QUITMAN, Ga. — The raucous crowd from Thomasville was silenced midway through the first quarter. 

When Brooks County defender Omar Blankumsee stepped in front of a Chad Mascoe pass and returned the interception 50 yards for a pick-6, the visiting Bulldogs never saw the lead again.

It was that kind of night where Thomasville’s turnovers (three) and a slew of penalties dug them into an insurmountable deficit to start the game. 

And they were never able to recover.

Blankumsee’s interception was the first of two for the senior who had a career night defensively and led Brooks to a region-opening 27-11 victory against Thomasville High on Friday night at Veterans Stadium in a key Region 1-2A contest

Thomasville coach Zach Grage refused to say the Bulldogs beat themselves.

“No, they did that,” Grage said when asked by a reporter if the team beat itself. “That’s a good team there. They earned that.”

Blankumsee had a 25-yard pick-6 two possessions later to extend the Trojans’ lead to 21-3.

A week after Thomasville (4-3 overall, 0-1) lost at Crisp County, the Bulldogs’ road woes continued in a game where everything fell apart in one quarter. Thomasville took an early 3-0 lead on its opening possession when it stuffed the ball down the throat of the Brooks County defense but settled for a 44-yard field goal from Hurston Waldrep at the 8:44 mark.

After the Bulldog defense forced Brooks to punt on the Trojans’ opening possession, Blankumsee had the first of his two pick-sixes.

On Thomasville’s ensuing possession, a bad snap on a punting attempt  was recovered by Brooks County, giving the Trojans a first-and-goal at the 10. Three plays later, Deon Fountain scored on a 4-yard run. After Tony Velasquez’s extra point attempt, the Trojans led 14-3 with 1:51 left in the opening quarter.

But things only got worse for Thomasville. On the ensuing possession, Blankumsee’s second pick-6, a 25-yarder, made it 21-3 after Velasquez’s extra point attempt.

Blankumsee nearly had another interception in the opening quarter, but officials ruled the senior stepped out of the bounds.

“I don’t know what to say,” Blankumsee said. “I can say I have worked hard for this moment, and my defense helped me out so much.”

The Trojans’ best scoring drive of the night was a nine-play, 51-yard scoring drive that Daryl Gallon finished off with a 16-yard scoring run to make it 27-3 at the 8:42 mark of the second quarter.

Thomasville tried to make it interesting early in the fourh quarter when they drove 90 yards on 10 plays. Mascoe tossed a 3-yard touchdown pass to Ricardo Johnson, then Mascoe hooked up with Jay Tillman on a 2-point conversion pass to cut the deficit to 27-11.

But Brooks County (5-2, 1-0) ended any hopes of a Thomasville comeback when Fountain gashed the Bulldogs on a 32-yard run on third-and-14 with less than two minutes remaining.

Grage said he was happy with the Bulldogs’ second-half effort.

“These kids never quit fighting,” he said. “They never stopped. We have just got to get focused on Fitzgerald, another very good team, next week.”

Tillman said the Bulldogs have to work harder and put the loss behind them. He said the early deficit Friday night definitely played a factor in the outcome.

“You take away the two pick-sixes and the score is 14-11,” he said. “We played better in the second half, but by then it was too late.”