When a 1-A state football team meets a 4-A team, the result is not always good for the team from the smaller school. For the Sweet Water Bulldogs to have a chance against a tough Thomasville High Tigers team, they would have to play a perfect game. That didn’t happen Thursday night in Sweet Water’s home opener.

Key errors put Sweet Water in a hole in the first quarter they couldn’t dig out of. The Tigers ran up a 41-0 lead in the first half and then put in the reserves.

To the Bulldogs credit, the young team fought hard in the second half. Although they didn’t score in the game, they were able to keep Thomasville out of the end zone in the second half.

Problems for Sweet Water began with opening kick off which was shanked and gave the Tigers great field position at midfield.

Thomasville didn’t take long to score. Running back Aaron Johns first ran 32 yards to the 15-yard line, then scored a touhdown with 9:22 left in the first.

The Bulldogs fumbled the kickoff, and Tigers running back Nick Williams quickly scored another TD with a four-yard run. With 8:16 to go it was already 14-0.

Thomasville would score two more touchdowns in the first quarter, a 46-yard run by Johns and a 40-yard fumble return by Williams.

A Bulldog pass was intercepted by Tigers defensive back Brandon Gates, putting Thomasville in SW territory. After a holding penalty stopped one Thomasville score, the Tigers would go on to score with 10:54 left in the second quarter. The three-yard TD run by Johns made the score 35-0 over Sweet Water.

The final score in the game came with 8:49 left in the first half. Marshall Knight ran 50 yards for the TD, but the point-after-touchdown kick was no good.

Sweet Water had their moments to score in the second half. At the end of the third quarter, the Bulldogs had recovered a fumble by the Tigers and had great field position. However, they just could not move the ball.

There were nice, hard runs by Sweet Water’s Dominic Holt and Patrick Gamble, and some fine Bulldog defensive stops on fourth down attempts by the Tigers.

First downs for Sweet Water were six to 12 for Thomasville.

Rushing yards for the Bulldogs totaled 64; the Tigers had 316.

Sweet Water had 16 total passing yards to none for Thomasville.

The Bulldogs punted five times for a 31-yard average, and the Tigers punted twice for a 31-yard average.

Sweet Water will next travel to Akron September 5 while Thomasville heads to Jackson.