The Post-Searchlight

Bainbridge High School Bearcats football coach Ed Pilcher said Paul Soden’s outstanding punting was a key factor in the Bearcats’ 14-12 victory over the Early County High School Bobcats on Friday night in Blakely, Ga.

“Paul Soden averaged over 46 yards on six punts and his kicks put Early County in some bad field position,” Pilcher said. “Our defense usually comes up big when the opponent is in bad field position.

“I thought Preston Norris and Damian Bouie both did a good job at quarterback. We had been working Damian, one of our starting running backs, some at quarterback in practice. We plan to continue giving him some snaps.”

The Bearcats head coach said he thought his defense came up big in two key situations.

“We stopped Early County on a fourth-quarter attempted touchdown pass deep in our territory and came up to stop a runner on a late fourth-quarter two-point conversion try that could have potentially tied the game and sent it to overtime,” Pilcher said.

“Early County quarterback Jacori Taylor is an outstanding athlete. He hurt us both running and throwing.”

By the numbers

 .Bainbridge                     Early County

  11                  First Downs         13

37-143              Rushes Yards       32-174

37                   Passing Yards         181

7-4-0                Passes (ACi)         21-10-1

44-180            Total Yards           53-355

4-1                   Fumbles-Lost        1-0

4-35                 Penalties-Yards     6-55

6-46.2               Punts-Avg.            3-31.3