The Thomas County Central High School Yellow Jackets—the Bainbridge High School Bearcats Region 1AAAA and season-ending football opponent Friday night at 7:30 in Thomas County—has some key weapons on offense and defense.

They are led by quarterback Eric Dodson, who is fifth in Region 1AAAA in passing, completing 26 of 69 passes for 536 yards and four touchdowns. Dodson also has 817 rushing yards. He has rushed for seven touchdowns.

Yellow Jackets running back Curtis Brooks has 1,125 all-purpose yards, 721 rushing, 92 receiving and 312 on kick returns.

Nick Johnson is the Yellow Jackets’ top pass receiver with six receptions for 140 yards, and a 23.3-yards-per-reception average.

The Yellow Jackets run the same split-back veer offense the Bearcats run.

Bearcats head coach Ed Pilcher ran that offense during his outstanding career as Central head coach before coming to Bainbridge to take over the Bearcats football program.

Defensively, the Yellow Jackets will use an eight-man front. They are led by John Ester with 57 solo tackles, nine of which were for loss. Eric Hollis has 52 solo tackles for the Yellow Jackets.

In their most recent game last Friday night at their home Jackets’ Nest Stadium, the Yellow Jackets, who are 7-2 overall and 5-1 and in second place in Region 1AAAA, defeated the Warner Robins High School Demons 21-17 in a Region 1AAAA game.

The win assured the Yellow Jackets of a second-place Region finish behind the first-place Northside Warner Robins High School Eagles and ahead of the Lee County High School Trojans and Hardaway of Columbus High School Golden Hawks, who have nailed down the third and fourth Region playoff spots.

Dodson ran 22 yards for a first-quarter touchdown against the Demons and Brooks had touchdown runs of 17 yards and one yard for the Yellow Jackets.

The Bearcats are 3-6 overall and 1-5 in Region 1AAAA play.