VALDOSTA – The struggling Valdosta State Blazers (3-5, 1-4 Gulf South Conference) look to end a historic losing when they face the North Greenville Crusaders in Tigerville, S.C. Saturday afternoon.

The Blazers are on a four-game losing streak for the first time since 1990 after getting blown out 54-17 by West Georgia in the Battle of the Peach Basket last week.

“Kind of the story of our season – we’re in them and then we don’t finish them or something bad happens and it seems like our team kind of goes in the tank a little bit,” Blazers head coach Tremaine Jackson said. “We’ve been trying to work on that obviously amongst a lot of other things, but I thought we were right there. I thought not getting the fourth down (conversion) right before the half ended was big because we had some momentum. I wanted to try to carry that momentum into the offense and we didn’t get it. Then we gave up a touchdown to make the gap 10 and then we never really recovered from that. We came right out of the half and fumbled. Again, when something bad happens, it seems like one thing just piles on top of another.”

The rivalry game got out of hand in the third quarter as West Georgia turned a 10-point halftime lead into a 48-17 lead at the end of three quarters.

The Blazers allowed 596 total yards to the Wolves, including 259 yards rushing and 30 first downs.

The 17 points were a season-low as the Blazers finished the game with 314 total yards and a season-low 87 yards rushing.

Senior quarterback Ivory Durham threw for 227 yards, but completed just 12 of 31 passes with one touchdown and one interception.

Freshman receiver Ted Hurst continued to be a bright spot amidst the Blazers’ struggles this season with two catches for 101 yards and a touchdown.

“I felt like we just didn’t win our one-on-one battles,” Jackson said of protecting Durham, who was flushed out of the pocket and having to throw the ball away to avoid being sacked. “Nothing special that (West Georgia) was doing – they were doing what they normally do. We just didn’t win and that was disappointing because we had been winning one-on-one battles for the most part all year, especially on the O-line. I don’t know what that really was that night, but we’ve certainly tried to address it this week and putting them in more one-on-one situations so that we can win those one-on-one battles.”

Now, the Blazers visit the Crusaders looking to get back in the win column and avoid the first five-game losing streak in program history.

“I’ve never seen it at any point that I’ve been in a position of leadership on a football team,” Jackson said of the four-game losing streak. “I’ve not seen it. As a head coach, a coordinator, I’ve not been a part of that. I’m calling folks around the country. I’m calling people that have experienced some down times. Our performance defensively, I’ve never experienced before. … The message is the same: We have to continue to fight to get better.”

During the four-game losing streak, the Blazers are surrendering an eye-popping 51.75 points per game.

“Normally when defenses give up points and yards, especially rushing yards, it’s because they don’t know how to leverage the football and they have a real inexperience somewhere,” Jackson said. “That’s our case. We’re really inexperienced on defense as far as we’ve got some guys that have played in this system before but we’ve got a lot of guys that haven’t played in the system. … We just haven’t figured it out and when you add missed tackles on top of that and things look really bad and it goes for explosive plays. We’ve got to continue to put kids schematically in the best places but our players have got to make plays when the plays are right in front of them.”

The Crusaders come into Saturday’s game riding the momentum of a thrilling 34-33 win over West Alabama last week.

Trailing 33-28, the Crusaders used an 11-play, 75-yard drive to score on a Corey Watkins 1-yard touchdown with 7 seconds remaining to escape with the victory.

The Crusaders finished with 414 total yards and went a perfect 7 of 7 in the red zone in the win.

Freshman quarterback Dylan Ramirez completed 21 of 42 passes for 271 yards and a touchdown – four of which went to wide out AJ Tolbert for 70 yards.

North Greenville had 118 yards rushing against West Alabama, the top defense in the GSC, led by Watkins’ 22 carries for 51 yards and the game-winning touchdown.

“They’re very well-coached, they play with a lot of passion and enthusiasm,” Jackson said of the Crusaders. “Even when they might be wrong, they can make up for it with how hard they’re playing. I look at a team that’s 3-5 by record, but they are by no means 3-5 by what they look like on film. They could by 5-3 or 6-2. They should’ve beat West Florida in my opinion, they just had some late mistakes. They’re a really good football team. I think we could be a really good football team if we stop making mistakes, so it should be a good matchup. It’s Homecoming for them, so we look forward to being in a good atmosphere. Our players thrive off of that and hopefully we can come away with a victory.”

Saturday’s matchup features the two worst defenses in the GSC as the Blazers allow a league-worst 38.8 points per game while the Crusaders sit just ahead of them at 34.9 points per game.

Valdosta State fields the league’s worst rushing defense at 287.4 yards rushing per game, while North Greenville sits sixth at 237.4 per game.

A key in this game will be how the Blazers perform defensively on third down. Last week against West Georgia, the Blazers allowed the Wolves to convert on 10 of 14 third downs. The Crusaders converted on 8 of 19 against West Alabama last week.

Another trend to watch, given both teams’ porous defenses, will be who wins if the game is close down the stretch. North Greenville is 2-3 in games decided by seven points or fewer while the Blazers have a 1-2 record in such games.

“We have to continue to come to work,” Jackson said. “We have to continue to gain experience and carry that experience on game after game. It might not look like what everybody wants it to look like. It certainly doesn’t look what I want it to look like, but I do think down the line that this will be valuable for us.

“Sometimes when you win a whole lot and then you experience losing, you don’t know how to combat that. You don’t know how to overcome that adversity because you think when you walk in, you’re just going to win. It’s given our players not only a great football lesson, but an off the field lesson. Things don’t always go your way because you show up. You have to still put in work and I think our kids are doing that.”

Kickoff for Saturday’s game is scheduled for 3 p.m.