The Blue Devils’ competitive spirit will be tested in the team’s final home game of the season against Glynn Academy today at Womack Field.
    After a 39-3 loss last week to Ware County, head coach Steve Pennington said his team had one of their best weeks of practice since the start of the season.
    Pennington said he and his team, along with the coaching staff, had a “LIG” or life in general moment Monday.
    “We dealt with reality of what we’re doing every day and we just wanted to be honest. We have two more games left and the whole point is, regardless of what the record might be, we still have to love the game,” Pennington said. “That’s why we’re here. There’s a reason why we’re here. We’re here because we enjoy the game and we have a competitive spirit.”
    Friday night’s sub-region contest between Glynn Academy (6-2, 5-1 Region 3-AAAAA) and Statesboro High School (2-6, 2-4) will also be the Blue Devils’ senior night.
    For many Statesboro High School players, it will be the last chance they will get to step out on Womack Field.
    “We’re here to keep a tradition going at Statesboro High School. They’re not based on championships, they’re based on making it through adversity during struggling times,” Pennington said.
    Here’s a quick look at some key players and matchups for the Blue Devils in today’s contest.

What to watch: Inside run
    Establishing the inside run will be important for both teams. For the Blue Devils, the inside run just wasn’t available against Ware County last week.
    In order to combat that issue, Statesboro ran in a “wildcat” formation against Ware County. Tonight, coach Pennington said he plans on using the wildcat again, hopefully with more success the second time around.
    “We put that in last week and we hope to improve on it. We failed in our assignments and some of our blocking assignments,” Pennington said. “We feel with an extra week we will be a little bit better in that regard.”
    Pennington said the wildcat formation is important because it gives his team a chance to get positive yardage with an inside run.
    Jalen Davis, one of the Blue Devils’ bigger backs, will need to establish himself early with the inside run.

Who to watch: Deejay Dallas
    Glynn Academy’s 6-foot-1 Deejay Dallas is the definition of a dual-threat and the Blue Devils have to slow him down in order to be successful.
    So far this season, Dallas has 601 yards on the ground and 271 yards through the air. Dallas, rated as the No. 25 overall athlete for the class of 2017, also has 148 reception yards.
    “Their quarterback matches the speed of anyone on the field. We certainly want to make sure that we put a safety net around him. That’s our intent and game plan,” Pennington said. “They’re good enough to formation you and get the ball in his hands so we just have to make sure that we play assignment football.”
    Dallas already began the trash talking via twitter. On his twitter page Dallas wrote, “Dear Statesboro and South Effingham the Red Terror train is rolling and y'all are on the tracks ...it's either move or get ran over.”
    The Blue Devils will try and derail the “train” tonight.

Key factor:
Senior pride
    The underlying factor in today’s game is the pride of this core group of senior Blue Devils. Statesboro will celebrate the efforts of their senior players this year for senior night and beating Glynn Academy would put the icing on the cake.
    SHS will have a few senior players on the sideline due to injury.
    “Being senior night,(the seniors) know this is the last time they’ll play at Womack Field and their high school football career is getting close to an end. There’s a mindset to at least finish this season with some grit and determination,” Pennington said.