THOMASVILLE – The preseason scrimmage was not the dress rehearsal the Thomasville Bulldogs envisioned. But ahead of Friday night’s regular season opener at Brooks County, Thomasville head coach Jonathan DeLay found a silver lining in last week’s 31-3 loss at Valdosta.

“The second half we came out, really defensively, we challenged them at halftime to come out and do something different. Defense, first drive of the second half they start on the plus-21. We held them to a field goal. The second drive they started on the plus-10 and we took the ball away from them. The next one was around the 50, and we were able to get an interception,” DeLay said. “We had three drives coming out of halftime, where they get real good field position and our defense bowed their necks and made really good plays. I was pleased with that.

“We’ve got a lot of seniors on defense that have played. They realized at halftime, we’re better than this.”

The preseason scrimmage was the first time the Bulldogs have played an opponent since last season’s Class 2-A championship game. The offense struggled, losing three fumbles and tossing three interceptions. The Bulldogs have a week to rectify the mistakes before traveling to defending Class A champion Brooks County.

“I said last week that the team that blocks, tackles, has ball security is the team that’s going to win. We didn’t do that very well, especially in the first half,” DeLay said. “It’s our first time running into somebody else and sometimes it doesn’t go your way, like (Friday) night. We’ve got 10 more of these things.”