Bainbridge Bearcats head football coach Ed Pilcher said his team should get quite a test from East Gadsden (Fla.), the Bearcats’ opening opponent of the 2012 season.

The Bearcats will host the Jaguars, from Havana, Fla., on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. at Centennial Field.

In 2011, the Jaguars finished 10-3 and reached the second round of the Florida Class A playoffs. East Gadsden is coached by Corey Fuller, a former starting defensive back on the Florida State University Seminoles’ 1993 national champion football team.

Fuller, who played for Tallahassee’s Rickards High School Raiders, went on to play with the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings, Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens.

The Jaguars return senior starting quarterback Treveze Robinson, and senior starting running back Jarrell Reynolds. Robinson had 1,244 passing yards and 17 passing touchdowns, as well as two rushing touchdowns, in the 2011 season. Reynolds rushed for 1,183 yards and 11 touchdowns.

The leader of the Jaguars’ defense is junior Geomarey Smith, who sees action on the defensive line and at linebacker.

The defense will also benefit from the play of sophomore cornerback Janorris Cunningham, who had some big plays in the spring as a freshman.

“East Gadsden has some pretty athletic players on both sides of the ball,” Pilcher said. “Offensively, they move the ball well out of their base-I formation. They pass it well and run it well.

“They line up in an eight-man front on defense, and they can apply some pressure.”