CARROLLTON, Ga. – A first half shootout turned into an injury plagued second half, allowing the No. 2 Wolves of West Georgia to overshadow a historic day for running back
Cedric O'Neal with a 49-28 Gulf South Conference football victory.
Valdosta State saw their record fall to 3-2 overall and 0-2 in GSC play, while the Wolves improved to a perfect 6-0, 2-0 in league action.
The Wolves wasted no time putting points on the board. UWG began their opening drive at their own 25-yard line and used nine plays to march 75 yards, before capping off the drive with a five yard carry to give UWG an early 7-0 lead less than five minutes into the contest.
With an opportunity to answer after a strong kickoff return by
Greg Dent to the VSU 39, the Blazers put together one of their most efficient drives of the 2015 season.
Cedric O'Neal led the charge down the field, racking up 65 rushing yards on just three carries. Part of VSU's drive was negated by a block in the back, but the end result was a thunderous 15-yard rush into the end zone for O'Neal that knotted the contest up at 7-7.
UWG answered quickly with a 14-yard pass play from Garrett to David Dupaty that finished a 3:29, 82-yard drive. West Georgia Head Coach Will Hall elected to try for two, and a successful conversion put the Wolves in front 15-7.
The shootout took a brief hiatus when the teams traded punts early in the second quarter, but Valdosta State went back to work on offense with a 50-yard scoring drive that consisted of six plays and resulted in a three yard rush by O'Neal for his second touchdown of the game. The score not only cut the Wolves' deficit to 15-14, but also marked career touchdown number 37 for O'Neal, which pushed the senior past Dominique Ross on Valdosta State's all-time career rushing touchdown list. O'Neal eclipsed the 100-yard threshold for the first time this season with 107 yards on 14 carries.
The Blazers took their first lead of the game with 7:39 to go in the first half after
EJ Hilliard found
Dallas Baldner for an eight yard touchdown pass, but West Georgia answered again and regained a 22-21 lead with a touchdown pass of their own from Dallas Dickey to Shaq Hall.
Prior to halftime, UWG forced in their own territory and moved the ball 35 yards in less than a minute to set kicker Hunter Heck up for a 41-yard field goal that put the Wolves in front 25-21 as time expired in the first half.
The opening minutes of the second half proved to be fatal for the red and black, as West Georgia picked off two passes and converted both into touchdowns. The pair of scores, followed by another long touchdown pass later in the third quarter led to 21 unanswered points for the Wolves over the course of the first seven minutes of the quarter, and opened up a 46-21 advantage in favor of UWG.
Neither team scored again until the 13:11 mark in the fourth quarter, when
Roland Rivers completed his first drive of the day with a touchdown pass to
Chris Anderson, who hauled in a team-high six passes for 27 receiving yards. The drive for Rivers was a highly efficient one, as he completed five passes to account for 62 of his 76 yards in the game while adding 12 rushing yards. Other than a late field goal by Heck, the Rivers' touchdown pass marked the only other scoring play of the afternoon.
LeMarcus Franks picked up 172 rushing yards on 17 carries to lead the Wolves' ground attack, While Dickey flung three touchdown passes and accounted for 237 yards in the air.
Next up for Valdosta State, the Blazers return home for another GSC contest against the Mississippi College Choctaws. The game is scheduled to begin at 2:00 p.m. next Saturday at Bazemore-Hyder stadium.
