Valdosta head football coach Shelton Felton talks to his team on the field after a 17-14 loss to Camden Friday in Kingsland, Georgia.

KINGSLAND, Ga. – No. 3 Valdosta’s quest for a perfect season is over.

The Wildcats (8-1, 2-1 Region 1-7A) dropped their first game of the season to the Camden County Wildcats (6-3, 2-1 Region) 17-14 Friday night.

With the win, Camden has beaten Valdosta seven of the last eight times the teams have met. With the loss, Valdosta’s hopes of hosting a first-round playoff game were likely dashed as a win over Camden would’ve set the ‘Cats up to control their own destiny in the season finale against Colquitt County next week.

As the team knelt before him after the game, Valdosta head coach Shelton Felton told his team, ‘We beat ourselves. It’s supposed to hurt.”

“Camden played hard and I’m not trying to take that from them,” Felton said. “When you drop touchdowns, when you don’t play the wing-T like we were supposed to, when you get desperate and start having to make plays, it bogged us down to the point where we had to execute. We didn’t execute. We lost a bunch of good players tonight and people have got to step up and make plays.”

Camden put up 266 total yards in the game – 174 yards coming on the ground, led by Jaden Dailey’s 10 carries for 95 yards and a touchdown. Ja’Marley Riddle added 36 yards on 12 carries in the win.

Quarterback Mason Robinson did not do much throwing Friday, attempting just eight passes but hit on three of them for 92 yards. None bigger than a 72-yard strike to a wide open Quan Floyd for a touchdown to tie the game at 14 with 3:35 to go in the third quarter.

“They caught us in coverage,” Felton said of the play. “The safety had bad eyes, rolled down and (Floyd) ran right past him. The way this offense is designed, you’ve got to do your job (defensively). But we shouldn’t have been in this point – we’ve got to better and as the head coach, I’ve got to do better. Hats off to them.”

Camden took the lead for good on a 32-yard field goal by Gabe Cason with 11:52 remaining.

Valdosta had a chance to go ahead on a potential touchdown as Todd Robinson threw to punter Grayson Leavy, who was in at tight end on the play, over the middle. The pass went through Leavy’s hands and fell incomplete on second and 7 from the Camden 13-yard line.

On third down, senior Ahmad Denson pushed forward for 4 yards to set up a 27-yard field goal attempt by Antonio Zapeta on fourth down with 6:44 left.

Like the potential touchdown pass to Leavy, the field goal went awry as Zapeta’s kick was blocked to hand the ball back to Camden.

The ‘Cats would not see the ball again as Camden effectively ran the clock out and Valdosta burned its final timeout with 1:42 left.

After the game, Felton pointed to his team’s lack of execution and self-inflicted wounds like the nine penalties for 76 yards as prime culprits for the loss.

“With a young team, we’ve never been in a situation where we were down like this,” Felton said. “We were kind of pressing and I just felt like we didn’t play Wildcat football. We didn’t continue to do what we’ve done and dropped passes. Defense played good, but we didn’t play to our standard. On that last drive we should’ve stopped them, but it didn’t happen.”

Valdosta finished with 272 total yards, rushing for 200 yards on 31 carries. The ‘Cats were led by the returning Denson, who missed last week’s game against Richmond Hill with a shoulder injury. Denson carried the ball 20 times for 145 yards including a 47-yard sprint to the house in the first quarter to tie the game at 7.

Not only did the ‘Cats lose on the scoreboard, they lost two key players to injury. Leading receiver Jalen Whitehead went down with what Felton believes to be a broken ankle with 3:30 left in the third quarter. On first down from the 47, Todd Robinson dropped back to pass off of a play fake, but as he turned and fired the pass, Whitehead was down on the turf writhing in pain.

After a lengthy delay that saw the training staff tend to Whitehead for several minutes, the receiver was stretchered off the field.

The injury clearly affected the ‘Cats, who went for a trick play on second down that saw Robinson throw a quick out to backup quarterback Prince Jean but Jean’s pass intended for Tyran Small was tipped and intercepted by Army commit Jake Lindsey with 3:20 left in the third.

“(Whitehead) came off the ball and he pushed off and I think his ankle broke,” Felton said of the sequence. “When a guy like that goes down, one of your leaders, it took the wind out of us. We had an opportunity on another play and just missed on it. We had opportunities, but Valdosta shot itself in the foot. We didn’t take advantage of our opportunities, but losing Whitehead, man that hurts. Just a freak accident.”

The injury bug also bit junior running back Jordan Gatlin, who left the game in the first half and did not return due to concussion protocol. Gatlin had three carries for 20 yards at the time of the injury.

Fullback Jontavious McGriff left the game in the second quarter with an ankle sprain. Senior running back Charles Williams, who missed last week’s game against Richmond Hill with a knee injury, made an attempt to play Friday but had his night cut short after just two carries for five yards in the first half.

Whitehead’s 18-yard touchdown off a pass by Todd Robinson gave Valdosta 14-7 lead with 10:24 left in the second quarter – a lead that held through halftime. Whitehead had two catches for 51 yards in the game.

Camden struck first, opening the game with an impressive 12-play, 83-yard scoring drive capped off by Dailey’s 1-yard touchdown run with 5:07 left in the first quarter.

UP NEXT

Camden closes the regular season next Friday at home against Lowndes (4-4, 0-2 Region 1-7A).

Valdosta wraps up the regular season at home against No. 2 Colquitt (7-0, 2-0 Region) next Friday. Colquitt blew out Lowndes 42-14 Friday night to stay perfect on the season.

“It’s a tough one,” Felton said of next week’s matchup. “No matter what, the goal is to win the region. For us to win the region, we’ve got to beat Colquitt. We put ourselves behind the 8-ball a little bit. We didn’t play to our standard, and hey, we’ve got to regroup. Guys that are not injured, we’ve got to get them healthy and we’ve just got to come play. We’re going to show up and we’re going to play.”

Last season, the two teams engaged in a shootout that saw the Packers escape with a 48-42 victory.

“I do, I think we’ve got a great chance,” Felton said when asked if last year’s loss gives him confidence heading into the season finale. “I know they’re an explosive offense, but at the same time, we’re a great defense so we’ll match up well. Offensively, we’ve got to get together and get our playmakers the ball and we’ve got to score points. Every game is a playoff game and you’ve got to score points and we didn’t do that (tonight). We’ll get together and watch the film and we’ll have a great game plan for Colquitt.”