Nov. 12—VALDOSTA — The Peach Basket returned to Valdosta State Saturday night with the Blazers taking all the glory from West Georgia’s last night as a Division II football program. The 58-28 pounding raised VSU’s season record to 10-1, gave them a share of the Gulf South title and cemented a first round home game in the national championship tournament.
Sammy Edwards threw for 414 yards and three touchdowns in the rout, mixing deep shots, with short ones and occasionally improvising on the run. B.K. Smith caught six of Edwards’ 29 completions for a team-high 119 yards.
Rodney Bullard had 86 receiving yards and a touchdown, plus had an excellent night as a returner. When West Georgia pulled to a touchdown (27-21) at 8:17 in the third frame, Bullard bolted 99 yards down the sideline to make all that work for naught.
West Georgia struggled defensively all night. It was an especially harrowing night for the Wolves on kickoff returns, both defending them and receiving.
The Blazers went all the way on the opening kickoff for a touchdown. While West Georgia was able to sign in relief that it was called back for a penalty, there would be no such luck on Bullard’s 99-yard return in the third quarter.
Later in the third quarter, having held VSU to a field goal and with a still-surmountable 37-28 deficit, the Wolves saw their chances disappear when they could not field Noah Botsford’s kickoff cleanly. Samuel Curry pounced on the pigskin at the 20. Three plays later, Edwards hit Eric Watts for a four-yard touchdown. What was possibly surmountable at nine points was now 16 at 44-28. The Wolves went quietly after that.
Smith and Kam Scott also had kickoff returns of 37 and 37 yards, respectively, setting up VSU at midfield on each. Both shortened fields led to touchdowns.
The first half had a normal look on the scoreboard,…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/vsu-blazers-blast-west-georgia-001600559.html
Author : The Valdosta Daily Times, Ga.
Publish date : 2023-11-13 00:16:00
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