Trey Madison (10) and JaQuez Walker (52) try to bring down Colquitt County's Daijun Edwards.

MOULTRIE, Ga. — The cheerleaders ran onto the field with the flags too quickly before the players broke through the sign.

The first offensive snap sailed through the quarterback’s hands and resulted in a safety.

Two fumbles were lost before most fans had time to get comfortable into their seats.

And two self-inflicted penalties on a promising drive early in the first quarter stalled positive momentum.

Somehow, you got the feeling it wasn’t going to be a good night for Thomasville High School football.

Colquitt County built a 16-point first-quarter lead and never looked  back, routing the Bulldogs 50-3 Friday night at Mack Tharpe Stadium in a rivalry renewed. It’s the first time the neighboring counties squared off in football since 2009.

Thomasville showed signs of being able to stand against the mighty Packers, but too many turnovers and penalties had the underdog Bulldogs trying to play catch up. 

“I would have like to have those back,” Thomasville coach Zach Grage said. “I’m not saying the outcome of the game would have been different, but I’d like to have had those back. You can’t do those things against good teams. They capitalized and took advantage.”

By the time Colquitt County scored midway through the third quarter to make it 36-0, many fans began to head for the exits.

Grage, a former assistant under Packer coach Rush Propst, played his mentor for the first time. The Bulldogs didn’t play badly, but they dug themselves into too big of a hole to climb out of.

And the Packer defense proved to be too much for the young Bulldogs to move the football against. Thomasville held the ball in Colquitt territory in the first half after they recovered a fumble at the Colquitt 20 late in the first quarter. But they promptly fumbled the ball right back to the Packers.

They crossed midfield twice, and they moved the Colquitt 23 before stalling, which led to Hurston Waldrep’s 40-yard field goal with 11:09 left to end the shutout.

Thomasville finished with less than 200 yards of total offense. While their defense stopped the Packers a few times early, they eventually wore down and the much-deeper Packers took advantage in the third quarter.

Colquitt County scored three touchdowns in the span of four minutes in the third, getting a pick-6 that put the exclamation point on the victory.

“I thought our effort was good tonight, but we made a lot of mistakes that we can’t make,” Grage said. “But our effort never waned. Hopefully, we can get things back together and move forward.”

Colquitt improved to 3-0 on the season. Thomasville fell to 2-1 and will host Everglades (Florida) on Sept. 7.