Thomasville defenders Tommas Speed (68) and Tyrundai Hayes (22) bring down Cook's Adrian Williams (2) Friday night at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

THOMASVILLE — Dimitrius Myrick batted the pass away on third down and forced the Cook High Hornets to punt again.

A few plays later, Thomasville’s Ronnie Baker tossed a 26-yard scoring strike to Ricardo Johnson in the back of the end zone and before the fourth quarter began, somewhere you got the feeling the Bulldogs began looking ahead to next week’s first-place showdown in the Region 1-2A standings with Fitzgerald.

Thomasville scored four touchdowns in the first half, built an insurmountable lead Friday night and took a 42-6 victory over the Hornets at Veterans Memorial Stadium, handing Cook its first region loss of the season.

After Fitzgerald walloped Worth County 55-7 Friday night, the undefeated Purple Hurricanes will visit Veterans Stadium next week with first place on the line.

That game will have to wait — at least for one day. The Bulldogs (5-3 overall, 3-0 Region 1-2A) want to enjoy this one for a little bit.

Running back Ricky Fulton denied that his team might have thought about Fitzgerald late, not even one bit.

“We always take things one game at a time and this game wasn’t over yet,” he said. “So we weren’t going to move past that.”

Big plays highlighted Friday night’s victory. Baker scored two touchdowns on runs of 47 and 39, Fulton scored on a 41-yard gallop and Baker tossed a 9-yard touchdown pass to Johnson at the 2:08 mark of the second quarter.

The Bulldog defense forced two fumbles, both by Ty Anderson, and stifled Cook (5-3, 2-1) most of the night. With the exception of a 14-yard run up the middle by Omar Pickett to trim the deficit to 14-6 in the first half, the Hornets never saw much positivity on offense.

“That was what I was most proud of, coming out in the second half, especially after last week’s performance which was well-documented,” Thomasville coach Zach Grage said. “I wasn’t happy with our defensive performance in the second half (last week). We came out in the second half tonight and that might have been one of the top defensive performances in the five years that I’ve been here. 

“I’m proud of them for answering the bell. Offensively, it was another good night. I thought our ballers were ballers. Overall it was pretty good.”

Fulton added a 27-yard touchdown scamper with 8:29 left in the game to provide the clincher.

It was the third straight win for the Bulldogs and while Grage said his team will talk about what remains at stake in region play, there remains so much to play for.

“Just like we told our kids right after this, it was, ‘Who do we play next week?’ We played Thomasville and we play them at home,” he said. “Right now, we’re 2-0 against Thomasville. We talked about early Early and I messed that up. We talked about their players and what we needed to do to stop them and we didn’t play very well. 

“If we continue to focus on ourselves, I think we have an opportunity to win every game and that’s all you can ask is to give yourself an opportunity. We will talk about a region championship, getting our legacy on that board and the playoffs, but it will be because we execute Thomasville football.”