VIENNA- The Dooly County Bobcats picked up a big region win over the Macon County Bulldogs in a high scoring matchup on Friday night. Dooly led 31-6 at halftime before just holding off a ferocious Bulldog comeback attempt and escaping with the win 46-40.

“It helped to have our quarterback (Bo Lawson) back. He played really well, threw the ball well. He did what he always does, made a couple of plays with his legs and kept some plays alive like he does,” said Dooly County Head Coach Corey Jarvis.

Lawson was given credit for six total touchdowns on the Dooly County Maxpreps stat sheet in the win over Macon County, five passing and one rushing. He completed nine out of 11 passes for 320 yards, five touchdowns and one interception. In the rushing attack he was credited with seven runs for 141 yards, including a 60-yard touchdown run.

Other big contributors for the high scoring Bobcat offensive attack were: Reggie Smith- three catches for 187 yards, three touchdowns and 47 yards rushing on four carries, Emaje Son- two catches for 66 yards and two touchdowns, Jarquavious Westbrook- three catches for 40 yards and one touchdown, Malik McGhee- 13 carries for 57 yards, Shamon Zanders- one catch for 27 yards.

Coach Jarvis was mostly content with the performance of the Dooly defense on the night.

“Defensively I felt like we played really well in the first half. We kind of got tired in the second half, but they had enough to hold on,” Jarvis said. “We made some big plays on defense, and had a couple of third down stops that helped us out in the long run. I was pleased we could get the win. I’m just proud of the kids’ effort on Friday night,” he added.

Defensive leaders on the night for Dooly were: Ra’quavious Billings- 19 total tackles (eight solo, 11 assists) and one forced fumble, Malik Burns- 12 total tackles, three for a loss of yardage, one sack and one forced fumble, Jeff Felton- eight total tackles, two sacks and a forced fumble, Javarese Black- eight total tackles, Jaboris Hicks- five total tackles and two pass breakups, Rashad Lucas- four tackles and one sack.

The win snapped a three game losing streak for the Bobcats that had come in a three game stretch against some difficult competition, with games against Fitzgerald, Clinch County and Schley County. Dooly now sits at 2-3 so far this season, but the win over Macon County moved them back up into the GHSA class A playoff picture as they now sit at number 19 overall.

Up next for the Bobcats is a road game against region rival Hawkinsville High School (2-3, ranked 32 in class A). Hawkinsville is coming off a region win over Crawford County in their most recent game. Coach Jarvis says the Bobcats will need to maintain their focus if they want to build upon the win this past Friday.

“They (Hawkinsville) do some good things well. If we don’t play well it could be a tight ball game and we could possibly lose it. If we don’t play disciplined and play sound football then it’s going to be a tight ball game,” Jarvis said.

Dooly County has won the last three meetings against their region rivals, including a 40-7 win over the Red Devils in Vienna in last season’s matchup. The two teams have split the series record, both winning 16 out of the 32 games in the matchup history between the two, according to the Georgia High School Football Historians Association’s stats for the schools.

The Bobcats and the Red Devils are set to kick off at 7:30 p.m. in Hawkinsville on Friday night.