There’s no rest for the weary in Region 1-AAAA.

The Bainbridge Bearcats are hot off a 12-6 win against Early County (0-1) last Friday. Now what stands ahead on the schedule is the biggest rival in Bainbridge’s book: the Cairo Syrupmakers.

Cairo is also coming off a big win last Friday against Thomasville High School, where they shutout the Bulldogs 14-0 at home.

“Both teams are familiar with each other,” Bainbridge head coach Jeff Littleton said. “Coach (Tom) Fallaw is going to run his offense and run it physically and try to catch us off guard with some things. We’re going to be same way.”

The Bearcats got a taste of what Cairo has to offer three weeks ago during a practice-scrimmage where the teams practiced 11-on-11.

The Syrupmakers run a power-I formation similar to Bainbridge, Littleton said. The big difference is they step into the shotgun more often.

On defense, they run an eight-man front.

“I think it’s going to be a similar game to Early County,” Littleton said. “It’s going to be a physical ballgame. They’re fast and aggressive, just as Early County was. We’ve got to match their intensity like we did last week and fight through some adversity, stay together as a team and execute our assignments. I think we’ll be in a dogfight with him.”

Last Friday against the Bobcats, the Bearcats had a chance to discover their mistakes early and will correct them this week in time for the Syrupmakers.

“We made some mental mistakes on offense as far as illegal procedure penalties,” Littleton said. “We also had some late hits and facemasks on defense. Those things are just mental. They’re thing we’ve got to correct.”

Another issue from last Friday was two botched snaps during extra points. Littleton assured those weren’t typical and is being worked on this week.

The Bearcats kick off against the Syrupmakers at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Centennial Field. Littleton hinted he wanted a big turnout of fans for the game.

“We had a big crowd at Early County,” he said. “I was proud to see that.”