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No. 5 Gators face first road test in Lyons against Robert Toombs
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The No. 5 ranked Bulloch Academy Gators get an early jump on the high school football schedule this week as they travel to Lyons to take on Robert Toombs Thursday night at 7:30 p.m.

The Gators last played Tuesday August 26 in a 34-0 win against Claxton. The week before that they played on a Saturday night in the Erk Russell Classic in a 49-20 win over Portal. Head coach Aaron Phillips has had to adjust to playing games on a night other than Friday and feels his team is ready for the challenge.

“It’s almost like we have two bye weeks with a game sprinkled in there too,” Phillips said. “We had a chance to heal up from some bumps and bruises and we actually had a couple extra days to prepare for Robert Toombs. I can’t remember ever having three games to open the season and none of them were on a Friday, but we just have to adjust and be ready Thursday.”

The Gators have had a pair of lopsided victories in their first two contests. Phillips has particularly liked what he has seen from his offense, and thinks the defense is really starting to come together.

“We have done a great job on offense and we are tough to defend,” Phillips said. “What we do is hard to defend and we have done a great job of holding onto the football. On defense I thought we did a little better job against Claxton than we did against Portal. We limited their big plays and did a better job wrapping up. Any time you can come away from a game with a shutout you have something to be proud of.”

This week the Gators travel to Lyons for a Thursday showdown against Robert Toombs. The Crusaders come in with a record of 1-2 with that lone victory coming in a 41-19 victory over Thomas Jefferson last Friday.

“They are a spread team on offense so we have to try and keep everything in front of us,” Phillips said. “Their quarterback is an extension of their run game and they try and spread you out and run underneath, so we have to be ready for that. Defensively we will be playing against something we haven’t seen this year in a 3-3 stack. We saw that a couple times last year and had success against it so I feel confident as long as we take care of what we need to.”