VALDOSTA – The Valdosta Wildcats (3-5, 0-1 Region 1-6A) host the Houston County Bears (4-4, 0-1 Region) tonight, looking to gain ground in the region standings.

The ‘Cats put together a solid performance on the road at Northside – tallying 294 yards of total offense, with 172 of those yards coming from the run game.

Valdosta built a 10-7 halftime lead, only to falter late in a 13-10 loss to the Eagles to open region play.

“I just feel like last week, we let one go that we should’ve won,” Valdosta head coach Shelton Felton said in a phone interview Thursday. “We had too many miscues and we’re too late in the season and we’re too good of a team to keep having the same miscues when we shouldn’t be having them but that comes back to coaching. That comes back to me – getting it fixed and not blaming the kids. We’ve got to finish drives and finish plays.”

Prior to region play, the ‘Cats set their sights on winning the region championship. Losing to Northside didn’t do them any favors in the quest to accomplish that goal, but Felton emphasizes that the job isn’t done.

“The emphasis has been to just finish the season,” Felton said. “You have kids that are upset about how this season’s gone and you’ve got kids that get in the mindset of next year. What I tell all my kids, we can’t control what’s going to happen next year. We’ve got to worry about what’s happening in these next two games. We’ve got to keep playing, and one thing we have done, we’ve played and fought all season long knowing that Lee County is the last game, regardless of if we had won every game. We had a woe is me moment, but we bounced back and we tell them that football is like life. It’s up and down and it’s about learning lessons. We’ve got to continue to play and I expect the team to come out and fight Friday. I expect nothing less.”

Despite last week’s loss at Northside, the ‘Cats had a few bright spots on both sides.

Junior quarterback Joseph Gardner returned to the lineup and played a solid game – completing 7 of 14 passes for 122 yards with a touchdown to Tyran Small in the second quarter.

Senior running back Terrell Denson continued his impressive season with 14 carries for 109 yards.

Defensively, senior linebacker Jaylin Berrian dominated with 13 total tackles.

Though the ‘Cats have had an up-and-down season thus far, Felton credits the seniors for the work they’ve done in the midst of a difficult season.

“These seniors, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again no matter what happens, one of the main reasons I decided to stay and wanted to stay was because of this senior group,” Felton said. “They’re special and it hurts me to my heart how this season is going because these guys are working. They want to win. They want to get Valdosta back on the right track. They want to win for me and they want to win for this town and I just can’t say enough about my senior group. They’re fighting. They’re keeping us together. It’s a great group of kids, man. I love every last one of them.”

The Bears ran into the proverbial buzzsaw last week against reigning 1-6A champion Lee County, losing 29-9.

Though the led 9-7 against the Trojans at halftime, turnovers and miscues in the second half derailed the Bears’ hopes of an upset as the Trojans reeled off 22 unanswered points to lock up the victory.

Much of Valdosta’s potential success tonight will be how its defense contains Bears running back Simeon Askew.

Askew, a 5-11 senior, became Houston County’s all-time leading rusher in last week’s loss to Lee County – carrying the ball 32 times for 186 yards and a touchdown.

A workhorse for the Bears’ offense, Askew averages just under 29 carries per game through the first eight games.

Ahead of tonight’s matchup, Felton spoke of the challenges the Bears present on both sides of the ball.

“They have a very good running attack,” Felton said of the Bears. “They’re a kind of offense where they chew the clock up. Every possession we have on offense is going to be key that we finish every drive with some kind of points because it’s going to be a limited game. They run the ball, we run the ball, so we’ve got to execute every play. I think they’re very good on offense. Their O-line is very big and physical. On defense, their D-line is huge. They play fast. They’re physical with their linebackers. Their DBs are aggressive. … I just think it’ll be another good test and we’ve got to continue to play our style of football – control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball and give us a fighting chance to win the game.”

By the numbers, the Bears are far from an offensive juggernaut – averaging just 18.4 points per game with a defense allowing 28.25 points per game.

However, Felton and his staff have high praise for the damage the Bears can do with their running game. When asked which team his team has seen that the Bears compare to, Felton paused to give the question some thought before going back to when the season began against defending 5A state champion Warner Robins.

“Offensively, we kind of see them as Warner Robins,” Felton said. “Warner Robins ran the ball really good out of different formations. You see how they’re kind of similar to Warner Robins, but Warner Robins is on a different level in terms of what they can do offensively in the pass game and the run game.”

Much like the Warner Robins game that saw the ‘Cats start off well before being blown out 48-20 in Macon, Felton believes tonight’s game will come down to one thing: explosive plays.

“We’ve got to create explosive plays,” Felton said. “On offense, we’ve got to create explosive plays and generate points on defense. We’ve got to limit the explosive plays and control the line of scrimmage. It’s going to come down to explosive plays. When we make explosive plays, we’re a really good team.”

Valdosta is 11-2 all-time against Houston County. The ‘Cats have won seven of the last eight after having last year’s 31-14 win overturned to a forfeit.

Kickoff for tonight’s game is scheduled for 8 p.m. at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium.

Shane Thomas is the sports editor at the Valdosta Daily Times.