Coming off its most complete game of the season Bryan County will continue its playoff drive Friday night against McIntosh County Academy.

The Redskins excelled, coach Cherard Freeman said, on both sides of the ball in posting a 28-12 win at Screven County last Friday night to cap a tumultuous week dominated by Hurricane Helene.

The Region 3A-DII win kept Bryan County (4-3, 3-2) in the thick of the battle for one of the region’s four playoff spots. The Redskins, seeking to make the playoffs for a third straight year for only the second time (2013-2015) in school history currently sit in fourth place behind Jenkins County (5-1, 4-0), Metter (4-1, 3-0) and MCA (4-2, 3-1).

In addition to earning a third consecutive playoff berth with one more win, the Redskins can also equal the 1985-1987 teams mark of three straight non-losing seasons as those teams were 5-5, 6-5 and 5-5, respectively.

“We control our own destiny,” Freeman said. “We have three games to play and they’re all against the teams ahead of us. We know what we’ve got to do.”

If the Redskins win out all doubts are erased–they’re in like Flynn. Win two of the three and they’ve got a shot as does everyone else except Claxton and Savannah. Right behind the Redskins are ECI (3-2, 1-2), Screven (2-3, 1-2) Portal (2-3, 1-2), Savannah (0-4, 0-2) and Claxton (0-7, 0-5).

Knowing what you have to do and doing it are, of course, two different things. The Redskins, Freeman said, showed their capabilities at Screven.

“Our defense played really well,” Freeman said of the win over the Gamecocks. “They kept us in the game. Our offense also came out and played well.

“We controlled the game defensively and offensively,” Freeman said. “Offensively I think we’re starting to get in a little bit of a groove. We’re starting to move the ball.

“Trevor (quarterback Trevor Lanier) is starting to see and understand things that are going on. He’s starting to be the leader we want him to be.”

Lanier threw touchdown passes to Mike Smith and Eli Koskela while Ger’bravion Collins and Gaige Javis ran for scores. Collins also ran in two two-point conversion attempts.

Smith also turned in a stellar performance on defense, Freeman said, with two interceptions and “some big tackles…some really good open field tackles.”

Bryan County fell behind early, 6-0, due to an issue which has plagued it all season:  an inability to hang on to the football.

“We kicked off and held them,” Freeman said. “Then on the first play (Andreas) McKinney fumbled and they scooped up the ball and scored. Other than that, our defense held them in check.

“I think it’s a lack of focus and not understanding how important it is in securing the football,” Freeman said of the fumbles. “It’s something we work on every day in practice.”

And speaking of practice last week due to disruptions related to Helene, daily practice schedules were constantly being rearranged. For example, Freeman said the Redskins had only 22 players at practice on Tuesday.

After playing Claxton on Wednesday the previous week Freeman said he planned on working on “cleaning up some areas” but with no power and school being closed among a myriad of problems those plans were scuttled.