VALDOSTA — Despite facing a near hour and a half lightning delay and rain the entire second half, the Lowndes Vikings moved to 1-1 on the season with a 33-0 victory over the Gadsden County Jaguars (0-1) Friday night.

Before the rain, the teams did manage to get through one half of football – one that saw Lowndes take a 14-0 lead.

From the very beginning, Gadsden was not only facing Lowndes, but themselves. At the end of the night, they tallied 17 penalties for 125 yards which cost them throughout the game.

The sloppy play began on the very first drive, where they fumbled a bad snap and had to fall on the ball on 2nd and 8. Two penalties backed them up to their own 24 for 3rd and 18, followed by a first down run that was erased by yet another penalty. 

They brought out the punt team and managed to fake it for a long run before it was brought back on a holding call.

Lowndes’ defense took advantage of this all night, but the offense benefited as well.

On their first drive, sophomore quarterback Marvis Parrish and company were on the Gadsden 19, where he wasn’t able to connect on three shots to the end zone. Parrish took a sack on third down but an incidental face mask on Gadsden gave him another shot and he found wide receiver Kevis Thomas for six.

Lowndes’ first drive in the second quarter ended in a similar manner.

Lowndes got to around the Gadsden 10-yard line before getting pushed back to the 44 due to their own penalties. On the punt return, however, Gadsden couldn’t hang on to the punt and Lowndes got a new set of downs on the Gadsden 6-yard line. Sophomore running back Aalim Brown ran it in and pushed the lead to 14-0.

Just as the second half was about to begin, there was a lightning delay and the third quarter didn’t start for another hour and a half.

Most fans had left by the time the game resumed, but for those who stayed, it was worth the wait.

Earlier this week, Vikings head coach Zach Grage said he wanted his team to focus on getting all three phases in sync, and that’s exactly what happened coming out of halftime.

Lowndes received the kickoff and returned it to their 39 yard line, where Parrish and Brown controlled the ground the entire drive. The final three plays of the drive Parrish kept the ball before inevitably finding the end zone for six, just one of three rushing touchdowns he had in the quarter.

Directly following this the Lowndes defense got two tackles for loss and cornered the Gadsden punt team nearly in their end zone with the help of a couple of penalties.

The punt went straight up in the air and came back down into the punters hands, giving Lowndes the ball on the Gadsden three yard line. Parrish ran the ball in for his second rushing touchdown of the night with the lead sitting at 26-0 after a missed PAT.

On Gadsden’s next drive they had two penalties set them back and were tackled for loss again before being forced to punt from their end zone.

The punt only managed to make it a short distance, and Lowndes had the ball once again inside the Gadsden 15-yard line. Parrish ran the ball in for the final score of the evening and Lowndes led 33-0 the rest of the way.

Lowndes’ offense has a great deal of thanks to give to the defense, with the phenomenal field position they were gifted on every drive in the third quarter.

“When you’re working on a three-yard field, when it’s off a great defensive performance then it’s great.” Grage said, “Special teams we were putting pressure on the punter, I thought our kickoff team was pretty good. We do have to shore up some things in our PAT work, but I thought our kickoff team did really well.”

Between Gadsden slowing the pace with their run-heavy style of offense, the stoppages in play from the whistles, the lightning delay and the rain, Lowndes still managed to stay focused.

“We really challenged our guys all week to play to our tempo,” Grage said, “We knew Gadsden was going to slow it down, we knew they were going to be a huddle team that ran the ball most snaps with that wishbone. But I thought they did a really good job of playing to our speed and not getting lulled to sleep.

“Like I told the kids, we have not peaked by any means. We don’t want to right now. We want to peak later in the season when it matters. I’m very proud of them, that was where we looked at the full team effort trying to get all three phases together at the same time, there was flashes of that tonight.”

UP NEXT

Lowndes hosts North Miami Beach Sept. 2. at 8 p.m.