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Irwin County Indians

October 17, 2012

Indians host Lanier County

Becky Taylor CNHI The Tifton Gazette Wed Oct 17, 2012, 08:55 PM EDT

TIFTON — The Irwin County Indians are perhaps the hottest team in Region 2-A. After only winning five games total in their last two seasons, they have a chance to notch their fifth victory in 2012 when they host the Lanier County Bulldogs in Ocilla Friday.

Indians head coach Jon Lindsey said beating Clinch County in Homerville was another monumental win for his squad. Irwin took the game, 26-15, handing the Panthers their first home loss since 2009.

Lindsey said the Panthers were a young team, but “if they played like that against anyone else, they’re going to win some games.”

Irwin racked up another big rushing game in Homerville, accumulating 326 yards on the ground.

“It was good to us,” Lindsey said.

He and his crew would have another region contest this week with Lanier County. He expects to use similar tactics again.

The Irwin coach said against Lanier that his team would mostly stick to the ground, but that they were prepared to take whatever the Bulldogs gave them, especially since he said the Indians’ passing attack was improving.

Irwin is currently riding high. After winning their opener, they dropped a pair of games to East Laurens and to traditional rival Fitzgerald. Since then, they have been on a tear. First, they outscored the Wilkinson County Warriors 34-7 in the second half to win 41-34. Then, they demolished Telfair County 55-21 and last week was Clinch County. The streak has propelled them into the rankings, the Atlanta Jounral-Constitution listing them as No. 10 this week.

A win over Lanier would give them their most since 2009, when the school went 5-6 and lost in the first round of the state playoffs.

As the Indians have prospered, the Bulldogs’ fortunes have been falling in the opposite direction lately. The year looked to be a good one for Lanier and first year head coach David Ward.

They started off with a win over Atkinson County, 19-8. They would lose to Long County, but then defeated Calhoun County, 18-14, to up their record to 2-1. Things have not gone smoothly since and the Bulldogs are mired in a four-game losing streak that has seen them outscored 145-13. Last week, the Charlton County Indians defeated them, 41-7.

That makes little difference to Lindsey.

“They’re a little scary,” he said.

Against Charlton, the Bulldogs trailed by only a single point, 8-7, at the half. In their series against Irwin, Lanier has taken the last two games, though trail in the all-time series, 4-2.

“At any minute, they could get things going,” he said. “It could be a long night for us.”

After Lanier County, Irwin will tackle the Turner County Rebels in Ashburn. This week, the Rebels play Telfair in McRae.

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