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.