Last Friday night did not go according to plan for Georgia Military College Prep, as the Bulldogs fell 19-0 to McIntosh County Academy in the home opener at Davenport Field.
Nor did it go how GMC head coach Gavin Tierce imagined his reunion with his mentor, Bradley Warren, would go. The Bulldogs (1-1) gained only 63 total yards of offense, all rushing yards, while the Buccaneers (2-1) gained 188 total yards, 181 of which were on the ground.
The Bucs' third TD of the night came on an 82-yard pick six that gave them a comfortable 19-0 lead in the fourth quarter. Although the Bulldogs had a difficult time moving the ball on offense, Tierce was still in good spirits about how his team performed.
“That was such a physical, just down hill, mean, nasty football game,” Tierce said. “That’s what we knew it was going to be, I wanted a dog fight out of this bunch, and that’s exactly what they gave me. You take away two mistakes, you take away a muffed punt on our own 10, and you take away a pick six. Then this is a different ball game.'
The turnaround has been remarkable considering Glenn Hills went winless in 2025, scored four touchdowns all season and lost eight different games by at least 40 points.
“They are going to present a different challenge than what we’ve seen so far this year,” Tierce said. “They’re extremely athletic on the perimeter, and their quarterback is a true dual-threat guy who probably has the best arm we’ve faced to this point. Defensively, they bring a lot of pressure and try to create negative plays and get you behind the chains. We’re going to have to handle that pressure, take care of the football, and stay on schedule offensively.”
With region play kicking off in several weeks, Tierce knows his team has a lot of room for improvement.
“We’ve got to be able to adjust better on offense,” he said. “How our offense works is we call a lot of stuff from the line and we put a lot on our offensive line and our quarterback to kind of get us in the place we need to be in.
“I felt like we did that early when we were moving the football pretty well, but later in the game we kind of got out of that system and started trying to just force stuff that wasn’t necessarily there. We weren’t getting in the right places that we needed to be.
“Another thing we’ve got to do is blocking better at the second level. We had some big plays on the perimeter that should have gone for big gains and second-level scrapes were kind of getting us before we were able to cut loose. Defensively, I can’t ask for a better football game. I’m so proud of Coach (Reginald) Mosely, I’m so proud of those defenders.”
Tierce added that his squad is further along at this point in the season when compared to last year, which was the coach's first at Baldwin.
“I think this is a good measuring stick as far as where we’re at as a football team, who we can hang with,” he said. “McIntosh is a great football team. Coach Warren has done a good job. I think they have made the playoffs the last five years in-a-row, so I guess you would call them the perennial powerhouse at this point. It was good to see us hanging with someone like that until the bitter end. We made them earn every inch and that’s what I’m so proud of.”
Now, the Bulldogs turn their focus to Glenn Hills, one of those Augusta programs with a pretty feeble football tradition. The Spartans haven’t had a winning season since 2008 and haven’t won a playoff game in more than 40 years. However, the Spartans are 2-0 this season, with wins over GHSA Class AAA programs Butler and Cross Creek. In their two victories, the Spartans have outscored their opponents 60-13.
Kickoff against Glenn Hills will be 7:30 p.m. Friday at Davenport Field in Milledgeville.