Wildcats fall against Yellow Jackets

Published 12:16 am Friday, September 1, 2017

VALDOSTA— It was a strange night at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium.

Valdosta High’s game against Wayne County featured a blackout, heavy rain, officiating miscues, trick plays and plenty of turnovers following a 7 p.m. kickoff on Thursday night.

The Wildcats walked away from the madness with a 23-13 loss at the hands of the Yellow Jackets.

Valdosta head coach Alan Rodemaker didn’t rely on the ready-made excuses,

“We’ve just got to play better,” Rodemaker said. “All three parts of our football team made mistakes tonight.

“They’re a good football team, I’m not taking anything away from them. They’re a good football team, I knew that coming in and I certainly feel that way now.”

The Yellow Jackets came into Bazemore-Hyder and racked up 321 yards of offense while holding the Wildcats to 261 yards in their first win in Valdosta since 1954.

Nearly all of Wayne County’s offense came in the first half as new Yellow Jacket head coach Ken Cribb repeatedly reached into his bag of tricks.

Not all of them were successful, including a quick punt blocked by Valdosta on Wayne’s first possession, but on its ensuing possession quarterback Garrett Overholt hit Cooper Martin with a short pass, and he immediately flipped it to running back M.J. Fuller to complete the hook-and-lateral play for an 86-yard touchdown.

“Yeah, we hadn’t seen all those plays, but I knew he did some gadget stuff and trick stuff,” Rodemaker said. “That’s just another down of football.”

Later, after Valdosta had taken a 10-6 lead on quarterback Jude Ard’s 48-yard touchdown pass, Fuller broke off an 80-yard touchdown run on a trap play on the first play of the ensuing possession to reclaim the lead for Wayne County 13-10.

The Yellow Jackets also blocked a Wildcats punt with 1:12 until halftime and fell on it in the end zone to push the advantage to 20-10 going into the locker rooms.

Through the first half, Valdosta had 178 yards of offense, but 78 came on just Ard passes. The Wildcats averaged 2.9 yards per play on the other 34 first-half plays.

“You had two defensive plays, you had the special teams play, then the offense struggled all night,” Rodemaker said. “I think our offense just struggled to move the ball all night. It was all of us, and it begins and ends with me.”

Just minutes after the teams left the field for halftime, the power went out at Bazemore-Hyder, leaving the stadium lit solely by lights powered by a backup generator for about 30 minutes.

Shortly after power was restored, the teams took the field for the second half, and not long after that, the rain started to pour.

Davis Baldwin kicked 21-yard field goal in the rain to draw Valdosta to within a touchdown, but the Wildcats wouldn’t get any closer.

The first half was filled with defensive miscues for Valdosta as untimely penalties and mistakes on third down kept many a Wayne County drive alive.

In the second half, the script flipped. The Wildcats often found themselves in second-and-managable scenarios, but they shot themselves in the foot every time.

Valdosta played most of the second half in Wayne County territory thanks to a pair of fumble recoveries, a pair of second-half interceptions and 70 yards worth of penalty yardage on the night were too much for the Wildcats to overcome.

“We dropped some balls offensively, and we could run the ball early, but late in the game we got against the clock,” Rodemaker said. “We had to move the football down the field, and just going three yards and a cloud of dust wasn’t going to get it late.

“I thought we did some good things early, but we never could sustain a long drive and finish the drive.”

Derrick Davis is the sports editor at the Valdosta Daily Times