MOULTRIE – The Colquitt County sixth-grade team turned in its second-straight stalwart defensive effort to open the season on Wednesday, keeping its record perfect with a 16-6 victory over Eighth Street Middle School of Tift County on the Tom White Field at Mack Tharpe Stadium.

After starting the season with a 0-0 tie with Valdosta, the youngest Packers did not surrender a score to Tift County on Wednesday until the final 19 seconds when the Blue Devils completed an 87-yard touchdown pass.

Colquitt then stuffed the 2-point conversion attempt to kill any Tift County hopes of a final-seconds comeback.

“It was a great day,” coach Matt Key said. “We got a lot of guys in the game. I can’t complain about anything.”

It was the defense that got the Packers on the board first when Jamal Jackson scooped up a Tift County fumble and rambled 70 yards in front of the Blue Devils bench to get Colquitt County’s first score of the season.

The touchdown ended a 53-yard, 13-play Tift County drive that started with the opening kickoff.

Ty’Jaeven Lamar scored the 2-point conversion and the Packers led 8-0 with 1:34 left in the first quarter.

Tift had a chance to tie the game with a minute left in the first half, but a penalty for having too many players on the field called back an apparent 7-yard touchdown run.

The Blue Devils turned the ball over on downs on the next play.

Colquitt took the second half kickoff and mounted a 13-play drive of its own, but this one resulted in a 2-yard touchdown run by Brysun Hunt.

The drive took 7:12 off the clock.

Chance Sims, who is primarily an offensive lineman and wears No. 51, played a big role in the drive.

On Tuesday, Sims was moved to the backfield for short-yardage situations and offensive coordinator Travis Register called plays that handed him the ball three times in the second half.

Sims bulled four yards on a fourth-and-1 midway through the drive for a key first down.

He also punched in the 2-point conversion that gave the Packers a 16-0 lead with 48 seconds left in the quarter.

Sims also got his team another first down in the fourth quarter, gaining six yards on a fourth-and-1.

“We just tried him there yesterday in practice,” Key said. “And he looked like a natural there.”

The Colquitt County defense also shut down a Tift County drive with 1:57 left in the game when Malik Walker intercepted a pass and returned it 32 yards to the Tift 18.

Lamar led the Packers with 34 yards on nine carries.

Adrian Williams added 26 on six attempts.

The sixth-graders will play next Wednesday at Pine Grove.