Blowing the Doors Off: No. 5 Blazers rack up school-record 719 yards in rout of Wolves

Nov. 29—VALDOSTA — The top-seeded Valdosta State Blazers erupted for a school-record 719 yards of total offense in a 66-35 rout of West Georgia Saturday.

The Blazers, two weeks removed from falling to West Florida in their regular season finale, looked as fresh and energized as they have all season as they out-gained the Wolves by 309 yards in the game.

Junior quarterback Ivory Durham went 22 of 31 for 354 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. Graduate students Lio'undre Gallimore and Brian Saunds were dominant beneficiaries as Gallimore finished with seven catches for 141 yards and a touchdown while Saunds caught six passes for 135 yards on the day.

The lion's share of the Blazers' record-setting yardage came from the run game as the team rushed for 365 yards Saturday. Seth McGill led the Blazers with 186 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries. His backfield mate Jamar Thompkins added 69 yards on 13 carries with two touchdowns.

Durham also had 14 carries for 92 yards with three rushing touchdowns, including a pair of scores in the fourth quarter to push the team's scoring output into the 60s for the 14th time in program history.

"I thought we came out clicking on all cylinders offensively," VSU head coach Gary Goff said. "Defense got off to a fast start. However, West Georgia kind of hung in the game and made some plays there early on to keep them into the game. I'm extremely pleased on how, offensively, we continued to put points on the board. We went in at halftime, defense made a few adjustments. I thought West Georgia had a great game plan, so we had to make some adjustments in the secondary. But overall, I'm extremely pleased at how well all three phases played today. I thought it was one of our cleaner games we've played all season long and we need to continue doing that in order to accomplish our goals."

The Blazers jumped out to a three-touchdown lead on an 8-yard touchdown from Durham to Gallimore to make it 28-7 with 7:09 left in the second quarter.

The Wolves cut into the lead later in the second quarter as Harrison Frost hooked up with receiver Ronni Blackmon for a pair of touchdowns. The second of which came after a 4-yard touchdown run by Thompkins to make it a 35-21 VSU lead at halftime.

As the second half rolled on, the Blazers seemed to have an answer for virtually everything the Wolves threw at them. Durham fired to Victor Talley all alone in the end zone for 17 yards to put VSU ahead 49-21 with 8:44 remaining in the third.

"It was very important because we have a mentality that we want to score every time we touch the field," Durham said. "We were excited and just happy to be here. We're blessed to play on another Saturday. It was two weeks off, so we were just ready to get back out there and play football."

Despite the 28-point deficit, the Wolves continued to find ways to score as Jace Jordan scored on a 1-yard rush, followed by a 15-yard connection from Frost to Mechane Slade to cut the VSU lead in half with 5:24 left in the third.

But that would be the closest the Wolves would draw the rest of the way.

The Blazers controlled the ball for 38 minutes and 16 seconds of game time, running 79 plays to get their 719 yards on offense.

"We knew West Georgia's got a really good defense," Goff said. "They played really good all season long, so we knew we had to have a really good balance between the rushing attack and the passing game. In that first half, it was really good to see the offensive line create some creases and then the running backs hitting it for positive yardage. Any time you stay ahead of the chains, you like your chances. We were 7 of 12 on third down conversions and that was a big part of sustaining drives early on."

Frost completed 29 of 44 for 381 yards with four touchdowns in the loss — finishing the year with 3,618 passing yards, nearly 1,000 more than the next closest West Georgia quarterback.

Phil Patterson caught nine offerings from Frost for 159 yards with one touchdown while Slade had six grabs for 90 yards and a score. Blackmon finished with six catches for 85 yards with two first-half scores. While the passing game thrived for the Wolves, they were not able to run the ball effectively — tallying just 29 yards on 21 carries.

"Obviously, a very frustrating day for us," Wolves coach David Dean said. "Defensively, we couldn't stop 'em. They played extremely well on offense and we just couldn't match 'em score for score. They just separated from us there in the second half."

With the win, the Blazers advance to the NCAA Division II quarterfinals for the 10th time in program history. They'll host No. 2-seed Bowie State (Md.) this Saturday, Dec. 4, at 1 p.m. at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium.

Shane Thomas is the sports editor at the Valdosta Daily Times.