CAIRO — Four weeks into the season, the Cairo Syrupmakers are ready for Region 1-AAAA action.

A week after its first bye of the year, Cairo will open its region slate at West Thomas Stadium against Northside-Columbus. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.

For Cairo coach Steve Devoursney, his team’s bye week allowed the Syrupmakers a chance to work on fundamentals.

“(The bye week) went good, went back to work and got a lot better,” Devoursney said. “We kind of treated it like another camp. We did a lot of ones on ones, work on tackling and blocking. That was good for us.”

The Syrupmakers are off to a 1-1 start with an impressive 45-21 non-region win over Thomasville and a tough 14-10 loss to defending Class AAAAA champion Bainbridge. Though his team has had two weeks to stew over a tough defeat to its arch-rival, Devoursney has no complaints with how the Syrupmakers have performed over the first couple of weeks.

“I think we’re right where we need to be. Obviously, we’d like to be 2-0 instead of 1-1. Our kids have played hard and done a good job,” Devoursney said.

Now starts the gauntlet that is the eight-game region schedule, beginning with the Patriots, who are 0-2 with losses to Shaw and Spencer.

“They’ve got some big kids. They’re really big on the offensive and defensive lines,” Devoursney said. “(Their quarterback) is a junior and has done a good job for them. He’s real smart with the football.”

A strong start to the region season is essential for the Syrupmakers, especially considering how difficult the early part of their region schedule is. Following Friday’s game against Northside-Columbus, four of the Syrupmakers’ next five games are away from West Thomas Stadium with road trips to Hardaway (Sept. 20), at Columbus (Oct. 4), at Carver (Oct. 11) and at Americus-Sumter (Oct. 25).

“We play so many region games, you just have one bad night and it could cost you a region championship or a home playoff game. You’ve got to make sure you’re ready to go every week,” Devoursney said.

Sandwiched in between those four region games is a home tilt with Westover on Sept. 27.