Derrick Davis | The Valdosta Daily TimesValdosta State’s Rogan Wells rushes for a touchdown against Delta State on Saturday at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium.

VALDOSTA — The Blazers caught fire in the second half Saturday at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium to turn a tie game into a 59-28 romp of the Statesmen.

No. 10 Valdosta State (6-0, 4-0) scored 38 unanswered points, including 31-0 after halftime, to slam the door on upset-minded Delta State (0-6, 0-4) and secure the fourth straight victory against the Gulf South Conference rival.

“They’re a good football team,” said VSU head coach Kerwin Bell. “They’ve played against, I think now, four top 10 teams in the first six games. They’ve played against good competition with a freshman quarterback, they lost the first string the first game. This is a good football team.

“We’re going to get better and better as we go, so we’re going to find out how good we can be on offense and on defense. We’ve got to really improve here in the last four weeks to compete, because we’re playing against some really good football teams.”

With contests against three conference foes likely to be ranked, and a homecoming game, left on the Blazers’ schedule, Bell warned his team about falling into the trap against a winless opponent.

But the ‘Fighting Okra’ capped a 13-play, 72-yard drive with a one-yard touchdown plunge to take a 28-21 lead with 3:01 remaining in the first half and set to receive the second-half’s opening kickoff.

It mattered little against the most explosive offensive in Division II football.

Valdosta State quickly engineered a five-play, 70-yard touchdown drive in just 1:08 to tie the game on quarterback Rogan Wells’ second rushing touchdown of the first half.

Iseoluwapo Jegede’s third-down sack forced Delta State to punt from its own 13 on the first possession of the third quarter, and six plays later, Wells found Stewart Spence on a nine-yard scoring toss to recapture the lead 35-28.

Following a Statesmen three-and-out, the Blazers tacked on the field goal for the first two-possession lead of the game for either team. On the final play of the third quarter, Wells hit a wide-open Seth McGill on a wheel route out of the backfield for a 28-yard score to blow the game open.

Taurus Dotson intercepted his third pass of the season on the ensuing drive, and on the next play, Wells connected with Lio’undre Gallimore in the end zone from 37 yards out for his fourth and final touchdown throw of the game.

After six touchdowns Saturday, Wells has now scored 13 touchdowns by run or pass over the past two weeks and 27 in six games this season. Eight of the scoring throws have gone to Brian Saunds, who fought four passes for 104 yards and a touchdown against Delta State, in addition to three punt returns for 64 yards.

Gallimore was even more dynamic against the Statesmen, turning five receptions into 194 yards, sixth-most in program history. The true sophomore has now recorded at least 80 yards and a touchdown in each of the last four games.

“I don’t know, to be honest,” Gallimore said, attempting to explain his breakout campaign. “My coach keeps calling my number, telling me he got me; I told him I’ve got him.

“It’s a team thing. It’s not even me, it’s a team thing.”

Valdosta State entered the game ranked fifth in the country with 541.4 yards of total offense per game, but it averages a nation-best 8.54 yards per play, and Gallimore has been a big factor. The Miami Gardens, Fla., native has a team-high 495 receiving yards on just 17 catches, good for 29.12 yards per reception.

“In Miami, we ain’t the biggest, but we’re the fastest,” Gallimore said. “I’m in Georgia, south Georgia, and I know they’re big, but the speed kills. That’s the term we use in Miami, ‘speed kills.’

“If you’re not strong, you’ve got to be fast.”

While the Blazers turned on the jets offensively, the defense turned up the heat on the Statesmen.

Delta State racked up 318 yards of offense at 7.8 yards per play while scoring 28 points in the first half. Coming off a game against Mississippi College’s triple option in which they allowed 42 points and 515 yards, it was not the half the team envisioned.

Part of the Statesmen’s success can be chalked up to an offensive game plan that caught the Blazers off guard with sets featuring multiple tight ends and motion out of the backfield.

“(Delta State head coach Todd Cooley) and their offensive staff is really good at showing sort of, ‘the speciality of the week,’” Bell said. “They come out with different personnel and different groups, and they exchange and do things. They had us on our heels. They’re a physical football team…

“But I think we were playing a little bit off last week. We seemed to be sort of more reading and reacting instead of playing aggressive and getting up the field like we had earlier in the year.”

But, in the second half, the Black Swarm adjusted and held the Okra scoreless with 121 yards at 2.7 yards per play, including just 13 yards over five possessions as VSU built a 24-point lead.

For senior linebacker Craig Watts, who had a game-high 10 tackles, it was a “weight off” of his shoulders.

“At practice, we had a chip on our shoulder the whole time,” Watts said. “So, that’s why we came out here (in the second half) and just had to keep smashing them.”

For a Valdosta State team that is rolling on all cylinders at 6-0 for the first time since 2003, there was little doubt in a defensive turnaround in the second half. The team has learned one poor half doesn’t define a unit.

“I told them at halftime, ‘Listen we were sort of in the same position two weeks ago,’ it was our offense that hadn’t done the job,” Bell said. “We came back out that week and really put them away, and we can do the same.”

Derrick Davis is the sports editor at the Valdosta Daily Times.