In last week’s prep roundup the title read “Optimism is Abound” in regards to silver linings despite losses by all four county schools.
    After week two, optimism was pretty scarce to find. For the second week in a row all four Bulloch County schools lost, some in much more debilitating a fashion than the week prior. At least in week one there were some clear improvements seen across the board.
    Southeast Bulloch, Portal and Bulloch Academy all cut their margin of defeat against Richmond Hill, Treutlen County and Our Lady of Mercy by respectable margins, while Statesboro had an offensive revival the likes fans haven’t seen since 2013. There was good reason for optimism heading into week two to see if the squads could build on their improvements.
    With the exception of Southeast Bulloch, this was not the case. You can make a case for Statesboro showing more improvement in week two, but in the fashion they lost it’s hard to think how you could compartmentalize it and move one with your head held high. Portal and Bulloch Academy on the other hand suffered some demoralizing defeats on opposite ends of the spectrum.
    There will be a lot to pick up heading into this week’s set of games, but let’s recap the weekend that was for the four Bulloch County schools:

Statesboro
    For Statesboro, it’s hard to say how one should feel after the events of Friday’s 36-34 loss to Liberty County. First and foremost, this is not the Liberty County team of yesteryear that featured two division one players in the backfield. This iteration of Panther football is down by their standards but still have the defensive talent to give opponents a good game.
    Even against a defense with ten division one caliber players, Statesboro’s offense scored 27 offensive points at 6.9 yards a play. As Liberty County bottled up the Statesboro game for 3.6 yards a carry, Davis Wiggins was able to hurt the Panthers on some deep passes and screen plays when Liberty County blitzed too aggressively.
    But it was a pick six in the final minute and a half of the game combined with a game winning kick that was blocked at the buzzer which makes it hard for the Blue Devils to have perspective. By all the metrics, Statesboro outplayed Liberty County. It was the Blue Devils game to win and finally snap the 14-game losing streak, but for some reason the football God’s decided that kick wasn’t meant to go through the uprights.
    It’s going to be tough to let the Liberty County loss roll off your back and turn around to face undefeated Screven County. But if there’s one thing Jeff Kaiser and his staff can hang their hat on, it’s that his team is much improved from last season.

Southeast Bulloch
    As previously mentioned, Southeast Bulloch was the outlier in this week’s theme of fleeting optimism. In both cases of playing Richmond Hill and Bradwell Institute, SEB probably outkicked their coverage in terms of talent vs. talent — an attribute that can probably be placed at the feet of their interim head coach Steve Pennington.
    Southeast Bulloch lept out to a 13-3 lead on their 6A foes thanks to Chase Walker’s legs and an incredibly slow start by the Tiger’s offense. SEB held BI quarterback Vincent Gilbert essentially useless on the night, totalling -5 yards of offense on 14 total touches — a big improvement for the Yellow Jacket defense after what Richmond Hill QB Kasey Green was able to do in week one.
    But eventually it was size and numbers which took over for BI as they went on a 20-0 run going into the fourth quarter. Southeast Bulloch was able to score one final touchdown to make it a three point game, but that would be all the Yellow Jackets could muster in Hinesville. Even for an 0-2 start, SEB doesn’t have anything to be ashamed of.
    After facing a pair of 6A schools, things somehow get even more difficult this week when 2A worldbeaters Benedictine comes to town. But there are greener pastures down the road, as SEB opens up region play next week with a much weaker Islands team.

Portal
    It’s hard not to feel bad for this Portal team after what happened to them on Friday night. Fresh off a week where they led Treutlen County 15-14 and essentially lost the game because QB Fischer Oglesby has to sit out a play with a hand stinger, ECI came to town and disintegrated any momentum the Panthers had build up.
    ECI by most accounts is not the semi-final team they were a year ago. After trailing Metter going into the fourth quarter and being stomped by Swainsboro in week two, there was some logical thinking that an improved Portal team would have a chance to at least keep things competitive with ECI for one half.
    Alas, this was not the case. ECI beat Portal 54-3 while totalling 420 yards on the ground at 9.5 yards a carry. In fairness, Portal did start off the game behind only 7-3. After ECI responded to go up 14-3, Portal together another solid drive but saw another fourth down conversion blown up and ultimately their chances of a win blown up too.
    After averaging roughly 5.1 yards a play against Treutlen, Portal was held to a mere 3.6 last week against an admittedly talented ECI defense led by four-star recruit Curtis Fann Jr. Portal will have to pick their heads up if they want to secure a win this week, but it won’t come easy against a Jenkins County squad riding high after beating Wheeler County 38-7.

Bulloch Academy
    Of all the losses this week, Bulloch Academy’s 19-15 defeat at the hands of Westfield School —  a team going into last Friday riding an eight-game losing streak with a point differential of -258. It was very difficult to see this loss coming, especially after how well the Gators played against GHSA foe Our Lady of Mercy on the road two weeks ago.
    But there were some signs in BA first two wins which would have given pause to the keen eye. Bulloch Academy had struggled to generate big plays against Memorial Day and Trinity-Sharpsburg and greatly benefited in those games from favorable field position aided by five combined turnovers.
    But if you subscribe to the Bill Connelly school of football metrics, you’ll know turnovers run by no rhyme or reason. Once the ball hits the ground or gets batted in the air, physics doesn’t play favorites. BA had their turnover luck take a 180-degree turn when they had five giveaways to go along with 95 yards in penalties. It doesn’t matter how well your offense is moving the ball, five turnovers is hard to overcome.
    BA would wind up out gaining Westfield by 120 yards but the turnovers would ultimately sink the Gators and break Westfield’s losing streak. BA gets a crack at another winless team this week in Thomas Jefferson, so for their sake let’s hope they’ve found a way to eradicate the turnover bug from their previous two games.