VALDOSTA— The Valdosta High Wildcats scored touchdowns on the last play of the first half and on their first offensive play of the second half to pull away from Worth County in a scrimmage Friday night.
The Wildcats won 24-0 at Bazemore-Hyder stadium, but the game was tightly contested for the entire first half. Both teams were able to shut down the other team’s running game and Valdosta’s passing game was out of synch up until the half. Senior quarterback Kyle Rowe completed just five passes in the first five drives.
“We won over a playoff team 24-0,” Valdosta coach Rick Tomberlin said. “It wasn’t pretty, but we knew it wouldn’t be pretty. It’s one of those deals when it’s early and we knew we’d make a lot of mistakes and we did. We just have to get better.”
The spark the Wildcats were looking for came with 34 seconds remaining in the first half when Dontavis Sapp recovered a Ram fumble and set the Wildcats up at the Worth County 37-yard line. Rowe completed a 30-yard pass to the seven and after a 17-yard sack, came back to complete an 18-yard pass and then a six-yard pass on fourth and six to Chad Prain as the half expired.
Rowe then found sophomore tight end Jay Rome on his first pass of the second half for a 45-yard touchdown to give the Wildcats a 14-0 lead. After a tough start Rowe rallied and finished 9-for-22 for 145 yards and two touchdowns.
“Offensively we’ve got some work to do,” Tomberlin said. “We have to get better at pass protection and find more running game, and I think we will. It’s only been six days of full pads so we’ve got a couple weeks to look at our stuff and correct it.”
Even though the Wildcat offense turned things around at the half, the night belonged to the defense. Valdosta set the tone early allowing just 14 yards rushing on eight carries in the first quarter. The Rams didn’t get a first down until 7:29 remaining in the first half. Sapp recovered another fumble midway through the third quarter and returned it 30 yards for a touchdown, making it 21-0.
“I thought our defense played great,” Tomberlin said. “Our defense played like a region one AAAAA team.”
Kicker John Mark Stephenson closed the scoring at 24-0 with a 22-yard field goal with 6:50 left in the fourth.
The closest Worth County got to a touchdown was down to the Valdosta five yard line late in the third quarter, but the Cats held strong and forced an incomplete pass on fourth down.
Worth County and Valdosta played the scrimmage more like it was a playoff game than a practice. Star players like Michael Gilliard, Kyle Rowe, Travoris Belcher and Sapp stayed in the whole game and Worth County brought its band, cheerleaders and signs saying “Rams are in it to win it.”
“I think that’s good for us,” Tomberlin said. “It’s not like a typical scrimmage where you have the B team out there. It had a real game feel to it. I regret not getting more guys in the game, but (Worth County) was good, it was competitive to the very end.”
Next up for the Wildcats is their regular season opener against Jenkins on Aug. 29. Start time is 7:30 p.m. at Bazemore-Hyder stadium.
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