Juston Lewis | Valdosta Daily TImesValdosta's Jalen Yearby celebrates after making a defensive play during the fourth quarter of Valdosta's win against Northside. 

VALDOSTA — On the eve of Halloween, the Valdosta (3-3, 1-0 Region 1-6A) defense put up a scary performance — pitching a shutout for the second consecutive week. 

They kept Northside scoreless and helped open region play with a 14-0 victory over the Eagles. 

Northside’s best opportunity to score came late in the fourth quarter when they were facing a fourth-and-four while in Valdosta territory. 

A broken play left Eagles’ quarterback Elijah Robinson looking to scramble to extend Northside’s drive. 

It appeared he’d be able to run for the needed yardage, but junior linebacker Jacquez McGowan grabbed Robinson by the leg and forced him to the turf. 

The result of the play was a turnover on downs and it spooked any chances of an Eagles comeback. 

“It feels good like a fresh breath of air in the defense,” McGowan said about his game-altering play. “It got my team lit. We came out and put it together.” 

The Valdosta defense only allowed 67 yards of total offense and held Northside to negative nine net rushing yards. They only allowed the Eagles to get six first downs for the entire contest and forced them to punt nine times. 

On top of the ominous performance, the Wildcats forced two turnovers –– Zay Williams intercepted a pass for the second consecutive week and they forced a fumble to stunt Northside’s momentum. 

“Defensively, they played their butt off,” head coach Rush Propst said after the game. “I don’t know what (Northside’s) total yardage was but it couldn’t have been very much. We got off the field on third down a lot, we forced them to punt a ton of the time. I can’t say enough good things about our defense. They played lights out and that’s the reason we won the football game.” 

While the Valdosta defense was playing on its head, the offense was struggling to finish drives. 

They scored the game-opening touchdown on a 32-yard pass from Amari Jones to Javonte Sherman in the first quarter and got an insurance score on a 12-yard screen pass from Jones to Chris Wolfe in the third.

The rest of the game proved disheartening for Valdosta.  

On their opening drive, the Wildcats looked primed to score. A false start and a holding penalty derailed them and forced them to punt. 

It was the first of several empty drives for the Wildcats, who were flagged nine times for 95 yards in the game. 

Valdosta had 17 first downs compared to Northside’s six, their time of possession was almost 10 minutes more than Northside, they ran 20 more plays than the Eagles and they out-gained them on offense by 230 yards. 

Yet, the Wildcats only managed two scores. 

After the game, Jones took the brunt of the blame. 

“Terrible execution,” the junior quarterback said on the play of the offense. “I will put a lot of the blame on me. I didn’t really play well tonight. Overall we had terrible execution. That comes with missing some receivers in practice but overall I put this on my back. The way this offense performed, I put this on my back. We just have got to get better and finish the rest of the region out.” 

Jones, who was put into the starting role due to an injury to Jake Garcia and kept it because of Garcia’s transfer, finished the night 11-of-21 passing for 162 yards and led the game in rushing with 61 yards. 

He also had two turnovers in the game. One was a fumble at the goal line after taking a hit that kept him on the turf for several moments clutching his arm. 

The other was an interception on a hail mary just before halftime. 

He had two receivers drop touchdown passes and was running from an aggressive Eagles’ defense many times when he dropped back to pass. 

Valdosta couldn’t get any leverage up front and could not run the ball effectively. 

The Wildcats finished with 150 yards between five players on 45 carries. They often saw gains of three yards or less. 

Overall, the play of Valdosta’s offense was disappointing according to Propst. 

“We’re so inept on offense right now,” Propst said of the offensive struggles Friday. “We get no quarterback play, at all. We get no offensive line play. We get whipped up front. We can’t run the ball. We just can’t execute anything. There’s not one single offensive play I feel like we can execute to win a game. I’ve never seen an offense that can’t execute nothing. We can’t execute anything. It’s mistake, after mistake, after mistake, after mistake.” 

Region play is typically when teams start to hit full stride. 

It’s a signifier of what is to come for the remainder of the season. 

Though stagnant at earlier parts of the season, this was supposed to mark the fresh start for the Wildcats. 

Instead, they leave the first region game with a win, but also with more questions than answers.

UP NEXT 

The Wildcats travel to Houston County (5-3, 0-1 Region 1-6A) to face the Bears, who opened region play with a loss to Lee County