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With heavy hearts, the Bearcats hit the field Friday night for a scrimmage against the AAAAAA Glynn Academy Red Terrors out of Brunswick. Although just a scrimmage, the Bearcats were on a mission to get a win for the late BHS principal Roy Mathews, who passed away unexpectedly Wednesday afternoon.

The first quarter was played by both teams’ JV Squad.

Highlights for the Bearcats included sophomore wide receiver Darius Mills having an interception for seven yards and sophomore running back Javon Cox having three carries for 60 yards and a 55-yard touchdown.

Sophomore Nicolas Tyre was 1 for 2 in field goals during the JV quarter, with one field goal being 40-yards. He was 1 of 1 for extra points.

Unofficially, the score was 10-0, before the scoreboard was wiped clean for the varsity Bearcats.

The Bearcats and Red Terrors struggled to get on the board in the second quarter.

Following a ten- minute halftime, both teams came out ready to make a touchdown.

The Red Terrors scored early on, giving them a 7-point lead. However, the Bearcats made up for it later in the game.

Highlights included senior running back Zion Bouie rushing with 14 carries for 208 yards and two touchdowns.

Unofficially, he ran an 80-yard touchdown in the third quarter and a 79-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter. Additionally, Bouie had four receptions for 80 yards.

Junior quarterback Bo Smith was 8 of 18 for 159 yards and a touchdown, while sophomore wide receiver Antavious Murphy had three receptions for 65 yards and a touchdown in the fourth quarter.

Junior kicker Blake Fagan made three extra points during the Varsity scrimmage, while Tyre had three punts, including a 47-yard punt, for over a 36-yard average.

The Bearcats ended the game with a 21-14 win.

Head Coach Jeff Littleton was proud of the win and thought this scrimmage was a great way to get the team’s feet wet for the season to come.

“We had a lot of good, positive things; we also had some mistakes,” Littleton said. “I had told the kids that’s what I want to see; I want to see mistakes and full speed with 100% effort.”

Littleton did note they had some conditioning issues.

“We only played three quarters with the Varsity, but we held out pretty good,” he said. “We ran into a couple conditioning issues with a few of the kids, but that’s something we can fix. Overall, being in shape and good physical condition I’m pleased with it and it’ll only improve as it gets cooler.”

Littleton was proud of his assistant and position coaches, who played a huge role in making sure the players were conditioned well enough for their positions.

“We had a couple of explosive plays, which we knew we were capable of on both offense and defense and our special team looked solid as well,” he said.

Littleton did admit this was a tough game for the players and himself with the loss of Mathews this past week.

“We wanted to do well for him even though it was a scrimmage,” he said. “We threw in a few extra things and approached it a little bit differently to get this win for him.”

Mathews was one of the Bearcats’ biggest supporters and his initials were painted on the field in remembrance of him Friday night.

The Bearcats will now have a bye week before traveling to play Coffee County on the 27.