BAINBRIDGE — After playing perhaps their best football game of the 2017 last week in a win against Veterans, it appeared the Thomas County Central Yellow Jackets were riding a wave of momentum into their important region tilt on the road Friday night against the Bainbridge Bearcats that could’ve possibly helped secure a home playoff game with a victory.

As the saying goes, sometimes appearances can be deceiving.

Riding the record-setting legs of senior running back Dameon Pierce and taking advantage of four first half Central turnovers, the home standing Bearcats dominated Central 63-14 on senior night at Centennial Field.

It is the most points ever surrendered by a Yellow Jacket team.

“There’s no sense in trying to dance around it – no excuses, we just got our butts whipped,” Central head coach Bill Shaver said after the game.

Bainbridge wasted no time getting on the scoreboard, taking the opening series of the game right down the field on a six-play, 65-yard drive behind the bruising running of Pierce. The Florida commit accounted for almost all of the yardage on the drive, capped off with his 37-yard touchdown run.

After the ensuing kickoff, on their first play from scrimmage, the Central offense fumbled at their own 36-yard line. Accounting for all of the following yardage, Pierce scored on a six-yard run after rumbling for 30 on first down. With the PAT, Bainbridge led 14-0 with less than three minutes elapsed off the clock in the first quarter.

Central netted -4 yards on their next series before punting to the Bainbridge 43. On the fourth play of the drive, Bainbridge’s Reshad Broadnax ripped off a 44-yard touchdown scamper to move the score to 21-0.

Central’s next drive only lasted two plays, as the Yellow Jackets again fumbled on second down at their own 27 yard line. Pierce would take it in again, gaining all yards on the Bearcat drive culminating with an eight yard touchdown to push the score out to 28-0.

The Yellow Jackets netted -2 yards on their next series, leading to another punt. The Bearcats lost 15 yards on first down due to a penalty, doing little but setting up Pierce for a 65 yard touchdown run on second down. Bainbridge led 35-0.

Just as it seemed things couldn’t get any worse for Central, on second down of the next Yellow Jacket series Central fumbled again at its own 16 yard line. Three plays later, Broadnax took it in on a 10-yard touchdown run, and the Bearcat lead was 42-0.

After an exchange of punts, Central fumbled again on second down. The miscue was was picked up and run in for a 28-yard touchdown scoop and score by the Bearcat defense. With the Bainbridge PAT, Bainbridge led 49-0.

Central’s offense finally got on the scoreboard with a solid 14 play, 60-yard drive that was capped off with a 9-yard Dre Sullivan touchdown run to cut the Bainbridge lead to 49-7 with Huntley Rodgers PAT.

However, the Bearcats weren’t finished scoring in the first half. After snagging a Central squib kick on the kickoff at their own 49-yard line, Bainbridge would again come down the field on a six play scoring drive, capped off with a seven-yard touchdown pass to extend the lead to a stunning 56-7 score heading into halftime.

With a running clock in the second half, Bainbridge kept most of their starters on the field to begin the third quarter. A seven play, 68-yard drive was capped off with a seven yard touchdown run by Broadnax. With the score, Bainbridge led by a lopsided 63-7.

Central capped off the night’s scoring with a 20-yard touchdown pass from Dominic Scott to junior Darius Spearman.

It was a record-setting night for Pierce, who with 231 rushing yards on only 13 carries passed Herschel Walker to become No. 16 on the all-time Georgia high school rushing yards record list, and with three touchdowns also passed Central’s Debrale Smiley to become No. 11 on the all-time touchdowns scored list in Georgia high school football history.

“I wish I had some explanation for what happened tonight. I don’t know if it was because of too much youth everywhere or what, but we didn’t even resemble the team we’ve played like over the last 10 quarters or so,” Shaver stated after the game. “We didn’t have them ready to play at any level. Our guys just didn’t play with any fire, and that’s about as disappointing as it can get.”

Central gets a bye week next week before traveling to Harris County to play the improving Tigers, who defeated Veterans 35-0 Friday night. The winner of the Central-Harris game appears to be set to go into the playoffs as the No. 3 seed out of Region 1-5A, and the loser will go into the playoffs as the No. 4 seed. With the loss to Bainbridge, the Yellow Jacket record falls to 3-6 on the season, while the Bearcats move to 6-2.

“We’ve got to find a way to fix ourselves before we go to Harris,” Shaver concluded.