After spending the month of September on the road Bryan County returns home to play its most important game of the season.
Richmond Hill, playing at home for the first time last Friday, enjoyed the home field advantage with a 37-14 Region 2-6A win over Bradwell Institute.
The Wildcats (1-3, 1-0) will once again be traveling as they go to Statesboro (2-2, 0-0).
The Redskins, a playoff afterthought in the pre-season, shocked everyone but themselves last Friday when they pulled off a 14-12 Region 3A Public win at Screven County.
The win puts Coach Cherard Freeman’s team (2-3, 1-1) in the thick of the battle for fourth place in the region.
Metter, ECI and McIntosh County Academy have the top three spots all but locked up.
That leaves fourth up for grabs among the Redskins, Claxton, Jenkins County and Portal.
Bryan County will get all three of those teams at home starting with Claxton on Friday night and Freeman likes his team’s chances. Claxton and Portal are winless and Jenkins has one win and that was against Claxton.
The win at Screven was Bryan County’s first win in region play since 2016, a stretch of 26 games.
“We played really good defense,” Freeman said. “Offensively we turned the ball over six times, four of them on center snaps. “It’s hard to win when you turn the ball over six times. But we did. You have to give the kids credit. The defense played great. If we’re going to beat Claxton we’re going to have to play disciplined, play like a well-oiled machine.”
The win was preserved when on a fourth-down play sophomore Jacari Carney chased down a Screven receiver who was headed for an apparent winning touchdown and tackled him at the two-yard line with about 90 seconds left in the game.
“That was the play of the game,” Freeman said. “That kept our season alive and makes the game with Claxton a must win. They’re all must wins now but if we can beat Claxton, Jenkins and Portal we’ll finish fourth.”
Carney said he and his teammates know what is on the line this week.
“It’s great to finally be able to play at home,” Carney said. “If we’re going to make a push for the playoffs we have to beat Claxton.”
Richmond Hill was in desperate need of a win, especially after getting blown out at Northside Warner Robins, 43-7, the previous week.
Bradwell just happened to be the team which showed up and the Wildcats made the most of it.
Despite not playing up to Coach Matt LeZotte’s expectations Richmond Hill scored 27 points in the second quarter for a 27-7 halftime lead and was never pushed as it extended the lead to 37-7.
Safety Tommy Bliss pulled off a rare feat as he blocked three kicks,
Quarterback Ty Goldrick had his best night of the season as he hit on 13 of 19 passes for 196 yards.
Receiver Ravon Grant caught five passes for 137 yards.
Running back Ryan Dekle rushed for 119 yards and a touchdown.
Linebacker Bodie Custer had 14 tackles and two sacks.