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Staff Reports 

VIENNA- The Dooly County Bobcats picked up their fourth win out of the last five games with a 47-20 home victory over the Manchester High School Blue Devils this past Friday night. The contest was also Dooly’s homecoming game for this season as the earlier planned game for the occasion was moved to a Monday night road game due to Hurricane Michael.

Reggie Smith and Bo Lawson led the charge for Dooly’s offense on the night with three total touchdowns each. Smith ran the football three times for 35 yards and two scores, caught five passes for 70 yards, threw a 69-yard touchdown pass to Lawson, and scored a two point conversion on the night. Lawson added seven carries for 107 rushing yards and two touchdowns to go with his long touchdown catch, and he also completed 12 out of 14 pass attempts for another 290 yards. Other offensive contributors on the stat sheet in the Dooly County win over Manchester were: Zepha Hill- two rushes for 13 yards and a touchdown, Malik Burns- four carries for three yards and a touchdown, Malik Mcghee- seven carries for 55 yards and one reception for 15 yards, Shamon Zanders- four catches for 153 yards, Javarese Black- one catch for 27 yards, and Emaje Son- one catch for 15 yards and a two-point conversion.

Smith caused some problems for the Blue Devils on the defensive side of the ball as well with an interception and a forced fumble to go with two tackles on the night. Ra’quavious Billings was the leading tackler on the night for the Bobcat defense with 10 total stops, including two for a loss of yards, to go with a fumble recovery. Hill had eight total tackles and a forced fumble on the night to help out the cause. Other defensive contributors: Burns- seven total tackles (two for loss), Jeff Felton- six total tackles, Black- four tackles, Tatravion Haughabrook- three tackles, Markell Morgan- three tackles, Deon King-three tackles, Son- two tackles, Jaboris Hicks-two tackles, and Rashad Lucas- two tackles.

The win put Dooly at 5-4 overall so far this season and 3-2 in region play, good enough for number 15 in the playoff power rankings at this point in the season.

Up next for the Bobcats is the regular season finale at Brookstone (6-3), ranked 20th in the GHSA class A private school playoff standings. A win for the Bobcats would almost certainly mean a home playoff game in the first round of the state playoffs, as teams ranked 9-16 host first round contests. The completion of the regular season this week will make the picture much clearer and the finalized rankings will be out by early next week so the state brackets can be set.

Dooly has played Brookstone 11 times with the Bobcats winning nine out of those contests. The most recent matchup was a contest in Vienna two seasons ago, in which Dooly won 27-13.

Kickoff between the Bobcats and Brookstone is scheduled for Friday night at 7:30 in Columbus.