TIFTON —
Although the game consisted of four quarters of action, the results seemed to come down to just four plays — a muffed punt, two long passes and a goal-line stand. Although the Blue Devils found their home crowd cheering for two of those plays, the long passes proved to be enough for the Wildcats to top the Blue Devils 21-7.
The Blue Devils opened up the game running just three plays before the Wildcats forced a Tift County punt. Tadric Jackson’s punt sailed 43 yards before going in and out of the hands of Valdosta deep man, Charone Gatlin, and setting up the Blue Devils first and ten on the Valdosta 20 yardline.
Four plays later Jackson pounced in with a one-yard keeper to give the Blue Devils a 7-0 lead.
The Tift County lead was short lived, however, as quarterback Ryan Whilden led his team 81 yards on 12 plays to set up senior running back Phillip Moore with a 2-yard score with 2:38 left to play in the first.
Tift could get little going offensively but again came through on special teams when Jackson’s punt rolled out of bounds in the corner setting the Wildcats up 99 yards from the Blue Devil endzone.
Then came big play number two.
On the first play of the second quarter Whilden found Malcolm Mitchell for a 94-yard touchdown pass that gave Valdosta a 14-7 lead.
Just before the half the Blue Devil defense signed their name to big play number three by stopping the Wildcat offense short on a fourth-and-goal attempt from the one yardline and giving their offense a manageable score to start the second half.
After forcing Valdosta to end their opening drive of the second half with a punt, the Blue Devil offense went back to work.
Tift took advantage of a Valdosta penalty and an 11-yard reception by Donnell Tuff that allowed them to move into Wildcat territory. Four plays later, however, Jackson’s shot to the endzone came up a little short and was intercepted by Devontae Foster who put the Valdosta offense back in control.
Little time was wasted by the Wildcats as Whilden again hooked up with Mitchell on the fourth-and-last big play of the game, a long pass good for 70 yards and a first-and-goal scenario on the Blue Devil 10-yardline.
The next play Moore fumbled the ball on contact but Wildcat tight end, Demetrius Melvin, scooped up the loose ball and gave the Wildcats their final score of the night that put the Wildcats up, 21-7.
Although both teams did manage a small amount of offensive success in the remainder of the game, neither could break the plain to add more points to the final score.
The Wildcats relied little on their running game to beat the Blue Devils, but instead, a solid air attack. Whilden finished the night going 13-for-17 for 286 yards and a touchdown.
Tift’s Jackson finished going 12-for-27 for 129 yards and an interception.
The loss to the Wildcats will wrap up Tift’s home schedule sending them on the road to face region front-runners, Lowndes High, next week in their final game of the season.
Lowndes won the Region 1-AAAAA championship with a 33-22 win over Coffee High.
It was Lowndes’ third league title in the last four years.
Colquitt County was off Friday night.
Local Sports
Related Photos
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Tift County’s Gerald Pledger looks for running room Friday night against Valdosta. Shine Rankin Jr./sgasports.net
Big plays doom Tift County
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