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The Bearcats welcome Shaw High School to Centennial Field Friday for their homecoming game. The Rams are 3-4 under first-year head coach Johnny Garner and come to Bainbridge off a shutout loss to Cairo.

“It seems like they’re well coached,” said Bearcats head coach Jeff Littleton. “They’ve got some really good football players… it looks like on film that they’re doing what they’re coached to do.”

The Bearcats go into the Rams matchup off a 41-14 win over Hardaway. Littleton said he was happy with the way the team played and is working on fine-tuning the penalties his players commit.

“We’ve got to do some things to work on some aggressive penalties,” Littleton said. “We commit some penalties, but most of them are aggressive style penalties, and that’s kind of the way I’ve coached. Offsides, holding, maybe, subjectively, a late hit… We still hold our kids accountable, but, to me, when you’re making those kinds of penalties, you’re trying to do the best you can absolutely do.”

Littleton said he’s guarding against playing down to the opposing team’s level as the Bearcats navigate a weaker conference schedule than their out-of-conference schedule. He said the team played at a high level against Westover and looks for that to continue against Shaw.

The Bearcats had a good day of practice Monday, according to Littleton. 

“We’re pretty consistent with our effort,” Littleton said. “Our kids know that they’ll be held accountable for those types of things, and that’s kind of the standard here. Our kids do a good job of giving great effort.”

The homecoming home game against Shaw kicks off Friday at 7:30 p.m.