MOULTRIE — The Colquitt County Packers took advantage of seven Tift County Blue Devil turnovers, five in the first half, to score 31 points on the way to a 46-12 win Friday night in a Region 1-AAAAA football contest.

The Packers wasted no time taking advantage of a rough night for Tift, picking off Tadric Jackson’s second pass attempt, with Trey Scott ripping the ball from the hands of Jakevin Jackson and returning it 46 yards for the score.

The teams would remain scoreless for the rest of the first quarter.

Colquitt’s second possession of the game lasted just under four minutes as they drove the ball 74 yards down the field on the back of three rushers and 43 yards passing from Cole Segraves, with his third pass of the drive going to Bobby Hill for a nine-yard touchdown.

After a penalty on the extra point attempt the Packers elected to go for two, and Sharmaine Washington crossed into the endzone easily to put the Pack up 15-0.

The second Tift turnover came on the very next play, as the return was fumbled to set Colquitt up with a first down on the Tift 14-yardline.

On the first play Segraves hooked up with Ty Flournoy-Smith to build the lead to 22-0.

On the ensuing kickoff, Gerald Pledger got the Tift crowd back in the game with an exciting return out to the 44-yardline.

Tadric Jackson would complete all three passes on the drive, one to Jakevin Jackson, the other two to Nick Utley, the second one being good for a 31-yard touchdown.

After three consecutive false start penalties on the Tift kicking unit, Josue Perez missed the 35-yard extra point attempt to the left.

Pledger would once again get the Tift fans on their feet after recovering a fumble on the next Packer drive, but the Blue Devils would waste the opportunity on the third play of the drive, fumbling the gift away.

Once again, on the first play Colquitt would make Tift pay, as Segraves hit Matt Sailor for a 37-yard touchdown pass.

The next drive for Tift would not be any better, as Dondray Copeland would intercept a ball after being deflected up in the air, and returned it almost 40 yards for another Packer touchdown, bringing the score to 36-6.

Tift took their last drive of the half 67 yards down the field, ending with a two-yard touchdown pass to Donnell Tuff from Tadric Jackson. The Blue Devils would go for two to make up for the missed extra point but were unsuccessful, sending the game into halftime with a 36-12 score.

The Blue Devils would try to surprise the Packers on the opening kickoff of the second half, attempting an onside kick. The execution of the kick was perfect, but no Devil seemed to want to jump on the ball and the Packers recovered with a short field ahead of them.

The Tift defense would hold strong, holding the high-powered Packer offense to one first down on the drive, that ended with a 53-yard field goal attempt by Oscar Luna bouncing off the crossbar.

The rest of the third quarter was uneventful, other than a fumble recovery by Tift County’s Shaquille Lewis on a punt that hit the back of a Colquitt player.

Less than two minutes into the fourth quarter the Packers would get back to scoring though, as Segraves hit Hill for his second touchdown of the game from 18 yards out.

Tift would fumble away their next position, leading to a 26-yard field goal by Will Bannister to bring the score to 46-12.

Utley would lead the Blue Devils in yardage on the game, bringing in six catches for 109 yards and a touchdown. Jakevin Jackson was second in receptions, bringing in four.

It was a tough night on the ground for Tift once again, as they were held under 100 yards rushing for the third time in the last four games.

The Blue Devils struggled moving the ball all night, going for only 180 yards. The defense played well, but was put in many bad spots due to the seven turnovers.

Segraves was 10-15 passing for the Packers, going for 156 yards and three touchdowns.

John Boatright led the Packers rushing, carrying the ball 13 times for 45 yards. Tre Cooper was second in rushing yards, going for 41 yards on nine carries and Tim Sanders picked up 39 yards on three carries.

Bobby Hill, in addition to his two touchdown catches had 72 yards and five catches. Colquitt’s second leading receiver was Sailor, who brought in two catches for 43 yards while Flournoy-Smith added three catches and 36 yards.

Tift falls to 3-5 after a promising 3-0 start, and will have two weeks to prepare for the Valdosta Wildcats Oct.  21. That game will be played in Valdosta with an 8 p.m. kickoff.

Valdosta upset Lowndes Friday, 21-17, in the Winnersville Classic.