VALDOSTA — The Lowndes Vikings will be returning to the playoffs for the eighth straight year following their 35-3 victory over the Richmond Hill Wildcats Friday night.

Lowndes moved to 5-4 on the season and 1-2 in the region, while the Wildcats dropped to 3-6 and 0-3 in the region, officially eliminating any playoff hopes.

Each team has one game left with the Wildcats at risk of going winless in the region with undefeated region champ Colquitt County up next on their slate. Lowndes faces Camden County this Friday in a game that will decide much of the seeding in the region.

Credit to Lowndes for making it this far, however, as they had some challenges en route to their blowout win.

The Wildcats started the game with the ball and immediately tested Lowndes’ pass defense, and it saw some mixed results. Generally the Lowndes run defense is a brick wall, and the pass coverage can leave much to be desired.

There were glimpses of that on the first drive for the Wildcats, whose first play was a 12-yard pass followed by two runs for one yard. They had a couple more medium passes and short runs before making it to the Lowndes’ 25-yard-line, where they settled for a field goal on 4th-and-3.

Lowndes wasn’t able to do much with their drives in the first quarter, as the Wildcats kept them relatively close to midfield.

To open the second quarter the Lowndes’ defense stuffed senior quarterback Ty Goldrick at the line and then sacked him for a loss of five yards, setting up 4th-and-10 for the Wildcats on their own 20-yard-line.

Kevis Thomas then returned the punt 50 yards for a touchdown, but it was called back on a holding penalty. Luckily for Lowndes, after recovering their own fumble, sophomore Marvis Parrish scrambled 34 yards for a touchdown.

The Wildcats gave Lowndes a bit of a scare late in the second quarter, putting together a couple big passes and two big runs by senior running back Zion Gillard to get to the 30-yard-line. But one of the many big defensive plays Lowndes’ defense had on the night was forcing Gillard to fumble, and chasing the ball 25 yards before recovering it on their own 5-yard-line.

They couldn’t capitalize on it with Parrish getting tackled for a loss of seven paired with a personal foul call on Lowndes, setting up third-and-21 with 34 seconds left in the half.

The first half of the third quarter was much of the same, but the last quarter-and-a-half of the game is where Lowndes really took over.

Lowndes’ defensive line was phenomenal and got better as the night went on. They did a great job pressuring Goldrick and forcing him to make quick decisions, which led to a lot of his overthrows to wide open receivers. Without the pass rush being as good as it was, Lowndes may have lost this game as many of the receivers Goldrick overthrew were relatively open past the secondary.

“They just got after it,” Lowndes head coach Zach Grage said. “Being able to get pressure with just our front four and not having to blitz a whole lot and keep our coverage good in the back end, and we didn’t give up that explosive play like we did last week. Really, really proud of our entire defensive effort but again the D-line just getting after it and buying into that rotation and staying fresh. It really payed dividends.”

On a night where the offense struggled to get in the red zone, the turnovers the defense generated were pivotal.

Most of the offense’s success came on chunk plays with three of the touchdowns coming from 30+ yard plays, and another from a play set up by a 30-yard run.

Junior running back Jacarre Fleming set up Lowndes on the Wildcats’ 5-yard line with a 30-yard run in the second quarter. On the following play, Parrish ran it in to put Lowndes up 14-3.

Parrish returned the favor in the final minute of the third. As he scrambled right the defense honed in on him to stop the run, allowing Fleming to catch a pass and run it 45 yards for a touchdown, Lowndes up 21-3 heading into the fourth.

For Lowndes’ next score Parrish found sophomore receiver Jaylin Carter over the middle and he ran it 37 yards, the score then 28-3.

Lowndes’ final score came largely at the hands of the defense, who stripped Goldrick and recovered the football on the Wildcats’ 1-yard-line. Lowndes ran it in and pushed the score to 35-3 before both teams’ backups got some run for the remainder of the quarter.

Lowndes secured their playoff spot in what became a domination, and that’s despite some offensive woes. The receivers did have trouble holding on to the ball much of the night, with some would-be touchdowns being dropped. Grage sees these as coachable moments, however.

“We’re going to keep practicing. I promise you no kid came out here and said, ‘Let me do this on purpose,’” Grage said. “They were there, I’m glad they were there, I’m glad we had that opportunity. We know it wasn’t perfect so we can still coach off of it, but do it with a good taste in our mouth.”

UP NEXT

Lowndes travels to Kingsland to face Camden County in the final game of the regular season Friday at 7:30 p.m.