VALDOSTA — Injured junior running back Jacarre Fleming returned to the lineup Friday night, and it’s no coincidence that the Lowndes Vikings (2-1) went out and dominated the ground in their 43-18 victory over the North Miami Beach Chargers (0-2).

Lowndes finished the game with almost 200 more yards on the ground than their opponent, nearly a third of which were Fleming’s.

Fleming finished the game with 69 yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries but it all started on the first possession for Lowndes which was practically gifted to them.

Lowndes deferred to the second half, but on the opening kickoff a Chargers player touched the ball and Lowndes recovered it on the Chargers’ 28-yard line.

Fleming had the first two touches of the drive, running for 5 and 10 yards before sophomore quarterback Marvis Parrish took it to the 3-yard line. On the very next play, Fleming ran the ball into the end zone for Lowndes’ first score of the evening, leading 7-0.

The next possession both Parrish and sophomore running back Aalim Brown helped get Lowndes into scoring position again, with a 22-yard run from Parrish putting them on the Chargers’ 25-yard line.

Fleming ran for 12 yards to put Lowndes on the 14-yard line before taking it the rest of the way for another touchdown, giving Lowndes the 14-0 lead with 7:02 remaining in the first quarter.

Lowndes head coach Zach Grage praised Fleming in his return, but also wanted to shine the spotlight on some of the other players who made the win possible.

“I thought that [Fleming], Kevis [Thomas], Marvis, Jaylin Carter, Keylan Hicks, I thought there was a lot of guys who [had touches].” Grage said, “As a matter of fact, I don’t know how many touches Jacarre actually had. Now he was explosive in some of them that he did have, but he was also one of the best assistant coaches over there and our No. 1 cheerleader meeting guys down when they scored. It’s nice to have him no doubt, but I’m really excited and proud of the guys who stepped up in his absence.”

One player who stepped up in Fleming’s absence was Brown, who took up the RB1 mantle the first couple of games this season.

He finished the night with 81 yards and two touchdowns on nine carries, the highlight of which was certainly his breakaway 41-yard run to put Lowndes ahead 21-6 at the end of the first quarter.

The second quarter came in stark contrast to the first, with both teams having trouble moving the ball.

Lowndes managed to intercept a pass in the end zone and return it out to the 22-yard line, but four plays later, they were punting it back to the Chargers.

The Chargers managed to get up to the Lowndes 43 despite being backed up to their own 20 to start because of a personal foul, but quarterback Broxx Bertani threw a risky pass that tipped off of his intended receiver’s hands right into one of three Lowndes defenders.

Lowndes then marched to the Chargers’ 14-yard line before having a potential Hicks touchdown called back because of holding.

The very next play, Fleming had a run to the goal line also erased by a penalty, and on third-and-14, the intended receiver couldn’t hold on to the ball – forcing Lowndes to settle for a field goal.

The Chargers started their next drive on their 27-yard line, but took two tackles for loss pinning them on their 15.

On third-and-22, the snap went over the head of Bertani, who recovered it in the end zone only to be greeted by Lowndes defenders. Lowndes took a 26-6 lead with 1:46 left in the half, set to receive the kickoff.

On said kickoff Fleming took it to the house, but it was unfortunately called back on another penalty.

Fortunately for Lowndes Thomas came out and housed yet another kickoff return to start the third quarter. This one stood and gave Lowndes the 33-6 lead, as well as the only score in the period.

The Lowndes special teams group has made play after play every week, and Grage says it’s because of the buy-in from the players.

“I think the kids just take a lot of pride in it, I think that’s something we’ve instilled,” Grage said, “Everybody talks about offense and defense…if you look at it kinda that Alabama and Georgia plan, we’ve got our best players on every special team. They buy in to it. We really do a good job meeting on it and getting it schemed up. When the kids love it and the kids buy into it just like weight room, there’s two things kids don’t want to do it’s special teams and weight room. When you have a group that will buy into those two things that’s when you start to become special.”

Thomas, who’s been the star of special teams so far this season, again put on a show with 125 yards and a touchdown on three kickoff returns.

The defense also played a big role in the win tonight, holding the Chargers to six points through three quarters. Sophomore linebacker Austin Williford had arguably the biggest role in that, tallying 4 tackles for loss to go with a sack in the game.

Lowndes as a whole sacked the quarterback twice for 21 yards, and had eight tackles for losses with two interceptions.

Grage described the defense as opportunistic, but is still looking to improve in some areas.

“There was times where we were able to sack [the quarterback], but we’ve got to do a much better job at creating a pass rush with our front four.” Grage said, “We also talked about identity, being that we’ve gotta send pressures and do things like that and I thought we did that. Our leverage tonight was not very good we let the guy get outside the pocket, but I thought we were very opportunistic. I thought that when we got him behind the sticks or had to make a big play or make a red zone stop we did. Again, things to work on, but also things to build on.”

UP NEXT

Lowndes has two weeks to build on this performance before the next game, as they have a bye week before heading up to Sharpsburg to take on the East Coweta Indians Friday, Sept. 16 at 8 p.m.