SPRINGFIELD — For much of the season, Statesboro has been on and off. The offense and defense had both shown flashes of brilliance, but never at the same time.
    Friday night, that came to and end.
    The No. 5 Blue Devils racked up 373 yards of offense and the starters didn’t allow a point as they cruised to a 34-7 win to improve to 6-0 on the season and 2-0 in Region 2-AAAA play.
    “I’m elated for our players,” said SHS coach Steve Pennington. “We played a very solid ballgame tonight. I was also very pleased that we got a chance to get some of our younger guys some experience.”
    Heading into the game, Statesboro was faced with some adversity. Not only had the Rebels (1-5, 0-2) won the last two meetings with the Devils in Springfield, but Quan Daniels — Statesboro’s star running back — was out with a sprained ankle.
    Things didn’t get better for the Devils when Michael Summers was lost with an injury in the first quarter, but Sherrodric Rawls (10 carries, 118 yards, 2 TD) and Willie Johnson (12 carries, 106 yards, 3 TD) picked up the slack.
    “Our running backs showed a lot of poise tonight,” said Pennington. “Nobody panicked, and everyone realized what needed to be done.”
    “I was a little nervous at first,” said Rawls. “We knew Quan was hurt and saw Mike go down. We don’t have a whole lot of depth, but me and (Johnson) just tried our best to run hard every play.”
    Effingham looked like it might compete on the first drive of the night.
    The Rebels took the opening kickoff and did what many have done against Statesboro this season, moving the ball slowly, but surely, and picking up key first downs along the way.
    After driving into Blue Devil territory, the Rebels faced third-and-long. Cal Baker hit Jacob Raider over the middle and the resulting run was enough for a first down, but Ben Roberts forced a fumble and Andrew Taylor recovered for Statesboro at the two-yard line.
    Backed up to its own goal line, it took all of one play for Statesboro’s offense to start rolling. Summers took a handoff and raced 52 yards to quickly flip the field position and Rawls plunged in from three yards out four plays later to stake the Devils to a 7-0 lead.
    “Our line did a very good job tonight,” said Pennington. “It’s no secret that we haven’t dominated the line of scrimmage, but we were able to do so tonight."
    Not content to fight through another close game, the Devils went right to work in getting the ball back.
    The defense clamped down on the next series to force third down for the Rebels before Anthony Gore stepped in front of a Baker throw and returned it the whole way to the Effingham 14.
    Two carries from Willie Johnson was all it took to double the lead from there as Johnson pushed the line forward on his first try, then finished the job from six yards out to make it 14-0 just before the end of the first quarter.
    The Rebels tried to respond, but a lengthy drive netted a missed 27-yard field goal from Joe Thomas and Johnson added another touchdown to make it 21-0 at halftime.
    Statesboro scored once again to open the second half, after which the Devils’ backups played most of the final snaps.
    Effingham’s Cameron Edwards finally made his way over the goal line with 8:06 to play to notch the Rebels’ first points, but with the mercy clock already rolling, Statesboro ran out the remaining time.
   
    Mike Anthony can be reached at (912) 489-9404.