THOMASVILLE – Sometimes all a team needs is a spark to get a fire going.

For the Thomasville Bulldogs, that spark could be last Friday’s thrilling 36-27 come-from-behind win over Cairo.

It was the first victory for first-year head coach Jonathan DeLay, who believes the win could be a momentum boost for his team moving forward.

“I think the biggest thing you saw the other night is handling adversity. It was an up and down game. We got down by two scores, and our kids just battled back all night. We battled back to take the lead going into the fourth quarter, lost the lead and then battled back to take it right back,” DeLay said. “That’s the thing I think going forward, the kids know they have that confidence. One, we know we can play good football. Two, we know that if things don’t go our way that we’ve been through adverse times, and we know what to do to get ourselves out of that hole. I think the biggest thing is the confidence with these kids is what’s growing right now.”

The Bulldogs hope that confidence is on display again Friday night when Thomasville travels west on Highway 84 to play Bainbridge. It’s the fourth of five challenging non-region games for the Bulldogs. Though Bainbridge was on the short end of a 35-14 defeat to Thomas County Central last week, the Bearcats’ play still catches the attention of Thomasville’s head coach.

“That’s a great football team over there. Coach (Jeff) Littleton does a great job getting those guys ready. Just watching them and the things they do on offense, defense and special teams, they’ve got a good plan every week,” DeLay said. “We’re going to have to play well again this week.”

Thomasville won last year’s meeting 28-10.