The Bainbridge Bearcats took a 35-0 lead midway through the third quarter Friday night against Seminole County, then eased on the breaks to give younger players some experience in the season opener.

“It’s always valuable when you get younger kids in,” said coach Jeff Littleton. “You have ninth grade and J.V. games coming up, it’s good for parents to see them on the field and everybody gets some playing time. It’s good for them.”

Varsity starters got plenty of playing time, as well. The Bearcats racked up 209 total yards of offense with sharp throwing and quick running. The defense held the Indians to only 90 yards.

Caleb McDowell and Rashad Broadnax provided the juice in Bainbridge’s running attack. McDowell was first to put points on the board in the first quarter. He rushed for 31 yards on four carries and a touchdown. Broadnax went 48 yards on 10 rushes with a touchdown.

Broadnax also scored a touchdown in the third quarter on a punt return, dodging Seminole County defenders as he found his way around the edge for the 46-yard score. Despite the big game, Broadnax sees places he and the team can improve.

“Coach tells us every day, you can’t win it today, but you can lose it,” said Broadnax. “That was our motivation. We have to fix some mess ups.”

The strong running game was made possible by an offensive line that is missing two starters due to injury. Ben Mitchell, senior offensive lineman, led the team at the line of scrimmage.

“We did well, but we can do better,” said Mitchell. “We just need to work on our assignments, know who to pick up. Work on the stuff we work on and fundamentals.”

Quayde Hawkins and Jackson Wheeler shared time behind center. Hawkins was 6-for-10 with 89 yards and a touchdown. Wheeler was 2-for-3 with 11 yards.

Hawkins’s score came in the third quarter on a short pass to Bryce Worthy, who shed a couple tackles as he zig-zagged his 24 yards way into the end zone. Aaron Spivie caught 3 passes for 56 yards, Adrian Cooper had 3 catches for 11 yards, Michael Ryan had one catch for five yards and Caleb McDowell had a catch for four yards.

Like the players said, Littleton agreed there was work that needed to be done.

“We dropped some passes, we blew some alignments on offense and we did the same thing on defense,” said Littleton. “We missed a few tackles that we probably should have made, but defensively we flew around good and minimized mistakes.”

Bainbridge returns to Centennial Field next Friday to play the Cairo Syrupmakers at 7:30 p.m.