VALDOSTA – For the sixth time in program history, the Valdosta State Blazers will play for a national championship.

The Blazers held off the Colorado School of Mines Orediggers 34-31 Saturday – setting up a rematch with Ferris State in McKinney, Texas Dec. 18.

Drenched in Gatorade, Blazers head coach Gary Goff said he could feel the sports drink gushing inside his shoes at the post-game press conference. Goff is the fourth different coach to lead the Blazers to the national championship game – joining Chris Hatcher, David Dean and Kerwin Bell.

“I’m almost speechless,” Goff said. “We made it to this point. This was our mission from the very beginning.. Actually, this was our mission since the last game in 2019. So for us to get to this moment, I can’t put it into words. I’m so proud of these guys and the work they’ve put in; proud of the coaching staff, proud of the administration, proud of everybody helping us get to this point.”

A 38-yard touchdown run by Ivory Durham put the Blazers ahead 34-17 with 3:44 left in the third quarter.

While the Blazers looked to salt away the clock in the fourth quarter, the Orediggers made a final push to put the outcome in doubt.

The Orediggers used an 11-play, 66-yard drive to score on a 17-yard touchdown from John Matocha to Max McLeod with 3:37 remaining in the game. On the next VSU drive, the Orediggers held strong, allowing just one yard and forcing the Blazers three-and-out to get the ball back with 1:40 to go.

Moving quickly, Matocha led the Orediggers on another swift scoring drive as he engineered an 8-play, 72-yard drive in 1 minute and 6 seconds – hitting Josh Johnston on a 6-yard touchdown pass with 34 seconds to play.

Trailing 34-31, Orediggers kicker Jacob Click executed a near-perfect onside kick. The ball sailed high over a host of hands before reaching the vicinity of Blazers wide receiver Brian Saunds.

Limited to special teams duties after leaving the team’s quarterfinal win against Bowie State with a hamstring injury, Saunds came down with the ball – allowing the Blazers to take a knee and secure the win.

“It might be the most important catch of his career,” Goff said with a laugh.

Against the disciplined Orediggers, the Blazers – as they’ve done all season – took control of the game with several big plays. All four of the Blazers’ touchdowns went for 60, 37, 20 and 38 yards on Saturday.

Durham orchestrated the explosive VSU offense with 373 all-purpose yards with four total touchdowns.

After the game, Mines head coach Gregg Brandon said of Durham, “You take him out and it’s a completely different game, but he’s a great player. We knew that going in and nobody has stopped him all year and we didn’t either.”

“He’s so much fun to watch…he can do it all,” Goff said of his quarterback. “To see him just mature over this last year, year-and-a-half, to see him continue to work hard and get better each and every game; I couldn’t be happier for the young man. He’s an electric player. He continues to carry the team. Now, he’s blessed, because he’s surrounded with some really good playmakers on both sides of the ball. But I really like the way he runs the offense and on the sideline, every if we’ve got adversity in our face, he’s keeping everybody up and excited and he’s just happy to attack every play. He’s just fun to watch.”

The Blazers had 538 total yards Saturday, rushing for 318 and passing for 220.

It wasn’t all pretty for the Blazers, however, as they fumbled three times with two going to the Orediggers. They also committed seven penalties for 68 yards.

The Blazers, ranked seventh in the country in third-down conversion percentage, went 3 of 11 on third down and turned the ball over twice on downs.

“It probably wasn’t our best game,” Goff said. “I’m angry about the turnovers. I’m angry about some penalties. But at the same time, a win’s a win, baby. We’re going to the national championship game. That’s all that matters right now. … Hats off to Colorado School of Mines. They’re a really, really good football team. We knew coming into this game they were not going to make any mistakes, we knew they were going to try to keep the ball away from us – they had a lot more possession time than we did – and we knew they weren’t going to give up. They’ve been playing extremely hard all year long and never backed down from any opponent no matter what the score. At this point, the last four teams are all really good football teams so we knew we were going to have to come out and play a really good game in order to advance.”

The Blazers went ahead 27-17 on a 42-yard field goal by Estin Thiele on their first drive of the second half.

On the ensuing Mines possession, the Orediggers had an opportunity to swing momentum in its favor as a 15-yard pass from Matocha to Tristan Smith moved them down to the VSU 12-yard line.

Matocha, who had two first-half rushing touchdowns, sprung free for 11 yards down to the 1 before VSU’s Aleem Coley stripped the ball away, causing the ball to careen through the back of the end zone for a touchback. Coley’s forced fumble not only thwarted a sure touchdown for the Orediggers, but kept the Orediggers from cutting into the Blazers’ lead at a critical point in the game.

Led by Matocha and Harlon Hill Trophy finalist Michael Zeman, Mines had 448 total yards.

Matocha was key to the Orediggers staying attached throughout, throwing for 260 yards and accounting for four total touchdowns in the game. Zeman rushed for 105 yards on 28 carries, but never found the end zone against the Blazers.

Though Matocha was able to burn the Blazers extending plays with his feet and making several difficult throws, the Blazers were able to collapse the pocket around the junior quarterback more often in the second half.

“A lot of their biggest plays were (Matocha) scrambling, getting out of the pocket,” Goff said. “I thought we did a good job of trying to get to him. We got to him several times, but he did a really good job of escaping out of some tackles and getting around the edge and making some throws downfield. It’s hard for those DBs to stay in coverage that long. Again, that’s a good football team. They’ve done that to everybody all season long. I’m sure we’ll watch the film and sit there and say we should’ve had seven or eight tackles or sacks. Overall, they had some explosive plays. They had 87 plays – 26 more plays than us. They were really controlling the ball there, especially in that second half.”

Before the Orediggers found traction and an offensive rhythm in the second quarter, the Blazers hit them with a shot across the bow early.

After forcing the Orediggers three-and-out on the first drive of the game, the Blazers took a shot on their first play from scrimmage. Durham fired a pass deep downfield to a streaking Lio’undre Gallimore for a 60-yard touchdown just 64 seconds into the game. The play provided foreshadowing to how the Blazers’ offense performed the rest of the day.

Gallimore finished with 101 yards on only three catches.

“A play like that to start the day, it’s normal,” Gallimore said of the play. “That’s what we practice. That’s what we do. That’s football – that’s Valdosta State football. It’s nothing new. It’s nothing spectacular. This is what we do.

“My relationship with Ivory Durham…even though I’m older, I let him be the big brother because that’s my quarterback. Whatever he wants me to do, whatever he needs me to do, however he wants me to do it, I’m gonna get it done for him. That’s my guy. That’s my brother.”

UP NEXT

No. 5 Valdosta State will face No. 1 Ferris State in the NCAA Division II National Championship at McKinney ISD Stadium in McKinney, Texas this Saturday at 8 p.m. CT, 9 p.m. ET.

The Bulldogs advanced to the championship game with a resounding 55-7 win over Shepherd, who came in boasting the nation’s No. 1 scoring offense at 46.4 points per game.

In 2018, VSU claimed its fourth national title – defeating Ferris State 49-47.

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