By Wayne Grandy

wayne.grandy@gaflnews.com

VALDOSTA – Colquitt County had three possessions inside the Valdosta 10-yard line in the teams’ Region 1-6A meeting on Friday at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium, but could not cash in a one.

And the result was a disappointing 7-3 loss that leaves the Packers 4-3 overall and 1-1 in the region.

Valdosta, now 7-0 and ranked No. 4 in Class 7A, played without leading rusher Deron Foster, who suffered a leg injury in last week’s win over Camden County, a game in which starting quarterback Todd Robinson also was injured.

Robinson played, but was clearly not 100 percent for the Packers and Valdosta often ran the Wildcat formation with Prince Jean taking snaps.

After rushing for 132 yards and four touchdowns against Camden County, Robinson was credited with just one rushing attempt. He completed 8 of the 18 passes he attempted.

And the Wildcats were only able to get one score, a 45-yard touchdown run by Jean after taking a short toss from Robinson with 5:33 left in the first quarter.

The Packers only points came via a 52-yard Brett Fitzgerald field goal with 2:34 left in the third quarter.

But two golden missed opportunities on the first two possessions of the game and another with 2:12 left in the game will haunt the Packers.

Colquitt also threw a crucial interception at the Valdosta 8 in the first quarter, had a 23-yard field goal attempt blocked and had a 53-yard by Jae Lamar for an apparent touchdown called back on a holding penalty.

And those failed chances took the luster off a splendid performance by the Packers defense.

“The defense was the main reason we were in the game to the very end,” said Packers coach Sean Calhoun. “They played incredible.

“But the offense shot off a lot of toes tonight.”

A questionable roughing the kicker penalty nullified a punt return inside the Valdosta 15-line with less than two minutes left in the game, but Calhoun sounded more concerned with how his team played than on flags thrown by the officials.

“You can’t leave the game in the hands of the officials,” he said. “We have got to catch the football, we can’t jump offsides on third-and-one, we’ve got to know who to throw the ball to. It’s just endless.

“You just can’t do the things we did. Valdosta is a really good football team and they made a lot less mistakes than we did.”

The Packers had a chance to jump to a 14-0 lead on their first two possessions.

A 38-yard completion from Cohen Lawson to Ramsey Dennis Jr. gave Colquitt a first-and-goal at the Valdosta 9-yard-line just seven plays into the game.

But a 3-yard Day’Shawn Brown run was followed by two incompletions and then Fitzgerald’s 23-yard field goal attempt was blocked.

Moments later, on the Wildcats second offensive snap, Packers linebacker Brad Tuff Jr. picked off a Robinson pass and the Packers took over on the Wildcats 19.

A Lawson completion to Brown took the ball to the 9.

But on second-and-goal, an under-thrown Lawson pass was intercepted and returned to the Valdosta 26.

Six plays later, Jean broke loose for what would be the only touchdown of the game.

And after a first quarter in which the Packers squandered a pair of red zone opportunities, Valdosta led 7-0.

Halfway through the third quarter, an apparent 53-yard touchdown run by Jae Lamar was called back on a holding call.

Two plays later, the Packers punted.

After Fitzgerald’s field goal cut the Wildcats lead to four points, Colquitt got an interception from Jah’Boris Fuller on the Packers 4 one play before the end of the third quarter.

Colquitt was forced to punt away that possession, but later caught a break when Valdosta kicker Tomas Lopez was wide left on a 25-yard field goal attempt with 9:21 left in the game.

The Packers reached the Valdosta 36 on their next possession before having to kick the ball away again.

Colquitt’s final possession started at its own 42 with 4:20 left in the game.

Lawson drove the Packers to a first down on the Wildcats 13. After runs by Brown and Lamar got the ball to 4, a third-down pass was mishandled in the end zone and Lawson’s final pass with 2:12 left in the game was knocked down before it reached it line of scrimmage.

Since 2013, the Packers had won 10 of 11 against the Wildcats and had won the last four in a row.

Also on Friday, Camden County defeated Richmond Hill 28-10 and Lowndes won over Tift County 26-7.