TIFTON, Ga. — The Wildcats’ aerial attack was grounded Friday at Brodie Field in a 24-10 loss against the Blue Devils.

Tift County (1-1) sacked Valdosta High quarterback Tate Rodemaker 10 times and held the black-and-gold to just 155 yards of offense a week after the team racked up more than 500.

Wildcats head coach Alan Rodemaker forebode a difficult task for his team in slowing down the Blue Devils’ front seven, and the premonition came to fruition from the first series.

Tate was sacked on Valdosta’s first play of the game, leading to a quick three-and-out, and again on the second series, though the offense managed to push through to tack on a field goal from freshman Angel Martinez Lopez — the Wildcats’ only points until an Aalah Brown touchdown catch with 16 seconds remaining.

Tift County recorded two sacks on the final series of the half for Valdosta (1-1) to go into the locker room with six takedowns. On the night, the Wildcats finished with -41 yards rushing with 67 yards lost in sacks.

Though Tate finished 21-of-26 for 196 yards through the air, he was rarely able to push the ball downfield and create explosive plays due to a combination of a disruptive pass rush and strong film work from the secondary.

“I just thought they did a better job of coaching than we did,” Rodemaker said. “They out-coached us tonight, and I thought they took away some things offensively that we’ve been successful at: the wheel routes, some of the bunch sets, and they got after us up front.

“We didn’t protect well and didn’t get the ball out like we should have.”

With Valdosta’s offense sputtering, and often in poor field position due to a pregame injury to starting kicker/punter AJ Akins, it wouldn’t have been surprising to see Tift County pile on the points, but the Wildcats’ defense fought hard, despite going up against a talented back running behind an oversized offensive line.

Although the Blue Devils racked up 275 of its 289 yards of offense on the ground it took leading rusher Mike Jones 32 carries to churn out 184 yards.

Aside from an 84-yard touchdown run by Tyler Ajiero out of the wildcat formation on the second play of the third quarter, Valdosta held Tift County to 3.72 yards per play over 55 snaps.

“Defensively, I thought we grew up a little bit tonight,” Rodemaker said. “I thought we played hard, but we’ve got to find a way to get eight, or nine, 10 guys in the box to stop people when they just try to mash us, because we are small.”

The Wildcats trailed 10-3 at halftime, and 17-3 following Ajiero’s touchdown, but their offense was just never able to find its footing.

Midway through the third, Valdosta was in the midsts of one of its best drives of the night when receiver Abel Norwood went down with a knee injury while blocking on the perimeter. Norwood left on a stretcher, and the Wildcats dropped a potential fouth-down conversion inside the red zone on the next play.

Jones scored his second touchdown of the night with 5:02 to push the Blue Devils’ lead to 24-3 before holding on for the win.

The victory marks Tift County’s second straight win in the series against Valdosta. It’s the first time the Blue Devils have won two straight against the Wildcats since winning a regular season and postseason game en route to a state championship appearance in 1979.

For Valdosta, though the loss was a frustrating one, it’s one the team can learn from as it gets deeper into the season.

“We’ll grow from this,” Rodemaker said. “It’s Game 2, and I can tell you this, they’re upset right now, and that’s a good thing.

“That’s why you play a tough non-region schedule.”

Derrick Davis is the sports editor at the Valdosta Daily Times.