VALDOSTA — For the second year in a row, Valdosta High’s football season began with a rout.
Valdosta hammered Jenkins 47-0 in its season opener Friday night at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium. The Wildcats scored 38 points in the first half, shut down the Warriors’ offense and won their season opener for the third year in a row.
“I was real proud of the way our guys played. I’m very happy with the victory,” Valdosta head coach Rick Tomberlin said. “I thought our guys played real hard. (Our defense) played real well. It’s good to win.”
Valdosta quarterback DaShay March had a big game, throwing for 101 yards and two touchdowns and running for 88 yards on 10 carries. His backup, Avery Burney, was the Wildcats’ leading rusher, going for 91 yards and a touchdown on seven carries. Dhahrod Hall scored two touchdowns.
“I think it was a good night for everybody,” Tomberlin said.
Valdosta was dominant in all three phases of play. Offensively, the Wildcats rolled up 393 yards of total offense. Defensively, they limited Jenkins to 77 yards of offense, and just 38 yards on the ground. On special teams, the Wildcats got a touchdown, a field goal, a safety and converted all of their extra points.
The game was scoreless for nearly nine minutes, but then Valdosta got 10 points in a span of three plays. Marcus Davis got the Wildcats on the board when he broke through and blocked Parker McGlone’s punt. The ball rolled out of the back of the end zone for a safety, giving Valdosta a 2-0 lead.
After the safety, Jenkins took a free kick from its 20-yard line. Hall caught the ball, took off and raced 70 yards for the game’s first touchdown. Jenkins jumped offsides before the snap on the extra point, and after the penalty, with the ball just 18 inches from the goal line, Valdosta decided to go for a two-point conversion. Justin Williams got the ball on a dive, and plowed across the goal line to increase the Wildcats’ lead to 10-0.
On Valdosta’s next offensive possession, it took just four plays to add seven more points to the scoreboard. March’s 35-yard run moved the ball to the Jenkins 6, and on the next play, Hall ran the ball in for a touchdown, making it 17-0 after one quarter.
Valdosta’s Dontavis Sapp ended Jenkins’ next drive with an interception at the VHS 16. The Wildcats responded by driving 84 yards in seven plays for another touchdown. Williams had a 22-yard run on the drive, and two plays later, March threw a 48-yard bomb to Malcolm Mitchell, down to the Warriors’ 6. Williams dashed straight up the gut for a touchdown on the next play, making it 24-0.
The next time the Wildcats got the ball, it took just two plays to score. On the first play, Charlie Albritton dashed 36 yards. On the next play, March found a wide open Jay Rome for a 35-yard touchdown pass, making it 31-0.
In the final minute of the first half, after recovering a fumble, Valdosta drove into the red zone. With 3.5 seconds left before halftime, and time for only more play, the Wildcats chose to go for a touchdown. March threw the ball into the end zone, and the 6-foot-4 Sapp hauled it in for the score. Valdosta headed to the locker room with a commanding 38-0 lead.
Trailing by 38 points heading into the second half, Jenkins opted to play the third quarter with a running clock, which made the second half go fast. Valdosta got only three possessions in the final two quarters, and scored on two of them.
Valdosta played its reserves the entire second half.
Valdosta took the opening kickoff in the third quarter, and marched down the field. Burney had runs of 13 and 21 yards and Albritton had a 19-yard run. The Wildcats moved the ball to the Jenkins 22, then Zach Wang kicked a 39-yard field goal, giving Valdosta a 41-0 lead.
“Our special teams looked (good). We got a 39-yard field goal, blocked a punt, returned a punt for a touchdown. I think our special teams are head-and-shoulders improved,” Tomberlin said.
On the final play of the game, facing fourth-and-9 from the Warrior 12, Burney took the snap, went left and raced untouched into the end zone for a touchdown. There were 14 seconds left on the clock when Burney scored, but the clock operator kept the clock running and let the time run out, and the extra point was not attempted. That made the final score 47-0.
Last year, Valdosta defeated Jenkins 48-7.
Valdosta hosts Windsor Forest next Friday at 7:30 p.m.
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