BLAKELY — The Bobcats giveth and the Bulldogs taketh away.

That was the theme Friday night at Standifer Field as the Early County Bobcats committed four turnovers and the Thomasville Bulldogs converted them into 28 points, cruising to the 42-12 victory in a Region 1-AA showdown.

“We had a great week of practice, and it carried over,” said Thomasville head coach Tommy Welch.

With the victory and a win next week at home against the Cook Hornets, the Bulldogs will capture their third straight region title.

“Cook’s got a mighty fine football team. We’ll start worrying about them tomorrow,” Welch said.

If the Bulldogs perform against the Hornets like they did against the Bobcats, Welch have nothing to worry about.

Thomasville (6-1, 4-0) rushed for 230 yards, forced four turnovers and limited Early to just 174 total yard, 60 of which came on one touchdown pass.

“We got the takeaways and were able to capitalize on them,” Welch said.

Thomasville led just 14-6 at halftime but benefited from an Early County (5-3, 2-2) miscue on special teams.

After the Bobcats forced a punt on Thomasville’s first series of the half, the Bulldogs punted into Bobcats’ territory. Early County’s return man let the ball bounce and it hit an unknowing Bobcat on his back. The Bulldogs pounced on the ball and recovered the fumble.

On the ensuing possession, quarterback Clay Hodges fired a bullet to wide receiver Stacey Hadley on a slant for an 11-yard touchdown.

The touchdown sparked a second half in which Thomasville outscored Early 28-6.

“You can’t make mistakes against anybody,” said Early County head coach Trey Woolf.

The mistakes continued to mount late in the fourth quarter. Early County had the ball at its own 29-yard line when quarterback Emmanuel Taylor threw a down-and-out pass to one of his receivers. The bounced into the arms of Thomasville’s Allen Johnson. Johnson shrugged off the receiver’s tackle attempt and scampered 33 yards for a touchdown. It was the second interception of the game for Johnson. His other one helped set up a touchdown in the first quarter. Johnson also had 19-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.

“He’s a heck of a player,” Welch added. “Big-time players come up big in big games.”

Running back A.D. Phillips continued his sparkling play, rushing for 113 yards and two touchdowns. The Bulldogs finished with 267 total yards.

“We got our butts whipped by a better football team,” Woolf added.

“They were physical up front and a lot better than we were.”