to them, it was a tough read. (Also) we want to eliminate a couple of missed tackles. But other than that, I thought we played well.”

Gillespie also praised Valdosta’s special teams play. The kickoff return team didn’t get any work, because Crisp’s only kickoff went out of bounds, and punter Mac Loudermilk only punted once (a 38-yard kick). But Valdosta’s kickoff and punt return units got plenty of work. And sophomore kicker Brennan Goodson made all six extra points and one of his two field goal attempts.

“Overall, I was pretty well pleased with the way we played (on special teams),” Gillespie said.

One of the few things Gillespie said the team still needs to work on is eliminating penalties. Valdosta was penalized 14 times for 93 yards in the game. The Wildcats have committed at least 12 penalties in all three games this season.

“We were disappointed with a couple of the penalties,” Gillespie said. “We’ve got to eliminate those mistakes.”

——

Valdosta’s running game has been effective throughout the first three games. Two weeks after rushing for 310 yards in their season opener against North Augusta, the Wildcats gained 329 yards against Crisp. Even in the team’s loss to Brooks County, Valdosta running backs combined for 124 yards and two touchdowns on 23 carries.

Herring has a team-high 386 yards rushing and five touchdowns, and is averaging just under 10 yards per carry. Joseph, who rotates with Herring at running back, has 262 yards and four touchdowns on the ground, and is averaging 7.1 yards per carry. Joseph is also the Wildcats’ leading receiver, with 13 catches for 150 yards and a touchdown. No other Wildcat has more than four catches this year. Sophomore Tim McClain has taken advantage of his 16 carries, rushing for 125 yards and a touchdown.

“The three backs played well (against Crisp). They saw some things, and they used their God-given ability on some stuff,” Gillespie said.

Gillespie also praised the linemen who blocked for the running backs all night.

“I thought we gave tremendous effort up front,” Gillespie said. “We did a good job getting down field and blocking and staying after people and playing through the whistle. We did a good job of matching up all of their movement.”

“We’ve got three good backs and a good line of scrimmage,” the coach added.

——

This week, Valdosta will host Newton, a school from Covington, a city at the edge of southeast metro Atlanta. It will be Homecoming for the Wildcats. It will also be the Wildcats’ final game before they start region play.