Mary Ann Miller | Special to The TimesValwood running back Ashton McNeil runs free for a touchdown against Brookwood at Goddard Field on Friday night in Hahira.

HAHIRA, Ga. — A cool, windy night in Hahira did little to slow down an offensive firefight between Valwood and Brookwood on Friday.

By the end, the Valwood Valiants were the last team standing in a 56-42 win against the Brookwood Warriors.

After the victory, Valwood coach Justin Henderson told his team it has earned its seat at the table in the playoffs. Behind 320 yards rushing and 566 yards of total offense, the Valiants (7-3, 1-2 Region 3-3A) grabbed their first region win of the season.

“I think that group is just starting to play with a little bit of confidence, a little bit of a chip on their shoulder,” Henderson said of his offense line. “We’ve kind of told them, ‘We’re taking this thing and putting it on your shoulders, so own it, you guys are four seniors and one junior, let’s get it done.’ The last two weeks they’ve taken that challenge and they’ve done well with it.”

A 56-yard touchdown pass from Caleb Burns to Jaheim James gave the Valiants a 56-28 lead with 6:22 remaining in the third quarter. Despite the 28-point deficit, Warriors quarterback Joe Parker did his best to make the Valiants sweat the rest of the way.

After forcing a Valwood punt, Brookwood  (5-5, 1-3) took over at the 32. After drawing the Valiants offsides, Parker engineered a drive that made it 56-35 with 2:31 to go in the third quarter.

The Valiants worked the ball all the way down to the 6-yard line, but found themselves in a fourth-and-3 situation with 7:03 left in the game. Placekicker Robbie Evans missed a 22-yard field goal off the left goal post to give the Warriors the ball back.

On the next play, Parker hit tight end Kurtis Brown for an 80-yard touchdown strike to cut the Valwood lead to 56-42 with 6:45 left.

Although the Warriors made the game too close for comfort down the stretch, the Valiants kept the ball on the ground to chew up the clock and forced the Warriors three-and-out on the final drive of the game to escape with the victory.

“Because of some injuries, we had some new guys playing on defense, new positions and they got exposed,” Henderson said. “Not a knock on those kids, they’ve just got to get better at what they’re doing and we’ve got another week to get them better.”

Parker led the Brookwood offense, completing 22-of-41 passes for 440 yards with six TDs and one interception. Brookwood finished with 526 yards of total offense in the loss.

Parker’s counterpart Caleb Burns dazzled for the Valiants with an explosive performance. Burns completed 9-of-18 passes for 246 yards and five TDs on the night.

Henderson said Thursday that he felt he had something special with his team but were running out of time to prove it with the regular season winding down. Despite losing running back Cam Carter and center Ashton Moorman to injuries and missing several other key players, the Valiants survived the war of attrition ahead of next week’s regular season finale with Deerfield-Windsor.

Newcomers Willie Roberson and Ashton McNeil paced the Valiants on the ground on Friday. Roberson dominated with 152 yards rushing and two touchdowns while McNeil had 22 carries for 130 yards and a score.

“Caleb had a great night, I think he had two or three touchdown passes (in the first half),” Henderson said. “He threw a lot of good balls too. That’s kind of what we were thinking, let’s pound the ball, open up those passing lanes and let’s go.

“We saw it work tonight. Obviously, I’m happy as can be with the offense. Defense, I still think we’ve got a great defense, we’ve just got to get mentally better. They’ll get better and we’ll keep plugging away.”

Running back Vincent Yokley led the Brookwood rushing attack with 15 carries as the Warriors finished with 86 yards on the ground.

The Valiants led 42-21 at halftime behind 376 yards of total offense with Burns going 6-of-11 for 181 yards and four TDs. The Warriors had 248 yards of total offense at the half as Parker completed 10-of-19 passes for 208 yards and three scores.

UP NEXT

Valwood closes out the regular season at home next Friday against Deerfield-Windsor. Brookwood hosts non-region opponent Creekside Christian next Friday in its regular season finale.