Camden County upsets Valdosta

KINGSLAND, GEORGIA — Jeff Herron proved that he’s not done winning big games.

Herron’s Camden County Wildcats played host to undefeated Valdosta Friday night and despite being heavy underdogs, found a way to hand the Wildcats their first loss of the season with a 17-14 win in front of their home crowd.

“(Valdosta) has a good football team and they’re hard to move the ball on,” Herron said. “Our kids just found a way.”

Camden County (6-3, 2-1 Region 1-AAAAAAA) jumped on the Wildcats (8-1, 2-1) early, using an 80-yard drive on 12 plays to grab a 7-0 lead.

Jaden Dailey scored from one yard out on a drive that took nearly half of the first quarter.

But from there, it was all Wildcats for the final quarter and a half.

Valdosta answered back with a 47-yard score from running back Ahmad Denson to tie the game at 7-7 and Jalen Whitehead gave them a lead after reeling in an 18-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Todd Robinson.

Trailing Valdosta 14-7 heading into the third quarter, the Camden County offense was able to find a crack in the Wildcat defense again.

Quarterback Mason Robinson dropped back and connected with Quan Floyd for a 75-yard catch-and-run score to knot the game at 14-14 with 3:35 left in the third quarter.

The Wildcat defense had entered play Friday night allowing just 4.4 points-per-game before allowing a pair of touchdowns to to Camden County.

With momentum swinging in favor of Camden County, the hosts got back into Wildcat territory once again and this time, it decided the game.

The Wildcats managed to keep them out of the end zone, but weren’t able to stop them from knocking through a 32-yard field goal off the foot of Gabe Caison with 11:52 left in the fourth quarter.

The field goal gave Camden County a 17-14 lead and managed to keep the Wildcats scoreless from there.

Camden County regained possession with just under seven minutes remaining in the game and managed to hold onto the ball from there, running out the final 6:44 to win the game and complete the upset.

“I think coming into the game we were scared to death of their defense,” Herron said. “They have just dominated people on defense. We came out on that opening drive and our offensive coaches had a really good plan. I think we got them a little off balance with it. Then after that, our kids played really hard. Our offensive line played the best it has all year.”

The loss for the Wildcats will end their hopes of completing their first undefeated regular season since 1992.

With the win, Camden County has locked itself into the region’s No. 2 seed and will host a playoff game in the first round for the first time in seven years.

Camden County’s Amari Tomblin led the way with 90 rushing yards and a touchdown on nine carries.