VALDOSTA – Fresh off winning Region 1-7A, the Lowndes Vikings (7-2, 2-0) travel to Kingsland to face the Camden County Wildcats (4-5, 0-2) in tonight’s regular season finale.

The Vikings beat Colquitt County 52-31 last week in what was essentially the Region 1-7A championship, even with a game still left in region play.

They did need a little help, however.

It was the Wildcat’s loss at Tift that night that ensured the Wildcats couldn’t finish with a better region record than the Vikings and in doing so, helped the Vikings win the region.

The Vikings and Wildcats are playing their third and final game of region play against each other, but the two squads took very different roads to get here.

The Vikings enter this game hoping to remain undefeated in region play after beating Colquitt last week and Tift County 26-7 on Oct. 15.

On the other hand, the Wildcats will be clawing for a single win in region play. They nearly opened region play with a win against Colquitt Oct. 15 on a field goal in overtime, but Colquitt responded with a touchdown to win it, 34-31. 

The Vikings offense rolled against Colquitt, racking up 449 yards against a battle-tested defense. Vikings senior running back Chase Belcher was a force on the ground in the game, leading the way for the Vikings with 132 yards on 16 carries.

Star quarterback Jacurri Brown added 75 rushing yards for the Vikings who totaled 261 yards on the ground. The Miami commit was also very efficient passing the ball, going 12 for 17 for 188 yards.

Brown accounted for four of the Vikings’ seven touchdowns on the day, including a 78-yarder to senior Kris Thomas to put the bow on top.

That connection has been huge for the Vikings all season, accounting for a third of the Vikings’ 1,500 passing yards this season. Thomas leads the Vikings with 541 receiving yards on the season.

Their play will also be a key going to face the Wildcats, who have struggled to make stops in the passing game in recent weeks.

In two of the Wildcats’ last three games, they have allowed over 250 yards passing.

Warner Robins threw for 350 yards against them in a 77-34 drubbing Oct. 1 and the next week, they allowed 277 to Colquitt.

With a dual threat like Brown coming to town, it will be interesting to see how the Wildcats’ game plan to stop the Vikings’ offense.

Vikings head coach Jamey DuBose said, “Most teams this year have come in and loaded the box on us to try to stop the run. With Jacurri back there, teams say, ‘Hey man, if he [Brown]’s going to beat us, he’s got to beat us with his arm.”

If the Wildcats are hoping to avoid ending their season on a five-game losing streak, they’ll have to come up with something as the last few games have been tough sledding.

The Vikings won their fifth straight game against Colquitt last week and are finishing another regular season strong going into the GHSA playoffs.

Last year, the Vikings made it to the state semifinals, and they did the same in 2018. In 2019, the Vikings made it to the state championship game but lost 17-9 to Marietta.

But the 2021 playoffs are still a couple weeks away, so before the Vikings can worry about that, they have a game in Chris Gilman Stadium to play. DuBose knows his team is focused on the task at hand, not worried about the playoffs.

“We’re going to take it one day at a time, one game at a time, one step at a time,” DuBose said. “We’re focused on getting through the week and being 1-0 at midnight.”

The game kicks off at 7:30 tonight in Kingsland.

The first round of the GHSA playoffs are scheduled to start Nov. 12.