THOMASVILLE — After a disappointing region loss to Carver, the Thomasville Bulldogs headed to Columbus to take on the Blue Devils for their third region contest. Columbus was coming into this game as significant underdogs, having won a single game all season and coming off three straight shut out losses.

The Bulldogs offense and defense came together for a spectacular 51 point victory. Despite their run heavy attack, Bulldog quarterback Cam Hill and Mercer commit Cole Shaw had a solid game. Hill had five completions for 122 yards and a pair of touchdowns, both of which were caught by his favorite target Shaw. The rest of Thomasville’s receiving core were impressive as well. In total, the Bulldogs had six receivers with at least one catch and none of them had less than 14 yards receiving. The core averaged an impressive 21.9 yards per catch and junior Messiah Wilson led the way with a pair of catches for 64 yards.

Thomasville stuck to the run game for most of the night, however, as they ran the ball a total of 22 times between five different rushers. Sophomore Lavonte Cole led the team with five rushes for 82 yards and a touchdown. His longest run was a 71 yard burst. The Bulldogs had three different rushers with a touchdown with Ant Anderson and Leeland Chapman punching in the other two.

Despite the offense scoring 51 points, it was the defense that was arguably more impressive. Not only did the Bulldogs shut out Columbus, they held the Blue Devils to just 64 yards of passing offense. The Columbus rushers had zero success agains the Bulldogs d-line as well, as they rushed for a combined -32 yards on 25 attempts. The Blue Devils averaged -1.3 yards per carry.

The Bulldogs were in the Columbus backfield constantly as they finished with a combined 13 tackles for a loss, six sacks, and four quarterback hurries. The Thomasville defense was led by junior Rah’Darius McCoy, who had three tackles for a loss and two sacks, which combined for 19 yards lost. Jay Randall and Anthony Hill Jr. led the secondary with a pair of interceptions between them and Tyreek Williams and Joe Douglas each had a fumble recovery on the night. Thomasville’s defense forced four total fumbles.

It was a truly dominating victory for the Bulldogs that brings them back to .500 and slots them in at second in the region with a record of 2-1. They will take this win into their next region contest at home against Dougherty. The Trojans also sit at 4-4 on the season but are coming into Friday night’s game off a region loss to Monroe. The game will begin at 8:00 p.m.