Take a sigh of relief Bulloch County — football finally smiles upon your fields once again.
    Fans of Southeast Bulloch may argue there are no moral victories, but when you factor in the collective performances of all four schools it may be the best group outing by Bulloch County in two years. Two losing streaks were snapped, a top-five team was taken to the brink and a 16-point comeback where just the tip of the iceberg when it came to Ogeechee area football this past week.
    Before we recap the performances of the four county schools, let’s touch on some of the big storylines around the area. Jenkins County pulled off an upset of McIntosh County Academy 22-18 in Millen where the Eagles scored 22 points all in the second quarter. Screven County and ECI continued their scorched earth campaign through region play by wrecking Laney 49-0 and Treutlen County 48-13 respectively.
    On the other end of the spectrum, Pinewood’s season continues to slip into a dark abyss after losing 33-9 to Edmund Burke Academy — a team that was 0-9 a year ago. Pinewood now stands 2-4 with Trinity-Dublin (4-3), Frederica (3-3) and Bulloch Academy (4-2) left on the schedule. Safe to say region 2-3A in the GISA will get interesting over the next four weeks.
    Speaking of which... 

Bulloch Academy Gators
    BA’s win over Robert Toombs wasn’t mentioned in Saturday’s edition of the Herald because there are only so many bodies to go around covering high school football games, so let’s give those starving fans the recognition their team deserves after mounting a double digit comeback in Statesboro.
    After Ty Mingle opened the game with a 25-yard touchdown reception, Robert Toombs would answer with back-to-back touchdown runs to lead 14-6 going into halftime. The Crusaders bottled up the Gator run game for 117 yards at just 3.0 yards a carry to constipate the BA offense in ways BA hadn’t experienced since the Trinity-Sharpsburg and Memorial Day games back in August.
    Billy Tillman would strike a 65 yard run to cut the RTCA lead to two out of halftime, but the Crusaders would answer with two more scores to make it a 28-12 game heading into the fourth quarter. Everything seemed lost for BA until the turnover bug bit RTCA in the rear end at the worst possible time.
    Will Aaron would pick off three passes — including one pick six to give BA the 32-28 go ahead lead — as RTCA would commit a total of five turnovers to watch their lead evaporate in the blink of an eye. Credit Mingle again on special teams with a return touchdown to help BA mount their comeback.
    BA would be outdone by RTCA in yards per play (7.1 ypp to 4.3 ypp) but would once again be bailed out by turnovers and special teams. Now, BA gets no breaks with region play on the horizon. Edmund Burke, Pinewood, Trinity-Dublin and Frederica won’t make things easy on the Gators in the coming weeks, but head coach Terence Hennessey will first have to worry about EBA this week — who are an upstart 4-2 on the season. 

Statesboro
Blue Devils
    It took nearly two years for Statesboro to finally find their way into the win column — and Appling County didn’t make it easy on SHS last week — but the Blue Devils eventually walked away a 28-21 win. Many of the impact seniors were sophomores the last time Statesboro won a game on Oct. 16, 2015.
    Two of those seniors where running backs Tupac Lanier and Stacey Fleming — both of whom have emerged as the ideal backfield partners for QB Davis Wiggins. Lanier rushed for 131 yards on 18 carries and a touchdown on top of a pivotal kickoff return to set up key field position, while Fleming rushed for 115 yards and two touchdowns on 12 carries. The two made it so Statesboro only had to throw six passes on the night.
    Statesboro never punted against Appling County — with six drives going for two turnovers and four touchdowns. Defensively SHS was able to hang on in spite of a career night by Appling County QB Tyler Jones (303 total yards, two TD’s) by forcing a turnover to end an 18-play drive inside the 10 yard line and another fourth down stop in the redzone in the second half.
    Confidence is key and that’s what Statesboro has for the first time in possibly four years. With Tattnall County (1-2) and New Hampstead (2-2) coming in the next two weeks, there’s a possibility of Statesboro putting together a winning streak for the first time since 2013.

Southeast Bulloch Yellow Jackets
    How do you spin 0-4 as a positive thing? Try it this way:
    SEB saw their eight-year head coach walk out the door unexpectedly in the spring, leaving them without two of their best offensive coaches.
    So Steve Pennington, recently ousted from Statesboro, takes over as an interim coach and has to put together some semblance of a team over a summer’s time.
    SEB’s first four game are: 4-0 6A Richmond Hill and 5-0 6A Bradwell Institute (both of whom receive votes for the Georgia prep poll top ten); defending state champions Benedictine, 5-0 and ranked No. 1 in 2A; only to be followed by No. 5 3A Jenkins who are also 4-0.
    When you look at the circumstances, 0-4 doesn’t seem so awful, especially when SEB has been able to keep two of those games within ten points. One of those being Jenkins, where SEB actually led the No. 5 team with five minutes left in the third quarter. The Warriors had a tough time bottling up defending region OPOY Chase Walker as the senior went for 157 yards and three touchdowns.  
    But the good news for SEB is their schedule gets exponentially easier going forward. Their next six opponents — all in region — are a combined 10-14 this season and historically don’t fare well with SEB with the exception of a few outliers. Pennington left Statesboro with 198 wins as a head coach and with no doubt will reach 200 by this season’s end. 

Portal Panthers
    You’ll have to go all the way back to 2010 to find the last time Portal scored more than 40 points in a game — a 47-28 win over Bryan County. Low and behold, after falling in a heartbreaker two weeks ago to Jenkins County 30-28, Portal would snap a three game skid of their own in a big way.
    Portal dropped 45 points on Wheeler County last week by defeating the Bulldogs 4by 23 points in a stupendous rushing performance by the Panthers. Portal racked up 482 yards at 11.8 yards a pop. The Ware brothers (senior Craig and sophomore Brian) combined to rush for 305 yards and four touchdowns in what possibly the best offensive performance for Portal in ten years.
    This win was an absolutely necessary one for Portal in their power rankings push. The Panthers jumped seven spots after their win and will have to beat Claxton, their crossover game Nov. 3 and ideally two of their next four games in order to have a shot at the postseason. That’ll be easier said than done considering who those next four opponents are.
    Traditionally, Calvary Day, Savannah Christian, McIntosh County Academy and Savannah Country Day are huge thorns in the side of the small rural schools like Portal. Even with Savannah Christian and MCA experiencing down years, they won’t be easy outs for a thin Portal roster.