TIFTON — The Colquitt County seventh grade football team put an exclamation mark on its season Wednesday night by handing Tift County its first loss 20-6.

The loss dropped the previously undefeated Blue Devils to a 5-1 record on the season, creating a three-way tie for first place in the region between Colquitt County, Tift County and Hahira.

The three teams share the title of regular season champions, but the Packers will be left out of the championship game by tie-breaker rules.

The youngest Packers traveled to Tifton needing to win in a rout to keep their championship hopes alive, and they nearly did enough.

Tifton scored first to take a 6-0 lead midway through the first quarter, but that was the last time the Blue Devils found the end zone.

The Packer offense responded on its first play back on the field, as 6th-grader Rakeem McCloud made his first reception of the season count – he caught a short pass from Daniel Mobley and outraced the defense for 70 yards and a touchdown.

Jay Tolbert took over the quarterbacking responsibilities on the 2-point conversion. Tolbert rolled to his right and hit Maleek Lewis to give the youngest Blue Devils their first deficit of the season, 8-6.

Defense dominated the majority of the rest of the game. Part-time quarterback Mack Hathcock lined up at receiver and hit Brandon Key for a 30-yard gain on a double-pass, but the Packer offense had a difficult time sustaining drives on a tough Tift County defense.

On the other side, the Tift County offense patiently ran the ball between the tackles and chewed up yards, but each time they got inside the 10-yardline the young Colquitt County defense stiffened. Key, Dallas Allegood, Dicarious Slaughter, Michael Sutton, and Tomarcio Reese forced five fumbles, and knocked the starting Tift County quarterback out of the game. Another 6th-grader, “Bull” Barge, added an interception.

With less than two minutes left and the score still 8-6, Sutton broke the game wide open. The defensive back intercepted a pass and went 34 yards for a touchdown, giving the Packers hope of reaching the 24-point barrier needed to earn a spot in the championship game. Tolbert’s two-point conversion pass attempt to Lewis fell incomplete, however, leaving the score 14-6 with less than 30 seconds on the clock.

Colquitt County got one more chance after another Tift County fumble, and Hathcock hit Key on the double-pass again as time expired, this time for a 44-yard touchdown and the final margin of victory.

After the game, head coach Cliff Willis said, “I couldn’t be more proud. We had a great season – we didn’t make it into the championship game because of the tie-breaker rules, but maybe that will just make us hungrier to get it done next year.”

He added, “I can honestly say about this group of kids, they showed up to practice and every day we left the field a little bit better.”

Willis also pointed out the youngest Packers have been working for this season since last April.

“We had most of these kids out at spring practice,” Willis said. “Then we had them for summer workouts. We had our whole coaching staff out there three days a week most of the summer, getting the kids conditioned, teaching technique, teaching the new offense.”