There are three ranked teams remaining in the Class AAAAA playoffs. Bainbridge is not one of them. However, the Bearcats are still alive and kicking, thanks to their ability to thin the heard of three teams that were more highly regarded when the playoffs began a month ago.

Bainbridge has already knocked off No. 9 Jones County, No. 5 Wayne County and No. 2 Buford. Now they are staring down No. 6 Stockbridge, another of the state’s elite football teams, and play on the road for a third straight week.

But guess what? The Bearcats are still going to show up and compete, whatever the odds may be.

“We’ve got to go on the road again,” coach Jeff Littleton said. “Nobody is going to give us a chance. We’re going to go to work this week and we’re going to give it our best.”

While the wins in the first two weeks were not complete surprises, last week’s 23-20 victory at Buford was shocking. But Bainbridge was able to take advantage of multiple Buford mistakes to get ahead and stay ahead of the Wolves. And despite the poor weather – 40 degrees and varying degrees of rain – the Bearcats just kept plugging along for 48 minutes. And they thwarted Buford’s last chance in the final minutes.

“We had to keep getting turnovers,” Littleton said. “That’s what we’ve been doing all year – playing great defense and getting turnovers. We kept preaching … it’s four quarters, don’t get too high don’t get too low, just keep playing.”

The season has been two unequal parts for Bainbridge, a proud program that reached the second round last season and got the semifinals in 2015.

The Bearcat opened the season with two wins, but dropped their next four against some legitimate opponents: Lincoln of Tallahassee, Fla., Brooks County, Crisp County and Tift County. With the team at 2-4 and a difficult Region 1 schedule staring them head-on, Littleton gave the team a challenge.

“We’ve got such a young team and we started out slow,” Littleton said. “We played some tough competition. We decided to go back to work. We told the kids, ‘We’re 2-4, we’ve got to go back to work and quit looking ahead.’”

The team responded, too. They handed Veterans its first loss of the season, got blitzed by No. 3 Warner Robins and finished with two lopsided wins over Harris County and Thomas County Central.

“Our kids kept fighting,” Littleton said. “We fought and got better every day. We kept believing and now we’re at the point where we believe in ourselves. The coaches believe in the kids and the kids believe in the coaches. Nobody gave us a chance to be here – except us – and we kept believing and kept working.”

The team’s best player may be Caleb McDowell, a handful at 5-9, 170 pounds. He ran for two touchdowns against Buford and returned a kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown.

“No. 5 (McDowell) is a football player,” Littleton said. “He’s been doing that all year. We know if we keep getting him the ball, something good is going to happen and it did. Great players make great plays and he made a great play (on the kickoff).”

McDowell is closing in on 1,000 yards, a number diminished by the presence of tailback Rashad Broadnax, who has close to 700 yards rushing. Quarterback Quayde Hawkins doesn’t run much, but is an effective passer – even last week under miserable conditions.

On defense senior Roman Harrison was tough for Buford to handle and leads the team in sacks. Bryce Worthy and Aaron Spivie were among those who made big plays against the Wolves.

“We believe in our defense,” Littleton said.