By Adam MacDonald
October 04, 2008 03:21 am
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MOULTRIE— The Valdosta Wildcats and Colquitt County Packers lit up the scoreboard at Mack Tharpe Stadium in Moultrie, and at the end of the night, Valdosta squeaked by with a 42-39 victory.
Valdosta (4-2, 1-2 Region 1-AAAAA) totaled 420 yards of offense, while the no-huddle, shotgun-running Packers (3-3, 0-3) put up a whopping 508.
It was a game that had the feel of whichever team had the ball last was going to win.
It looked like it was going to be the Packers who would get the last shot. They stopped Valdosta on third down with 2:17 left in the fourth quarter and called their last timeout to stop the clock.
When the teams came back onto the field on fourth-and-4 for Valdosta’s punt, the Packers had too many men on the field, and were penalized for an illegal substitution. The five-yard penalty was enough to give the ’Cats the first down and they iced the game three plays later on a run by VaShun Johnson.
“That can happen,” Valdosta head coach Rick Tomberlin said. “In (Colquitt head coach Rush Propst’s) defense, that has happened to us before. If you have something special coming, then that’s an easy thing to have happen. I can’t blame them because we’ve done the same thing.”
The game was closely played through all four quarters. Valdosta’s biggest lead was 11 points and Colquitt’s biggest lead was eight. After a back-and-forth first half, the Packers held a 25-22 lead.
It looked like Valdosta was going to put the game away in the third quarter. Colquitt went three-and-out on its first two possessions, while the Wildcats put up two touchdowns. Sparked by a Phillip Moore 28-yard run, the ’Cats went on to punch the ball in for a touchdown on a 6-yard run later in the drive by Johnson.
The Wildcats scored another touchdown on the ground on their next possession when Desmond Smith ran in from 1 yard out. Valdosta led 36-25 with 2:23 left in the third quarter.
Colquitt wouldn’t give in, though. The Packers got their offense back in gear in their final possession of the third quarter. Harrison hit Eric Key on 44-yard touchdown strike with 48 seconds left in the third to cut the Wildcats’ lead to 36-32.
Valdosta answered on its next drive early in the fourth quarter when Chad Prain fell into the end zone from two yards out. Valdosta missed the extra point, but took a 10 point lead with 8:53 left in the game.
The Packers came right back down the field when Valdosta kicked it back though. Colquitt moved the ball to the Valdosta 28-yard line and then Harrison found Roberson Quinn on a screen pass and Quinn took it in for the score, making it 42-39 with 5:12 left. That would be the last time the Packers touched the football on offense.
The ’Cats looked sharp in all phases at the start of the game. After forcing a punt on defense, the offense took over at the Colquitt 48-yard line following a good punt return by Johnson. On the next play, Moore took a handoff and bounced to the outside for a 27 yard gain. Later in the drive, on fourth down, quarterback Kyle Rowe found Justin Williams on a bootleg pass and Williams took it into the end zone to give Valdosta a 7-0 lead.
The Packers responded by taking advantage of Wildcat miscues. Johnson fumbled a punt and the Packers recovered at the Valdosta 24-yard line. After having a touchdown run called back due to an illegal block in the back penalty, the Packers settled for a field goal and cut the deficit to 7-3.
The Packers took the lead 10-7 on its first possession of the second quarter when quarterback John Michael Harrison kept the ball on an option and ran it in for a touchdown from 13 yards out.
The Wildcats answered right back with a powerful drive. The ‘Cats ran the ball five straight time from the power I formation for 69 yards, culminating with Johnson’s 35-yard touchdown run to give the ’Cats a 14-10 lead.
Colquitt’s offense was just warming up, though. The Packers scored touchdowns on two consecutive offensive drives of 77 yards and 65 yards. The first touchdown was on a 53 yard run by Travon Littleton and the second touchdown was on a 52 yard run by Teddy King. Both two-point conversion attempts failed and Colquitt led 22-14.
Down by eight, Valdosta went back to its running game on its next play. Moore took a handoff 46 yards into Packer territory. Later in the drive, for the second time in the game, Rowe threw a touchdown pass on fourth down from the 19-yard line. This time, it was Jay Rome who caught the ball, as he fell to his knees. Prain took the snap on the two-point conversion and ran a bootleg to his right into the end zone to tie the game at 22-22 with 2:23 left in the half.
Despite starting the next drive inside their own 20 with about two minutes left, the Packers continued to throw the ball. Helped out by a couple of long pass plays and a pass interference on third down on the Wildcats, Colquitt moved down to the 11-yard line. With 14 seconds left in the half, Tyler Dismuke kicked his second field goal to give the Packers a 25-22 halftime lead.
“I think our defense is going to be fine, I have the best defensive coordinator in the state (Jeff Arnette),” Tomberlin said. “The problem (on defense) might be my fault. I might have worked them too hard in practice. We were a little dead-legged.”
The game was crucial to both teams because the loser would drop to 0-3 in the region, making a playoff berth a more difficult proposition.
“I’m going to stop short of saying that this win saved our season. It was a great win and we needed it,” Tomberlin said. “I’m not going to take anything away from Warner Robins, but we should have beaten them and we should be 2-1 in the region.”
The Wildcats will return to Bazemore-Hyder Stadium next Friday and face undefeated Lowndes in the Winnersville Classic.
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