Football Preview: Swainsboro Tigers vs. Toombs County Bulldogs
Swainsboro and Toombs County are an even 3-3 against one another since November of 2016, but not for long. The Swainsboro Tigers will challenge the Toombs County Bulldogs at 8:00 p.m. on Friday. Neither of those teams managed to put together many points in their previous contests, so the offenses might be a little more motivated than usual.
Swainsboro is headed into the matchup out to prove that what happened against Savannah Christian two weeks ago (when they were outscored in every quarter) was just a minor bump in the road. Swainsboro was outmatched by Savannah Christian at home and fell 48-12. While losing is never fun, the Tigers can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Georgia football rankings (they are ranked 215th, while the Raiders are ranked 23rd).
Despite the loss, Swainsboro saw an underclassman step up: sophomore Marco Danford rushed for 61 yards and a touchdown.
Danford was just one part of a punishing run game: Swainsboro was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 232 rushing yards. That's a new trend for Swainsboro: they were averaging 229.7 rushing yards per game earlier this season, but in their last five contests they've averaged 0.
Meanwhile, while it was all tied up 7-7 at halftime, Toombs County was not quite Savannah Christian's equal in the second half on Friday. They took a 14-7 hit to the loss column at the hands of the Raiders. The game marked the Bulldogs' lowest-scoring match so far this season.
Toombs County's defeat came about despite a quality game from Gavin Fletcher, who picked up 60 receiving yards and a touchdown. Fletcher was no stranger to the big play, connecting on a big catch that went for 50 yards.
Even if they lost, Toombs County's defense still kept up the pressure with three sacks. Alex Scott was especially locked on to Savannah Christian's QB and sacked him twice. Scott has been hot recently, having also posted five or more total tackles the last four times he's played.
Toombs County's loss ended a four-game streak of away wins and brought them to 7-1. As for Swainsboro, their defeat dropped their record down to 3-6.
Swainsboro took their win against Toombs County in their previous meeting back in October of 2021 by a conclusive 33-7. In that matchup, Swainsboro amassed a halftime lead of 20-0, an impressive feat they'll look to repeat on Friday.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps