By Steve Carter
TIFTON — The previous week saw the Tift County Blue Devils football team ranked No. 1 in the GaSports.com state Class AAAAA coaches poll, and tied for the top spot with the Colquitt County Packers in the Associated Press state Class AAAAA rankings.
That was of no concern for Tift head coach Jay Walls as even though his team was 4-0 on the year, they had yet to play a game in Region 1-AAAAA.
So after the Devils eked out a 10-7 double overtime victory over the Valdosta High Wildcats Friday night at Brodie Field, Walls was happier about being 1-0 in the region than he was about being 5-0 and in position to maintain Tift’s spot atop the state’s top rankings.
“To me it was a big win, because we hadn’t played a region game yet,” Walls said Saturday about the victory over Valdosta. “We needed to win early in the region and it was important to get it last night.”
The coach continued, “I felt like we really stepped up our play.”
Tift’s defense was also a highlight. The Devils held Valdosta out of the end zone after a 19-play, first-half drive that ended on Tift’s 4.
In the second half, the Devils stopped Valdosta quarterback Michael Turner on a 4th-and-inches play inside the Tift 10.
Tift’s Randy Parker then blocked a field goal attempt in the first overtime and in the second overtime, the Devils got a sack from Lanarius McKinley, a tackle for loss yardage from Josh Abbott and a pass breakup from Parker. That made Brad Parr’s field goal attempt at the end to tie the game from 43 yards out. The kick was short and Tift got the victory.
“Our defense continued to really play well,” Walls said.
Parr needed to kick the field goal, because Tift’s Charlie Edwards had kicked a 43-yard field goal in the Devils’ portion of the second overtime. Edwards missed two field goals in overtime, including one from 48 yards out with three seconds left in the game that was wide right.
“Charlie came up big to get that game winner,” said Walls. “I was really glad he got it, because it will help him with his confidence.”
Tift will now prepare to travel to Douglas to face the Coffee High Trojans. Two years ago, Tift defeated Valdosta 34-2 to open 1-AAAAA play and then went to Douglas and lost 16-14 to Coffee. That game saw the Trojans have a 10-0 lead at the half even though Coffee had minus-one yard of total offense in the first half. That was due to a Tift fumble deep in their own territory and another Devil fumble that was returned 86 yards by Victor Nito for a Coffee touchdown.
The Blue Devils never recovered and would not win another region game that season.
This season, Coffee will be going into the game fresh off a 39-37 win over Colquitt in triple overtime.
“Coffee is a very good football team,” Walls said. “It will be tough on the road for us.”
