BROOKLET - Southeast Bulloch knew it would be a tough final stretch to return to the playoffs, needing two wins in their final two games to make the postseason. The first step was a Long County team also fighting for their playoff lives as they visited Fred Shaver Field Friday night.

The Blue Tide (6-3, 5-3) dominated both sides of the ball and ended the Yellow Jackets bid for the playoffs as they came away with a 43-21 win over Southeast Bulloch (4-5, 4-4).

“Not everybody makes the playoffs and not everybody finishes the season with a W and that’s just a hard reality of sports and a hard reality of football,” SEB Head Coach Jared Zito said. “It’s hard for our seniors. It’s hard for our guys to put everything into it and have high expectations. It’s a hard life lesson. Just because you work hard doesn’t guarantee success all the time.”

“Our kids are really good kids. They work really hard. They play hard. They never quit, but football is a combination of execution and effort and we’ve got the effort thing figured out. And we execute a lot. It’s just that we don’t execute as consistently as we need to and you can’t beat good people that way. And unfortunately we learned that lesson a couple times this year,” said SEB Head Coach Jared Zito.

Long County scored on their first four possessions of the first half, piling up 210 rushing yards as the Yellow Jackets had difficulties stopping the Wing-T offense of the Blue Tide.

The Blue Tide were up 14-0 midway through the first quarter while holding SEB to just three plays on offense. Making matters worse for SEB, the Yellow Jackets punt on their first possession was blocked. While they recovered the loose ball, it still set up the Blue Tide with a first and goal at the SEB five.

Wesley Williams would punch it in to give Long County the two touchdown lead.

The Yellow Jackets would respond, going 50 yards on four plays, capped off by quarterback Colton Zito faking a handoff and then moving right along the line until finding a hole and racing 32 yards to trim the lead to 14-6.

Zito’s run was the longest offensive play for the Yellow Jackets in the half as the Yellow Jacket offense struggled to find their rhythm as their usual dominance in the running game was limited by a Blue Tide defense that was quick to the ball and only gave up one big play in the half. 

Southeast Bulloch had opportunities in the first half but on one drive they failed to convert on a fourth down from the Long County 27. Another promising drive saw Zito throw into double coverage and was picked off by the Blue Tide at their 12 yard line.

Long County’s only drive of the half that didn’t result in points was the possession to end the half. 

The second half saw SEB trim the lead to 28-14 as the Yellow Jackets went 62 yards in seven plays, including a 34 yard pass from Zito to Bailey Hutchins, to set up Jayden Murphy’s two-yard touchdown run just three plays later. 

The Yellow Jackets onside kick attempt was nearly recovered, with Zito saying the Yellow Jacket players telling him they recovered the kick but they didn’t come away with the ball as Long County was awarded possession.

They proceeded to go 52 yards on 12 plays culminating with a one yard touchdown run to extend the lead back to 21 points at 35-14.

“I really felt that if we were able to hold them there after that first score in the second half, maybe we could have made it a ball game,” Zito said. “We had our chances, we just didn’t get it done.”

The Yellow Jackets would score early in the fourth quarter on a Colby Smith 16 yard touchdown run to again trim the lead to 14, but the comeback attempt was short lived.

Southeast Bulloch attempted an onside kick and got a favorable bounce, but it was just out of reach of the Yellow Jackets and Long County was able to recover the kick and race 50 yards to the end zone to put an end to any thoughts of a comeback.

The loss was disappointing and Zito said he didn’t have all the answers to give to his players following the game.

“I loved their effort. I love the fact that they’ll never quit. They practice hard. They do everything we ask them to so you’d like to see the fruit of your labor but sometimes you don’t,” he said. “There’s another team over there and they’ve got good players and they’re well coached and they’re playing hard. So it comes down to a few plays of execution and that’s hard for kids to understand sometimes.”

Zito said that while the team had high expectations coming into the season, there’s not one aspect of the season he could point to in order to explain why they didn’t have the success they’d hoped for.

“We’ve got good kids. Our coaches coached their tails off,” he said. “There’s not a whole lot of ‘where were the issues?’ Sometimes it just happens that way and even the good teams can’t figure it out.”

“There’s that special ingredient that we had last year and this year it just wasn’t there. If I could explain it and bottle it up, I’d be a really rich man. But I’m certainly going to try to look and see what was the issue.”

Despite the loss and elimination from post season contention, Zito said he expects a hard week of practice leading up to the season finale.

The Yellow Jackets will conclude their season Friday night as they host Beach on Senior Night. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.