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Warner Robins came to Bainbridge Friday night looking for redemption after losing to the Bearcats in last season’s Class AAAAA State Championship.

Bainbridge wasn’t going to let it happen without a fight.

The Bearcats (5-3, 0-2 region) went blow for blow with Warner Robins, but a fourth quarter touchdown lifted the Demons to a 28-21 win in one of the season’s biggest matchups.

“Our players fought hard,” said coach Jeff Littleton. “There are some little things that we are not taking care of in practice and some little things that we are not taking care of during the game, and it cost us.”

Bainbridge took its second bye of the season last week, and Littleton did see improvements against Warner Robins (8-1, 3-0 Region) that came from the extra week of practice. But a lack of execution in key moments in the game set the Bearcats back.

Tied 21-21 at the end of the third quarter, Bainbridge recovered a Warner Robins fumble and had the ball near the goal, but was unable to score a touchdown. Kicker Garrett Sigman lined up to attempt a 28-yard field goal, but the snap rolled backwards on the ground and holder Quayde Hawkins dropped to his knee with the ball in his hands to turn it over on downs.

“We had the fumble recovery down deep but we couldn’t put it in,” said Littleton. “That’s one of those little things that we didn’t take care of. We just got to execute.”

Warner Robins took a 7-0 lead on an 11-yard run from quarterback Jalen Addie with 7:46 left in the first quarter. Bainbridge bit back and got on the board when Hawkins kept the ball and ran it in 1 yard for a touchdown later in the second quarter.

Warner Robins intercepted a pass with just under two minutes left in the first half and added another 6 points to their score, but missed the PAT and went into the locker room only leading 13-7 at halftime.

Bainbridge received the kick off to open the second half and put together a long drive that ended with Hawkins finding Deyon Bouie in the corner of the end zone on a 6-yard touchdown pass to take the lead 14-13.

On Warner Robins’ next drive, the Bainbridge defense forced a three-and-out deep in its own territory, and Tahari Tate blocked the punt and returned it for a touchdown to give Bainbridge a 21-13 lead.

The Demons immediately scored on their next play with an 80-yard touchdown pass, then converting the 2-point conversion to tie the game 21-21.

Bainbridge moved the ball on offense with quick passes throughout the night.

“They are big and fast on defense,” said Littleton. “We have trouble running the ball against them, so we knew we had to throw the ball and play to our strengths, and then open up the run game a couple times off of throwing the ball.”

Bainbridge will travel to Harris County next Friday to take on the Tigers for the third region game of the season. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m.