FLORENCE, Ala. — Winston-Salem State coach Connell Maynor watched his unbeaten team give up a touchdown on the opening kickoff but didn’t get worried.

He’d seen it all before, a couple of times.

This time the Rams couldn’t overcome Valdosta State’s fast start Saturday and fell 35-7 in the Division II national championship game, coming up short in their bid to become the first historically black school to win the crown and complete a perfect season.

Winston-Salem State finished the season at 14-1 and the No. 2 team in country with the help of Butler graduate Nate Hartung starting on the offensive line.

Valdosta State was just too much on Saturday, overcoming dubious history along the way.

Matt Pierce’s 96-yard scoring return to open the game came a year after Wayne State started the same way — only to lose to Pittsburg State.

“I was, ‘OK, history does repeat itself. They ran the opening kickoff back and we’re going to win the game,”’ Maynor said. “I’m never going to think negative.

“I never thought we were going to lose the football game.”

After all the Rams (14-1) had given up a long return and first-play touchdown in the semifinals against West Texas A&M before winning 41-18.

They couldn’t do it again, or even come close.

The 17th-ranked Blazers (12-2) led 21-0 by halftime and became the lowest-ranked team to win the title. It was their 10th straight victory and first national title since 2007, coach David Dean’s debut season.

They needed 12 seconds to score and 5 minutes to build a 14-0 lead against a team that hadn’t trailed by more than a touchdown all season.

“They hadn’t been in that situation before and I didn’t know if they knew how to react to that, because they’d been blowing everybody out week after week,” Dean said of the Rams

The Rams have 27 wins in the past two seasons but lost in the semifinals a year ago. They couldn’t overcome six turnovers, including several that ended promising drives.

“Any time you turn the ball over as many times as we did against a team like Valdosta State, you’re going to come out on the losing end,” Maynor said. “For whatever reason we weren’t ready to play the game today.”

Winston-Salem came in averaging 42.6 points a game and hadn’t been held below 21 all season.

The Rams couldn’t cash in despite a 412-316 edge in total yards.

They were just the second HBCU team to make it to the championship game. Central State of Ohio fell to North Dakota State in 1983.

Valdosta State’s Cayden Cochran was 18-of-26 passing while throwing for a touchdown and running for a pair.

The Blazers capitalized on the mistakes for their third Division II title and the 10th by the Gulf South Conference. They had opened the season 2-2 before starting to roll and won their four playoff games by a combined 94 points.