It was a rainy night in Southwest Georgia as the Bainbridge High School Bearcats played the Chamblee Bulldogs in a scrimmage game at Centennial Field Friday night.

In a pre-determined arrangement between Bainbridge coach Jeff Littleton and Chamblee coach Allen Johnson, the varsity players on each team played the first three quarters and then the score was reset, letting the younger, non-starting players take the field in the fourth quarter.

Bainbridge outscored Chamblee 21-14 with the varsity playing through three quarters, while Chamblee outscored Bainbridge 16-0 in the fourth quarter.

“We saw a lot of positives tonight. We are playing with a lot of inexperienced players and we saw a lot of good things and a lot of bad things, things we can work on. These are things that we thought we would see,” said Littleton. “But the best thing is that we played hard.”

Chamblee returned the opening kickoff of the game for a touchdown and then caught a tipped ball near the goal line for a second touchdown in the first quarter.

Down 14-0, the Bearcats defense toughened and didn’t allow another touchdown by Chamblee’s varsity players.

Craig Cooper scored on a nifty 38-yard touchdown run mid-way through the first quarter, making the score 14-7 Chamblee. Mid-way through the second quarter, wide receiver Victor Bodison took a hand off from quarterback Preston Norris and ran 15 yards for the score, tying the game at 14-14.

Late in the third quarter, Cooper scored again on a four-yard run to break the tie and make the score 21-14 Bainbridge.

Despite the less-than-ideal playing conditions, Norris completed four of eight passes for 134 yards, Craig Cooper rushed 14 times for 66 yards with two touchdowns, and  Bodison caught three passes for 65 yards and rushed for a touchdown.

“It was ugly, as for as a lot of things, but there were a lot of positives,” Littleton said. “We were real simple with what we did offensively and defensively. We just wanted to execute and we did, but we made some mistakes. These are just things we can work on.”

In the fourth quarter, many of the younger, inexperienced Bearcat players got on the field and gained invaluable playing experience. Three freshman quarterbacks—Clark Wiggins, Brett McLaughlin, and Keith Lyle—all saw action in the fourth quarter, gaining much-needed game experience.

The Bearcats open the regular season next Friday night at Centennial Field against East Gadsden (Fla.) High School at 8 p.m.

Photos by William Hand