By: Ron Reagin

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

One unbeaten season ends Friday night. Valdosta (8-0, 2-0 Region 1-7A) visits Lowndes (8-0, 2-0) at 8 p.m. at Martin Stadium in the 45th Winnersville Classic and the 65th meeting of the series.

Valdosta is No. 4 and Lowndes No. 5 in the AJC Class 7A poll. Both teams last came in unbeaten in 2019, when Lowndes won 24-0 at a sold-out Martin Stadium.

A Valdosta win clinches the Region 1-7A title outright, because every team that could catch the Wildcats would have lost to them head to head. A Lowndes win puts the Vikings in front, but they would still have to win at Colquitt County on Nov. 6.

It is strength against strength. Valdosta has scored at least 52 points in all 7 games it has played. Lowndes has allowed 42 points all season, with four shutouts, and nobody has scored more than 15 on the Vikings.

Valdosta Senior quarterback Tripp Perry has completed 86 of 110 passes for 1,336 yards, 11 touchdowns and one interception.

Valdosta Senior running back Deron Foster has 1,004 rushing yards and 23 touchdowns.

That’s seven straight 100-yard games for the senior Oregon State commit. Stanford commit Marquis Fennell has 1,632 all-purpose yards.

Lowndes gives up about 190 yards a game, and senior linebacker Marcus Vaughn has 6 sacks and 25 quarterback hurries. But the Vikings have just 2 interceptions, and Perry has thrown 1 all year.

Lowndes runs for 8.1 yards a carry. Vikings Senior Mason Woods has 844 yards and 16 touchdowns, and Kaevone Thomas has 12 touchdowns on 42 touches.

Now quarterback Jayce Johnson is healthy. In just his third game of the season, at Richmond Hill last week, Johnson threw for 112 yards and ran for 127, accounting for 4 touchdowns as Lowndes rallied from a 15-14 halftime deficit to win 36-15.

Valdosta’s defense allows 255 yards a game, a number inflated by the 550 it gave up at Colquitt County. It answered last week, holding Camden County to 127 total yards in a 63-10 win.

Lowndes beat the same Camden team 50-13 on Oct. 9, without Johnson, running for 475 yards and allowing 187.

Then again, this series has a way of ignoring the numbers. Valdosta leads 40-24, a count that includes playoff meetings, which are not Winnersville Classics. Lowndes won five straight from 2017 to 2021.

Last fall, Valdosta beat a 9-0 Lowndes team 23-14 at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium to clinch its first region title since 2016.

Fennell’s somersaulting 8-yard touchdown catch put the Wildcats ahead for good, LaDarrius McIntyre forced an incompletion on a Lowndes fourth-and-goal, and the defense held Woods to 57 yards.

Shelton Felton is 3-2 against Lowndes. Adam Carter, a former Valdosta assistant, is 1-2 against the Wildcats, and his win came at Martin Stadium, 30-20 in 2024. Valdosta’s last win there was 13-6 in 2022.  The home team has won every Classic since.