ATLANTA — The saying is that defense wins championships.

Well, it will be one more week until they will play for a championship, but Saturday night, defense got the Lowndes Vikings there.

Lowndes Vikings won a defensive struggle with the Camden County Wildcats, prevailing 10-0 Saturday at the Georgia Dome in the Class AAAAA state semifinals.

The Vikings (13-1) will face North Gwinnett (13-1) for the state championship next Saturday.

On the night, the Lowndes defense held Camden to just 94 total yards of offense and just four first downs.

In the first quarter, the Vikings were putting together good offensive drives, but they couldn’t score. On the Vikings’ first two drives, fumbles by quarterback Khary Franklin turned the ball over to the Wildcats.

But the Lowndes defense was stingy, as always, forcing two straight Camden punts and only allowing 10 combined yards on the first two drives.

Finally, on the Vikings’ third possession of the game, they put the only points of the half on the board. On second-and-inches from the Camden 23-yard line, Gerald Demps took the pitch, ran right, and threw the ball into the end zone and into the outstretched arms of a diving Greg Reid for a touchdown.

Mark Willis converted the extra point, and Lowndes held a 7-0 lead going into the half. At the half, the Vikings had amassed 163 total yards offense and eight first downs, while allowing only 28 yards and one first down.

In the third quarter, it was more of the same, as each team’s defense was busy shutting down the offense. Combined, the two teams managed only two first downs each.

To start the fourth quarter, the Vikings were driving down for another score, but on first down on the Camden 26-yard line, Greg Reid made a rare mistake and threw an interception that was returned 30 yards by Michael Green.

The momentum looked to be switching back to the Wildcats, but the Viking defense stepped up again and forced Camden’s sixth punt of the night. On Lowndes’ following possession, they would score for the second time.

On first down from their own 21-yard line, running back Darriett Perry made one of the GHSA semifinals’ best plays. Perry took the ball up the middle, was pulled towards the ground, but was able to keep his knees just off the turf. He continue running, and made it 58 yards down the field.

That run would set up a game-clinching 24-yard field goal by Willis with 4:04 left in the game, giving the Vikings a 10-0 lead.

Camden would have one more chance to try and score, but the Wildcats were again held inside their own 50-yard line and turned the ball back over to the Vikings on fourth down.