The Southeast Bulloch Yellow Jackets defeated the Statesboro Blue Devils in a 23-18 nail biting season opener. Friday night's win was the first victory for Southeast Bulloch over Statesboro.
The Blue Devils made a short road trip to Brooklet to take on the Yellow Jackets on Friday, August 16. Big Blue went home unhappy after a close loss to start the sesaon. With 39 seconds remaining in the game, the Yellow Jackets decided to put the game in the hands of the big guys up front. On 4th and 2, Southeast Bulloch's Quentin Reed iced the game with a tough run to move the chains and keep the clock moving.
The game seemed well in hand for the Yellow Jackets as they entered the 4th quarter with a 23-6 lead. Statesboro would storm back to make the final score tight. A double pass resulted in a big gain by Gage Newsome flipped the field for the Blue Devils and put them in scoring position. Newsome would cap the drive off with a touchdown reception on a broken play when Beckham Jarrard scrambled out to the right side.
After getting a stop on defense and marching down the field, Ty Chambers punched in a 2 yard touchdown to make the score 23-18 with 4:43 left in the game. For the rest of the game, the Yellow Jackets grounded and pounded the Blue Devils to close the game.
The first half was closely contested as the Yellow Jackets went into the break with a 10-6 lead. Southeast Bulloch wasted no time getting back on the scoreboard with a 63 yard touchdown run by Colby Smith in the opening possession of the second half. Big runs were the theme of the 3rd quarter as Jayden Murphy followed up with a 85 yard rushing touchdown later in the period to go up 23-6.
Everything was going the Yellow Jackets' way from kickoff. The defense scored off of a fumble recovery on the second play from scrimmage to take an early lead. Ty Chambers scored the first of his two rushing touchdowns to answer the early Southeast Bulloch touchdown.
The Yellow Jackets dominated the line of scrimmage on offense. Head Coach Jared Zito spoke on his team's play in the opener. "We got grit, we got blue collar guys who like to play physical," ZIto said. "When we had to have it tonight, we had to be physical and just go pad for pad."
Statesboro made several mistakes over the course of the game with turnovers and penalties. Head Coach Matt Dobson pointed miscues as the reason for his team's loss. "We knew it was going to come down to not beating ourselves and we did just that," Dobson said.
At the First Friday pep rally, Coach Zito said that Southeast Bulloch and Statesboro are not rivals because it has been onesided recently. "We can start having a rivalry now," Zito said after Friday night's game.
Up Next:
The Southeast Bulloch Yellow Jackets are off next week, but will return to action in a region home game against the Islands Sharks on Friday, August 30th.
The Statesboro Blue Devils look to bounce back and even up their record as they host the Veterans Warhawks on Friday, August 23rd.