THOMASVILLE — The Thomasville Bulldogs may be a Class AA program, but a win Friday night and the Bulldogs could become de facto champs of Region 1-AAAA.

It rallied past Thomas County Central two weeks ago. It staged another comeback against Cairo last week. The Thomasville Bulldogs aim for the trifecta with a win over Bainbridge on Friday night at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

“They’re big games for us, big games that we hope to have the opportunity to win, year in and year out.  This three-game stretch right here with Cairo, Central and Bainbridge, it’s all the Region 1-AAAA contenders right there,” Thomasville coach Zach Grage. 

“It is good, checks a lot of boxes. You keep the rivalries. You have the chance to go compete against a really good team. Like I was telling somebody early this morning, I don’t think Cairo and Central are going to be losing many more games. I would assume Bainbridge would be in a similar boat. I think that region, they’re going to have some knock-down, drag-out battles at the end of their season as well.”

Thomasville is 3-0, with all three victories coming down to the waning moments. Thomasville held off a Brooks County second-half rally to win 42-34. The Bulldogs then staged back-to-back rallies against Central (23-14) and Cairo (26-21) to remain unbeaten. 

Thomasville is 3-0 for the first time since 2017. But the Bulldogs are far from a finished product, Grage said.

“The key there is winning. I told the kids, we’ll take an ugly win any day over a cute loss,” Grage said. “There’s always things to clean up. I still think we’re playing good ball when it comes down to it. You don’t want to be peaking this early in the season, so that’s a definite plus that we’re not. I have told them coming into this week, it’s about time to start playing a good 48 minutes.”

The Bulldogs have a tough chore with the Bearcats Friday night. Bainbridge is 1-1 following last week’s canceled game against Valdosta due to COVID-19 protocols within the Wildcats program.

“First and foremost, (coach) Jeff Littleton does an unbelievable job. He’s been there for a while,” Grage said. “They’re going to be extremely athletic. 

“It’s another 1-AAAA opponent. If you put all those guys in a bag and shake them up, you’re going to get great D-linemen, great lines of scrimmage, good athletic quarterback.”