BAINBRIDGE, Ga. (WTXL) - For high schools in the state of Georgia, it's week five of the football season. More important, it's the week where many teams start their most important games of the year, Region match-ups.
Such is the case in Bainbridge on Friday night, as the Bearcats host Thomas County Central. Bainbridge enters the match-up 3-0 on the year, giving up just 27 points, while scoring 97 in the regular season.
Head Coach Jeff Littleton is happy, but not satisfied, as he hopes the Bearcats get better each week.
The two schools belong to AAAA Region 1, but they belong to different Sub-Regions. While this game will not have direct implications as to who makes the playoffs, it could factor in in a tiebreak situation.
Bainbridge wanting the win, and Littleton says to get it, they'll have to do everything right come Friday.
"It is a rival game, but we want to make sure we focus on each week," said Littleton. "We're not really looking at it as a rival game, we're looking at focusing on each week and getting better every day. We have to be disciplined on both sides of the ball. We have to execute our game plan on both sides of the ball. If we're disciplined and stay away from turnovers, that's what we want to focus on."
Thomas County Central is 2-1 on the year, with their lone loss coming to AAAAAA Valdosta, a loss head coach Bill Shaver attributes to a young defense that's still growing.
That's a concern he has about the high scoring Bearcats, but Littleton admitted he's equally concerned about defending Thomas County Central's run game- they're rushing for over 350 yards a game.
The Jackets and the Bearcats are pretty familiar foes, as they've played at least once a year dating back to middle school, and the coaches agree that adds an interesting dynamic to the match-up.
"One of their coaches on their staff this year was on our staff last year, so not a whole lot of secrets," laughed Shaver. "It's just who's going to go out there and execute best and who can some up with some little wrinkle that may try to surprise the other team. I don't anticipate this being one where we can line up and score 40 points on them, so we have to play some better defense if we want a chance to win this game, it's going to be predicated on our defense playing well."
The Sub-Region contest between the Jackets and Bainbridge kicks off at 7:30 Friday night in Bainbridge.
