WAYCROSS — Valdosta dominated the first half of its preseason football scrimmage, and defeated Ware County 35-10 on Friday night at Waycross Memorial Stadium.

The Wildcats scored touchdowns on their first four possessions, built a 28-0 lead against the Gators and cruised to a 25-point victory. “There’s always room for improvement, (but) I thought, top to bottom, we played pretty well,” Valdosta head coach Rance Gillespie said. “We saw some people make some plays offensively. I thought we did a lot better job than we have in the past of handling their pressures, blitzes (and) things they do defensively. ... Overall, I thought our special teams played solid, in what little bit we got to see out of them tonight. Defensively, there’s some things that we want to improve on, but they played pretty well.”

“I thought our kids played hard. I don’t think there’s any doubt that we’re a whole lot better than we were in the spring,” Gillespie added. “I give a whole lot of credit to the work habits of our kids and our coaching staff. They’ve done a good job of coaching those kids and bringing them on. They’ve come a long way, and the kids have done a good job taking coaching and working and improving our skill sets.”

Shelby Wilkes, Valdosta’s senior quarterback, was brilliant in the first half, completing 14 of 15 passes for 195 yards and a touchdown. Wilkes finished the game 18 of 21 for 207 yards and a touchdown.

“I thought Shelby played well, mentally and physically,” Gillespie said.

Valdosta running backs Nelson Herring and Malcolm Joseph scored two touchdowns apiece. Herring led the Wildcats with 68 yards rushing on 12 carries.

In Friday’s scrimmage, the varsity squads played the first three quarters, then the junior varsity teams played the final period. All 45 points were scored in the varsity portion of the scrimmage.

On the first possession of the game, Valdosta forced a three-and-out, with senior defensive end Chuntony Johnson making two tackles in the backfield. Ware lined up to punt, but the snap went over the punter’s head, and the punter had to chase the ball down and fell on it at the Gators’ 1-yard line.

On the next play, Herring plowed into the end zone behind right tackle Ronnie Stoney and right guard Quincy Jones for the touchdown. Dale Kent’s extra point gave the Wildcats a 7-0 lead.

On the ensuing possession, a bad punt snap victimized the Gators again. This time, Ware punter John Benek scooped up the ball, but was tackled for an 11-yard loss, and the Wildcats took over at the Gator 44.

Valdosta then drove 44 yards in 11 plays for touchdown No. 2. At one point in the drive, the Wildcats faced first-and-18 after a holding penalty, but Wilkes completed passes to Alex Cason and Taijuan Smith to move the chains. On first-and-goal from the 3, Joseph ran around left end and into the end zone for the touchdown. Brennan Goodson’s extra point gave Valdosta a 14-0 lead.

After Ware punted, the Wildcats went 66 yards in five plays for their third touchdown. Wilkes’ 30-yard pass to Cason moved the ball into Gator territory, and his 11-yard completion to Yardley Payne advanced the ball to the Ware 15. On the next play, Joseph got the handoff going left. He sped past several defenders, then broke a tackle near the goal line and ran into the end zone for his second touchdown of the scrimmage. Jamel Armstrong kicked the extra point, giving Valdosta a 21-0 lead.

A Ware punt pinned Valdosta back at its own 10-yard line, but the Wildcats’ offense drove 90 yards for its fourth touchdown in four possessions. Wilkes kept the drive alive with third down completions of 29 yards to Bradley Felkel and 10 yards to Payne. Then on first-and-10 from the Gator 14, Wilkes lofted a pass into the end zone. Cason extended his arms and hauled in the pass in tight coverage for the score. That gave Valdosta a 28-0 lead late in the first half.

Ware drove into Valdosta territory and put their first points on the board in the final minute of the first half. Josh Johnson’s 20-yard reception moved the Gators to the VHS 25. The drive stalled from there, but on fourth down, Seth Starling kicked a 42-yard field goal with 56 seconds left in the second quarter to make the score 28-3 at halftime.

Early in the third quarter, Ware quarterback Jamar Johnson tried to throw a screen pass, but Valdosta defensive tackle Darrius Sapp read the play, picked off the pass and ran it 35 yards into the end zone. But another defender was flagged for roughing the passer on the play, which wiped out Sapp’s score.

Six plays after the penalty was called, Johnson took a snap, went left on the option and pitched the ball to running back Xavier Tobler. Tobler took the pitch, turned on his speed, got some key blocks and raced 31 yards down the Ware sideline for a touchdown, cutting Valdosta’s lead to 28-10.

The Wildcats scored their final touchdown on their last full varsity possession, going 75 yards in eight plays. On second-and-4 from the Ware 31, Herring took the handoff, found room to run, broke into the open field and sprinted 31 yards into the end zone for his second touchdown of the scrimmage, giving the Wildcats a 35-10 lead with 2:02 left in the third quarter.

Neither team’s junior varsity could score in the fourth quarter. Ware staged an 11-play drive, and moved the ball all the way to the Valdosta 3. But on fourth-and-2, a Wildcat defender stuffed the ball carrier for a two-yard loss, ending the drive.

Valdosta will now have two weeks to prepare for its season opener on Sept. 1, when the Wildcats travel to Suwanee to play North Augusta (S.C.) at North Gwinnett High School. Tickets for that game can be purchased at the Valdosta ticket office this week or next week. Some of the money from the tickets purchased at the VHS ticket office will go to the Wildcat football program.