Friday night’s 44-41 victory over Pierce County was a nonstop adrenaline rush. This was like the Jefferson County 38-37 game in 2010 and reminiscent of the first 3 and a half quarters against Fitzgerald in 2009. Friday night was just a dazzling display of entertaining football from kickoff until the final horn.

Pierce County was a team on the upswing. Fresh off a 46-17 whipping of Dublin, the Bears welcomed the Tigers into town with full intentions of scorching another opponent with their vaunted passing attack. Not to take anything away from QB Tyler Harris. He was even better than advertised and looked nearly unstoppable at times. However, the Tigers made a statement early that they came to win and on the game’s first possession, forced the Bears to punt on 3 and out.

That’s where personality of this team took a major step forward in defining what they want to be in 2012. On the first play from scrimmage, RB Rico Johnson found a crease on the left side and he was out the gate and gone for a 79 touchdown run. Four minutes later, after a masterfully executed drive of precision, Pierce County answered with a 6 yard TD pass (though they missed the extra point) and the trailed only 7-6. The Bears’ crowd exhaled a collective sigh and settled in as it appeared their team was not swayed by the opening haymaker from the Tigers. However, the Tigers delivered another blow on their next play from scrimmage. RB Jemerico Bell found a gap in the same spot as before and burst through, cut across the field and shook a would-be tackler for a 74 yard TD run and a 14-6 lead. Pierce County steadied themselves, then answered with a quick 2 minute drive as Harris threw a 38 yard touchdown pass to draw closer, but missed the 2 point conversion to trail 14-12…still in the first quarter.

The second quarter was marred with penalties as Swainsboro drove inside Pierce County’s 5 yard line for a 2 and goal. Penalties and lost yardage plays pushed the Tigers backwards until they were forced to punt on 4 and goal from the 49 yard line. The Bears scored with 2:40 remaining in the half on an 8 yard run. The two point conversion was good and the Bears began to feel more comfortable with a 20-14 lead. Swainsboro was again up to the task and answered quickly as a 34 yard run by Deanate Johnson and a 35 yard TD run by Demetrius Knight tied the game and the extra point by Keith DeLima gave the Tigers a 21-20 halftime lead.

The second half would prove to be just as exciting as Bell intercepted a pass just 2 minutes into the quarter and returned it for a 55 yard TD. The extra point gave Swainsboro their largest lead at 28-20. However, the celebration was short lived. The Bears returned the ensuing kickoff 72 yards for a TD and converted the 2 point try to tie the game at 28 all. Pierce County then grabbed control of the game with a 32 yard TD pass with 2:34 remaining in the third quarter, 35-28.

Pierce opened the final quarter with the ball and a chance to put the game away. But this quarter would belong to Jemerico Bell and the Tigers. Bell intercepted a pass near midfield to stem the tide. With 8:26 remaining in the game, Bell plunged in from 2 yards out and then added a 2 point conversion to give Swainsboro the lead again, 36-35. However, the Bears answered immediately with a 37 second drive and scored on a 29 yard run, missed the 2 point conversion to lead by 5 points, 41-36.

With time running short, the Tigers needed to mount a drive immediately to avoid defeat. Pierce had not been able to stop the Tigers all evening but this drive came down to two 4th down conversions to put Swainsboro in scoring position. The first came as QB Dylan Poole missed on an out pattern to Bell on a 4th and short on their opponent’s 40 yard line. However, a bump by the defensive back resulted in a debatable pass interference call and Swainsboro had a fresh set of downs with just over 2 minutes remaining. Soon after, Swainsboro was faced with a 4th and 13 from the 25 yard line. Poole got the matchup that he wanted as Bell was single covered on the left side. Poole lofted a pass towards the goal line and Bell shielded his defender with his body, rising high in the air pull down the pass, coming down at the 2 yard line. Bell completed his miraculous night with a 2 yard TD run and Deantae Johnson tacked on the 2 point conversion with 1:02 on the clock.

Pierce County’s first play from scrimmage resulted in a fumble, recovered by the Tigers to secure the highly entertaining 44-41 victory. Bell led the way with 17 carries for 153 yards. The Tigers racked up 420 rushing yards and Poole was 5-8 through the air for 67 yards. Tyler Harris for Pierce County threw for 286 yards.

“The game plan really worked out well offensively,” said head coach David Johnson. “We wanted to control the clock and do as much as we could to keep their QB off the field. In the second half, we did a great job of controlling the clock and achieved that goal.”

Swainsboro will travel to Dublin this week to take on the winless Irish. Dublin has lost all three of their games by a total of 149-24 this season (Dodge County, Pierce County, West Laurens).