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The Bearcats travel to Columbus to play Hardaway Friday. Hardaway has yet to find a win this season under new head coach Ryan McKenzie.

Bainbridge comes into this week off a dead period last week due to fall break. Bearcats’ head coach, Jeff Littleton, said his players returned to practice energized.

“We had a good day of practice [Monday],” Littleton said. “They handled the off week really well.”

The game against Hardaway will be the Bearcats third region game. Bainbridge is undefeated in the region with wins over Westover and Shaw and is outsourcing region opponents 90-21. Littleton said there’s no sign of slowing down.
“We’ll just keep doing what we’re doing,” Littleton said.

Though the Bearcats haven’t struggled in the region, Littleton said there is always something the team can improve on. Last week, it was blocking, tackling, and footwork. 

“you want to make your strength stronger, and you try to correct some of your weaknesses and some of the things you’re still doing wrong,” Littleton said. “There’s plenty of things you’re going to find when you watch film. It doesn’t matter who you play, whether you blow out somebody or whether you lose. There’s always going to be something you can correct.”

Littleton said the team has been able to fine-tune on both sides of the ball over the eight regular season games they’ve played. 

“We’ve gotten better in a lot of phases,” Littleton said. “Whether it’s running the ball in between the tackles or getting better at our perimeter blocking, that’s just a couple of things that we’ve improved on offensively. Defensively, we’ve done a better job of not giving up explosive plays.”

The Bearcats have just one game left of the regular season after the Hardaway matchup. The season finale is against Cairo, The Bearcats’ rival. In the more than 70-year rivalry history, the teams have faced off 78 times, and Bainbridge owns the series by just one win — the Bearcats’ record: 36 wins, 35 losses, and seven ties. 

“It’s hard not to [look ahead],” Littleton said. “You have to be disciplined enough to focus on, you know, Tuesday. Yesterday, at the end of practice, the emphasis was on not looking down the road, and I even addressed the Cairo thing.”

The Bearcats kick off against Hardaway in Columbus on Friday at 7 p.m.