VALDOSTA, Ga. — Rajae’z Mosley ran for four touchdowns and the Valdosta Wildcats set the scoreboard on fire in a 70-29 win against Lovejoy on Friday night.

The ‘Cats (7-4) staved off an early pair of long touchdown passes by Lovejoy’s Khalil Arnold before finding their rhythm and turning the game on its head.

Holding firmly to a 21-point halftime edge, the ‘Cats opened the second half with a Jaheim Bell 72-yard kickoff return for a touchdown followed by a Tarrell Roberts interception. Then, three plays later, Tate Rodemaker fired downfield to Bell for a 72-yard touchdown to extend the lead to 56-21 with 9:25 left in the third quarter.

Valdosta’s offense controlled the ball throughout, overcoming a lost fumble and an interception by Rodemaker to stay clean the rest of the way. The Valdosta defense tightened the screws to make pass plays difficult downfield for Lovejoy. The result: Valdosta’s highest-scoring game since 1971.

“Other than two plays on defense, I thought we played well because I think most people would agree (Lovejoy’s) a potent bunch,” Valdosta coach Alan Rodemaker said. “They are a dangerous team and so I was just proud our offense scored and kept us from getting too far behind when we weren’t playing well.”

Mosley topped the 1,000-yard mark with his 7-yard touchdown run with 4:21 remaining in the third quarter. The run pushed Valdosta’s lead to 63-21.

The senior running back had 25 carries for 144 yards in the win.

“They either were putting one linebacker or two and they were stacked over the guards — it was a piece of cake all night,” Mosley said. “They gave it to me and I took it.”

After scoring 46 points in its regular season finale against Northside-Warner Robins, Valdosta had 42 points in the first half as it jumped out to a 42-21 lead on Lovejoy at halftime.

Mosley ran for three touchdowns in the first half, including an 18-yard run to put the ‘Cats in front 28-14 with 13.5 seconds left in the first quarter.

Starting in his first playoff game, Rodemaker completed 17-of-25 passes for 288 yards with four touchdowns and an interception — finishing just seven yards shy of breaking Seth Shuman’s single-season school record for passing yards.

Valdosta finished the game with 535 yards of total offense and thanks to Bell’s kickoff return TD, finished with 150 yards on special teams.

UP NEXT

Valdosta travels to face Glynn Academy. According to Rodemaker, there will be no love lost going into next week’s matchup.

“Glynn’s a good football team, we scrimmaged them early in the year,” Rodemaker said. “They’re the ones that put us out last year so it’ll be a good one to go back and play them. There should be plenty of incentive for this game … I’m excited about it.”