TIFTON — The city of Vienna’s current claim to fame is the Big Pig Jig. From early looks in 2018, its football team may be on its way to replacing the barbecue’s notoriety.

The Dooly County Bobcats have played once this year, a 33-21 victory over Worth County, but news is out of something special going in the area.

“Dooly has a good football team,” said Fitzgerald’s head coach, Tucker Pruitt. Pruitt’s bunch will be the latest to engage Dooly, playing at Bobcat Grove tonight at 7:30 p.m.

On the surface, Dooly’s recent history isn’t too spectacular. It has gone to state eight straight years, but last year’s team was just 5-7. However, that does not quite cover what is going on in Vienna.

For starters, the Bobcats have quarterback Bo Lawson.

Lawson, Pruitt pointed out, threw for 35 touchdowns and just five interceptions in 2017 on 2,543 yards. That is in addition to the 1,574 yards and 15 rushing touchdowns he had. Worth limited Lawson a bit in the 2018 season opener through the air, to just 125 yards and two touchdowns, but he more than made up for that on the ground with 210 yards and three touchdowns. Lawson had a hand in every Bobcats score.

“He’s unstoppable,” said Pruitt, admitting the Purple Hurricane will struggle to merely contain Lawson and hopefully force turnovers.

In addition to Lawson, he said Fitzgerald will have to keep its eyes on running back Malik McGhee and receivers Reggie Smith, Shamon Zanders and Zeff Felton. “A plethora of athletes,” said Pruitt.

On the defensive side is Malik Burns, who was credited with 19 tackles last week, among them two sacks and eight tackles for losses. Pruitt said Burns was a linebacker.

After an opening week singeing of Bacon County, Fitzgerald ran into arch-rival Irwin County last week. The Indians won, 16-10, taking their game in the series since 1999.

Pruitt said he thinks the loss is behind them and everyone’s minds are completely on Dooly. “We can’t let Irwin County beat us last week and this week,” he said.

Despite the score and being “our own worst enemy,” Pruitt said there were several good performances against Irwin: The Indians scored just 16 points, Alex Martinez continued good work as the team’s kicker and he said the Hurricane played well.

He’ll also have a few players back in uniform this week. Among those are Mario Clark and Ethan Gordon, who will add depth and variety to the backfield. Martez Hannah scored Fitzgerald’s touchdown last week. Martinez added a field goal.

Tonight’s Fitzgerald-Dooly meeting is the first between the schools since 1987 and only the third overall. Next week sees the Hurricane against an even more unfamiliar opponent, Upson-Lee. Fitzgerald has never played the Knights and only played four times against one of its predecessor schools, R.E. Lee.