By RICK HEAD
Publisher
Second-ranked Ware County’s final non-region tuneup, scheduled between two byes, comes Friday night when Class 4A ninth-ranked Bainbridge visits Memorial Stadium on Rec Night.
The Gators (3-0), winners in 23 of their last 25 regular season games, put their 15-game home winning streak on the line against the Bearcats (2-3).
“We had a really good week of practice,” said Jason Strickland of last week’s open week. “We got a lot of work done with our three days on the grass. Last week allowed some of guys time to get healed up so that was a plus.”
Friday’s meeting will be the 21st between the two schools dating back to 1962. The Gators have won the eight straight meetings and 10 of the last 11 to take a 12-8 lead. Bainbridge won seven of the first nine meetings.
The Bearcats are coming in off a 26-18 loss at Class A D-I sixth-ranked Brooks County. Bainbridge lost 30-14 to Class 3A top-ranked Cedar Grove in the season opener and 35-14 at Thomas County Central. The wins have come against Class 5A Coffee (24-21) and Class 3A Thomasville (31-7).
“They (Bearcats) are coming in here as a wounded animal,” said Strickland. “They had a couple of touchdowns called back against Brooks County and gave up a special teams touchdown and probably feel like they should have won a game they controlled.”
Bainbridge has been a little inconsistent offensively with senior quarterback Bo Smith (5-foot-10, 175 lbs.) missing playing time with an injury suffered in the Coffee win. Smith has completed just 10-of-25 passes for 151 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions.
Sophomore backup signal-caller Cam Sanders (5-9, 160) has completed 44-of-78 passes for 515 yards with five touchdowns and an interception.
The running game is headed by Keenan Phillips (5-7, 150), who has 340 yards on 66 carries and scored four times.
The “go-to” player in the receiving corps is junior Antavious Murphy (5-10, 165), who has 22 receptions for 292 yards and five touchdowns. No other receiver has more than nine receptions.
Sanders and Smith were a combined 16-of-26 passing for 168 yards against Brooks County, but Bainbridge was held to minus-1 yard rushing.
“The offense is a little different than the last two years,” said Strickland. “It’s more of a downhill running game with heavier sets behind a big offensive line. Their (Bearcats) quarterback has been limited, but he is still very athletic.
“Our (coaches) concerns are trying match up with their numbers in the box. That leaves us playing one-on-one out on the perimeter with no help. We’ve just got to play with discipline and great leverage and make tackles out in space.”
The Bainbridge defense is led by senior Dontavious Broadnax (6-foot, 190), who has one interception and has blocked two punts.
“They are not huge,” Strickland said of the Bearcats’ defensive unit, “but they are crazy fast. They are very multiple with their looks up front and they are going to blitz on every down.”
According to Strickland, Bainbridge blitzes 67 percent of the time on first down, 62% on second down and 74% on third down.
“We’ve got to protect against negative plays,” Strickland stated. “We’ve got to be gap-sound because they are coming from everywhere. We’ve got to get the correct protection calls for the passing game and get the ball out quick. We’re not going to have time to sit back waiting on deep routes.”
The Gators will have their final open date after the Bainbridge game before embarking on the Region 1-AAAAA schedule. Jenkins of Savannah is slated to visit October 7.
BHS vs. WCHS
Gators lead 12-8
BHS WCHS
1962 7 6
1963 12 28
1986 21 0
1987 21 0
1994 26 14
1995 7 0
1996 38 30
1997 28 41
1998 60 6
1999 28 35
2000 29 33
2001 35 22
2002 13 31
2003 14 38
2004 14 31
2005 16 31
2011 $14 21
2013 # 7 49
2020 30 35
2021 15 42
$ - Class 4A playoffs
# - Class 5A playoffs
