Long County High School fell 34-14 to Toombs County on Friday in Ludowici to finish 0-10 under first-year head coach Ron Flott.
But the game was closer than the score indicated and Flott praised his kids.
“They never quit,” Flott said. “We shot ourselves in the foot a few times, but these guys continued to play hard. It’s one thing to play hard when you’re winning, but when you give it all you have at every practice and at every game right up until the end, even when you’re not winning, that’s something else.”
The Blue Tide drove inside the Bulldogs’ 20-yard line four times, but came away empty each time. Three Toombs County scores came off Long County mistakes.
The first Bulldogs’ TD came after Long County drove from its own 44-yard line down to the Toombs’ 10. But when quarterback Jacob Turner attempted to make a lateral on an option run to the left, a Toombs defender plucked the ball out of the air and raced 90 yards the other way to put the visitors up by a touchdown. 
The Bulldogs, who improved to 2-8, added two more scores in the second quarter and led 21-0 at halftime.
In the third quarter, the Blue Tide once again found its rhythm and used a solid running attack led by Josh Berry, Fred Nelson, and Turner to move down to the Bulldogs’ 3-yard line.
Berry scored and a two-point conversion made the score 21-8 in the Dogs’ favor.
The Bulldogs scored on a Blue Tide turnover to increase their lead to 27-8. Long County scored its final TD on a 28-yard TD pass from Jacob White to Johnnae Jones with less than 10 minutes left in the game.
The Tide threatened to further tighten the game by stopping the Bulldogs on their next possession, but Long County was unable to score after driving the ball down to the Toombs’ 15. Toombs County added a final TD.

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