The Southeast Bulloch Yellow Jackets finished their non-region schedule at 2-2 but dropped their region opener last Friday at West Laurens, 21-0.

Coach Jason Anthony found some positives in the game despite being shutout, including making some adjustments on defense and holding West Laurens scoreless in the second half.

“Offensively, we just couldn’t find a rhythm Friday at West Laurens,” Anthony said. “Our guys played hard, but we couldn’t find our footing and we kept shooting ourselves in the foot with penalties. Defensively, we made a few adjustments and shut them out in the second half. We missed some alignments in the first half on defense that really hurt us.”

The Jackets have had to deal with some injuries on offense, but Anthony feels overall the offense has areas that can improve to help them regardless of injuries.

“A lot of our issues have come down to coaching and that is something I take responsibility for and we have to find a way of getting our players and coaches on the same page.

"We have to make sure we our getting our footwork correct and getting bodies on bodies and getting our receivers to run the right routes and our running backs to hit the holes hard.”

This week, the Yellow Jackets finally get a chance to return home where they haven’t played since the end of August. The Jackets will be hosting a Harlem team who come in with a record of 3-2 with non-region wins over Greenbrier and Grovetown and a region opening 35-32 shootout win against Long County.

“Harlem throws the ball a lot more than they have in the past,” Anthony said. “They are big up front and can still run the ball as well. They like to spread things around and have some athletic skill position kids. They use a lot of guys both ways so that may go in our favor. They have a solid defense and we are going to have to come ready to play.”

Southeast Bulloch and Harlem are set for a 7:30 start Friday at Fred Shaver Field.