LIVINGSTON, Ala. – The No. 4 Valdosta State Blazers (6-0, 3-0 Gulf South Conference) found themselves under fire early at No. 10 West Alabama (6-1, 3-1 GSC), falling behind 14-0 within the first 4 minutes.

Trailing for the first time in a game all season lit a fire under the Blazers as they roared back to defeat the Tigers 42-17 Saturday afternoon.

In a matchup between two top ten teams, the Tigers knocked the Blazers on their heels almost immediately – opening the game with a 9-play, 75-yard scoring drive as Jack McDaniels found Tyriq Martin on a 6-yard touchdown pass with 11:45 left in the first quarter.

Then, after stalling the Blazers’ opening drive, the Tigers needed just two plays and 66 yards to find the end zone again as McDaniels hooked up with Martin again for 39 yards to go ahead 14-0 within the first 7 minutes of the game.

Having taken the Tigers’ best shot, the Blazers beat the standing eight count in the form of an Ivory Durham bomb to No. 1 receiver Lio’undre Gallimore for 46 yards to cap a 5-play, 73-yard drive to get the Blazers on the board.

Two minutes and 33 seconds later, the Blazers erased the deficit entirely as Jamar Thompkins walked in untouched on an 18-yard touchdown run to tie the game at 14.

With the game back on even ground, the Blazers caught fire – outscoring the Tigers 28-3 the rest of the way.

“Our guys never flinched,” VSU head football coach Gary Goff said. “They didn’t worry about it one bit. (West Alabama) came down and got another quick score and then finally we get going right there. (Durham) made a great throw off his back foot to the end zone and LC made an unbelievable catch to get us on the board and that kind of jumpstarted us.”

The Blazers went over 500 yards on offense for the fourth time this season and the third consecutive game – posting 504 yards against the Tigers.

Junior quarterback Ivory Durham completed 21 of 31 passes for a career-high 341 yards with three touchdowns and one interception.

“I thought he was sharp all day,” Goff said of Durham’s performance. “We did have one forced throw there at the end of the game and created that one turnover, but I thought he was pretty sharp all day long. He threw the ball well, gave his receivers a chance to make plays and they did. We had a couple drops here and there and we need to fix that for him, but I’m very proud of the young man. We knew we were going to have to ride on his arm today and he did a great job with it.”

Graduate student Brian Saunds was the prime beneficiary, catching nine passes for 168 yards including a 59-yard strike over the middle from Durham to give the Blazers a 28-17 lead with 1:44 left in the second quarter.

Gallimore finished with four catches for 79 yards with touchdowns of 46 and 21 yards in the first half.

“We went down, but we weren’t shaken,” Saunds said. “We fought through. We’ve been in adverse situations in the past. We just told each other, ‘Hey, it’s time to step it up on the offensive side. (Durham) found me. They were pretty much bracketing LC (Gallimore) because he’s been so big and he started off hot. 9 found me and then the run game started to pick up. Whenever all the cylinders are clicking, we’re a pretty good offense.”

Coming out of the halftime break, the Blazers got the ball first to start the third quarter and made the most of their opportunity.

Led by Durham, the Blazers embarked on an 11-play, 81-yard drive ending with a 16-yard touchdown run by junior running back Seth McGill to take a 35-17 lead with 9:52 remaining in the quarter.

A minute and 55 seconds later, the Blazers put the final nail in the Tigers’ coffin as junior defensive back Taurus Dotson picked off McDaniels and returned it 47 yards for a touchdown with 7:57 remaining in the third quarter.

“Everybody needs a defensive touchdown,” Goff said with a laugh. “Those DBs worked so hard all week. West Alabama’s got two great receivers that really put stress on the defense and (Dotson), Christian (Matthew), Mondrell (Jefferson), Cory Roberts – I thought all of them did a good job. They didn’t play a perfect game, but for the most part, they contested every throw and that was a great interception right there to get into the end zone.

“I’m really proud. This was a big-time game. We know that everybody in the country was watching this game today. It’s got big implications in our conference and on the national poll. I’m very happy with how the guys played today. We had a lot of adversity, but I’m extremely happy about how the guys continued to fight for four quarters.”

Defensively, the Blazers held the Tigers to 329 yards of offense and forced them into 4 of 16 on third-down conversions.

Coming into Saturday’s game, McDaniels was completing 65.6% of his throws. Hounded by the Blazers’ defense, McDaniels went 14 of 37 for 155 yards with two touchdowns and one interception.

Martin had seven catches for 90 yards with the two first-quarter touchdowns, while Bayley Blanchard had three catches for 48 yards. Tigers’ leading rusher Demetrius Battle finished with 17 carries for 99 yards in the loss.

UP NEXT

Valdosta State: Visits Mississippi College (3-3, 2-2 GSC) Saturday, Oct. 23. Kickoff is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET, 2 p.m. CT.

Shane Thomas is the sports editor at the Valdosta Daily Times.