Lowndes drops preseason scrimmage to Central

Published 11:14 am Monday, August 4, 2025

VALDOSTA — Lowndes didn’t ace its final dress rehearsal before the start of the season. But it did enough against Thomas County Central in a scrimmage Friday night to encourage head coach Adam Carter, heading into the team’s season opener at home on Aug. 15 against Jenkins.

Clint Thompson/Photo
Lowndes defense, including Carter Stott (41), wraps up Thomas County Central running back Christian Lawrence.

“That’s a good ballclub. Coach (Justin Rogers) has done a good job. They’re massive,” said Carter, following his team’s 28-10 loss. “I thought our kids did well. There were some spots where I thought we handled ourselves really well and some spots we didn’t. We gave up too many big plays. I thought we had some shots with some big plays on offense that we didn’t quite make. In two weeks from now, we’re going to have make those plays to win the game.”

Lowndes finished with 224 yards but 125 came on two plays; a 61-yard gallop out of the ‘wildcat’ formation by Ar’Tavian Brown and a 64-yard touchdown pass from Jayce Johnson to Khalil Williams. Johnson finished with 142 passing yards and completed 8-of-19 passes. However, since both defenses could not tackle the opposing quarterbacks, Johnson could not display his biggest asset, according to Carter.

“Jayce is going to be Jayce. A big part of what he can do is extend the play. I’m not saying he’s a running quarterback by any means and our offense is not built around him running but to extend the play and be able to pull the ball and get on the edge when they’re crashing is a part of our offense. We’ll keep building on that, and obviously we couldn’t do that tonight,” Carter said.

Lowndes lost two turnovers and surrendered 187 rushing yards to Christian Lawrence.