The Swainsboro Tigers traveled south to Pierce County Friday night looking to close out a grueling non-region schedule on a high note, but the Bears used a physical rushing attack to pull away for a 35-7 victory.
In what has seemingly become a pattern before Tiger football games this season, rain made an appearance before kickoff. The showers, however, did little to slow down the action once the two teams took the field.
Early on, Swainsboro and Pierce County battled in a physical contest that appeared evenly matched. The Tigers fought to contain a Pierce County offense that leaned heavily on its running game, while Swainsboro looked for opportunities to create offense of its own.
As the game progressed, however, the Bears began finding small creases in the Tiger defense and turning them into bigger gains. Pierce County’s physical ground attack began to take control of the game, while a couple of successful passes helped the Bears stretch the Swainsboro defense.
Pierce County eventually built its advantage and handed the Tigers a 35-7 loss.
Swainsboro’s lone touchdown of the night came through the air when junior quarterback Joshua Gray connected with senior wide receiver Marco Danford for the score.
Shannon Benjamin was named the Tigers’ Offensive Player of the Game, while D.J. Cuyler earned Defensive Player of the Game honors.
Following the loss, Head Coach Dwight Smith said the Tigers have to eliminate the smaller mistakes that have hurt them throughout their difficult non-region stretch.
“We just need to clean up the smaller mistakes and stop allowing swings to be so easy,” Smith said. “With the non-region schedule that we had, we couldn’t afford to make the mistakes that we made, and it ended up putting us in this position.”
While the Tigers aren’t satisfied with their 1-3 record, Smith believes playing one of the more demanding non-region schedules around has prepared his team for what comes next.
“The good thing about it was that it’s preparing us for region play,” Smith said. “We go into an equally tough region, and we’re going to have to learn from our mistakes during this open week and get better if we want to make a run at this thing.”
More importantly, Smith emphasized that four non-region games have not changed what remains possible for his team.
“Everything is still intact,” Smith said. “We can still achieve all of our goals. We just have to lock in, take it one day at a time and focus on winning every day.”
The timing of Swainsboro’s open week gives the Tigers an opportunity to regroup before beginning the portion of the schedule that will determine their postseason path.
Instead of immediately turning their attention toward East Laurens, Smith said this week will first be about fixing Swainsboro.
“We plan on getting better,” Smith said. “We’ll use this to continue to take steps toward being what we want to be. Obviously, there’s a lot of mistakes that we need to clean up, so that’s what we’ll focus on this week.”
The Tigers will use the open week to work on fundamentals, correct mistakes and evaluate where they can improve before beginning specific preparations for East Laurens.
“We’ll take this week and just focus on Swainsboro, just focus on what can we do to be better,” Smith said. “Then we’ll turn our focus to East Laurens the following week.”
Although the scoreboard says Swainsboro enters the break at 1-3, Smith’s message to his players is not to allow the early-season record or outside opinions to determine where their season goes from here.
“Just ignore the noise and keep on it,” Smith said. “This is a marathon. It’s not a sprint. We’re in it for the long haul.”
Smith still expects his team to have an opportunity to play meaningful football deep into the season, but knows improvement has to come along with it.
“We plan on playing ball late, late November, December, and we have to continue to get better in order to do so,” Smith said. “We need a lot of guys to step up, and I think that our guys are old enough to be able to step up.”
With a grueling non-region schedule now behind them, the Tigers enter their open week with a chance to reset, correct mistakes and prepare for a fresh start.
When Swainsboro returns to the field, the record that matters most begins at 0-0.
Region play is next, and East Laurens is first.
