By: Jason Bishop

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

The 2024 season has come to an end for McIntosh County Academy Buccaneers.

Once again the Bucs made the playoffs under head coach Bradley Warren.

Unfortunately for Bucs fans MCA made a first-round exit from the playoffs for the second season in a row, this year falling to Wilcox County 9-0 on the road.

Last season, the Bucs went down to rival Clinch County 38-14 in the first round of the GHSA playoffs.

Despite the early exit this season huge strides were made from last season.

In 2023, MCA finished the season w a 4-7 record. 2024 saw the Bucs improve to a 7-4 mark and earn a three seed in region 3-A Division II with a 6-2 region record.

The 2024 schedule was a tough one with tough region play. The Bucs had the Metter Tigers, the Jenkins County War Eagles, the ECI Bulldogs, the Bryan County Redskins, the Portal Panthers, the Screven County Gamecocks, the Claxton Tigers and the Savannah Blue Jackets all in region.

MCA started the season on the road against the Islands Sharks and showed right away a dominant defense, beating the Sharks 22-0 to start the season on the right foot.

Week two was the home opener at ‘The Ship’ in Darien against the Charlton County Indians and while the defense played well, the offense stumbled and the Bucs took a 19-0 loss to Charlton.

The Bucs would open region play against the ECI Bulldogs after a week three bye in week four. The Bucs defense would once again show up, limiting ECI to only 6 points. This led to a 7-6 MCA win to get back over .500 at 2-1.

The Bucs hosted Claxton in week 5 in a ‘get right’ game for the offense, throttling the Tigers 48-6. MCA improved to 3-1.

In week 6 the Bucs traveled to Sylvania to take on Screven County. They would continue to roll, beating the Gamecocks 32-14.

The 4-1 Bucs hosted Jenkins County with first place in the region on the line. Bradley Warren’s team would fall short against the War Eagles 37-19. MCA would fall to 4-2 taking their first region loss of the season. Jenkins County went on to claim the 2 seed in the region.

MCA would rebound the following week on the road beating Bryan County 36-14 and improving to 5-2 on the season and 4-1 in the region.

The Metter Tigers visited Darien the next week taking down the Bucs 12-6 in a defensive struggle. Metter went on to win the region.

MCA trekked up to Savannah the next week and beat the struggling Savannah Blue Jackets 46-6 to get things back on the right track, improving to 6-3 on the season and 5-2 in region.

The season finale was a home game against the Portal Panthers where the Bucs played a complete game beating the Panthers 40-0.

With the win over Portal, MCA earned a 3 seed in the region with a 7-3 regular season and 6-2 in region.

Unfortunately, Gus Bradley’s team got a tough first round draw and had to head to Rochelle, GA to play the Wilcox County Patriots. After a hard fought 9-0 loss the season had ended with a 7-4 record for MCA.

Coach Warren continues to be successful in Darien and will look to once again be a playoff team next season.