VALDOSTA — The Wildcats and Blue Devils each enter Friday’s matchup at Brodie Field with something to prove.

Valdosta High (1-0) wants to show its early-season offensive fireworks are no flash in a pan, and it’s deserving of its No. 4 ranking in Class 6A after a down season a year ago.

Tift County (0-1) looks to re-establish itself in Class 7A after dropping from the top 10 following a 40-29 loss in its season opener against Warner Robins.

Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

With the toughest schedule in its classification, every week is a challenge for Valdosta, but its long-time rival will represent the first real roadblock.

“I expect it to be a war,” said Wildcat head coach Alan Rodemaker. “It’s the best team we’ve played so far. It’ll be a monstrous task for us.”

Valdosta is 73-15-2 overall against Tifton in a rivalry that dates back to 1914. The Wildcats had won eight straight meetings before the Blue Devils scored a 20-10 victory last season at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium — their first win in Death Valley since 1993.

Although the games haven’t had region championship implications since 2015, the South Georgia rivalry still burns strong.

“I think our kids certainly relate to region foes because of the importance in playoffs that presents, and we like winning region championships, but the Tifton, Colquitt and Lowndes games are very, very important to our kids, and very important to this community,” Rodemaker said. “This is a big game.”

Sloppy play early doomed Tift County last week as Warner Robins jumped out to a 14-0 lead before the Blue Devils’ second play from scrimmage, and a 20-3 advantage by the end of the first quarter.

Some miscues were to be expected, considering the Blue Devils’ scrimmage was canceled due to inclement weather after just one series for each team.

Contributing to the Tift County misfortune, starting quarterback, and Crisp County transfer, Patrick Felton also went down with a leg injury before halftime against Warner Robins.

“They’re not far from winning that game,” Rodemaker said. “I think, if they play them three or four times, they win the rest of them.

“I think Warner Robins had a good plan against them, and I just think it was a first game for them, didn’t have a scrimmage, so they had some miscues that you don’t have in your first game.”

Although the Blue Devils should be better prepared for the Wildcats, there are still some red flags, especially in the passing game, where they’re still looking for adequate successors to quarterback Griffin Collier and receiver Rashod Bateman.

Quarterbacks Felton, Weston Clamp and Mac Turner combined to complete just 13-of-33 attempts for 119 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions last week for Tift County, and leading receiver Jameson Turner caught three passes for 23 yards.

Instead, the Blue Devils found the bulk of their offensive success on the ground behind running back Mike Jones. The senior rushed for 171 of the team’s 201 yards, including a 98-yard touchdown run. He also caught a touchdown pass.

It will likely be Jones’ effectiveness that determines Tift’s offensive success against a Valdosta defense still looking to find its own footing, especially early in games.

“I’d don’t like shootouts,” Rodemaker said. “We’ve had a couple already, and I don’t like it, but it is what we are right now. We’re going to have to grow up on defense.”

Valdosta quarterback Tate Rodemaker isn’t yet as highly regarded as Warner Robins’ Dylan Fromm, a three-star prospect committed to Mercer, but with a stable of weapons as dangerous as any team’s in the state, he could produce a performance similar to Fromm’s 441-yard, three-touchdown gem.

Tate Rodemaker completed 17-of-30 passes for 327 yards and four touchdowns to one interception against Maynard Jackson as four Wildcat receivers finished with 49 or more yards, sophomore Aalah Brown leading the way with 112 yards on seven receptions.

Despite 129 yards on the ground by running back Rajaez Mosley, and more than 200 as a team, a week ago, Valdosta may be forced to take to the air more often to combat a Tift County front seven that Rodemaker described as as good as any he’s seen this season.

Blue Devils linebacker KD McDaniel is a three-star prospect committed to Kentucky, and he’s the 32nd-ranked outside linebacker in the Class of 2019 by 247Sports Composite rating, coming off a junior year that saw him record 78 tackles, 13 for a loss.

Six-foot-4, 288-pound Austin Williams, a three-star prospect with more than a dozen offers, also gives Tift County a dose of size and athleticism on both lines of scrimmages.

Derrick Davis is the sports editor at the Valdosta Daily Times.