The last time Statesboro and Liberty County got together on the football field, the Blue Devils walked into Hinesville as the No. 10 team in the state and left as victims of one of the season’s biggest upsets.
    This year, the Devils (3-0) are the No. 3 team in Class AAAA and are out to make sure that the same mistakes don’t occur again.
    “Last year, we shot ourselves in the foot multiple times,” said SHS coach Steve Pennington. “We had a few early turnovers, got down by a few scores, and never quite recovered. That’s certainly something that we don’t want to repeat.”
    Four turnovers and a handful of bad breaks led to a 29-0 defeat — the first time Statesboro had been shut out in the regular season since 2007 — but the Devils are focusing on the task at hand tonight rather than trying to settle an old score.
    “We don’t want to use revenge as a motivating factor,” said Pennington. “If we need to look at last year, then we’re out of ideas. The fact that we want to build on the last few weeks and continue to improve should be all the motivation we need.”
    One Blue Devil that will be getting his first look at the Panthers (2-1) is linebacker Reggie Owens.
    Owens missed the majority of last season and was forced to watch the upset from the sidelines. While he shares Pennington’s view on revenge not being the main goal of tonight’s game, he is happy to have a chance to make a difference against Liberty County.
    “It was tough having to watch last season,” said Owens. “It hurts me and not having players hurts the team. I’m just glad to be back out there every game and able to help out.”
    Owens and the rest of the Statesboro defense will have their hands full as one of the top running backs in the state will have to be dealt with.
    Shadrach Thornton was a major factor in Liberty’s win last season and he has already racked up 580 yards during the 2011 campaign.
    The Devils will once again have to deal with the shotgun spread offense — a scheme that has enabled Statesboro’s opponents to launch prolonged drives —and there are plenty of threats besides Thornton that will have to be neutralized.
    “The biggest issue (the Panthers) pose is their speed,” said Pennington. “Liberty has tremendous team speed and is difficult to defend when they get in space. They have a very good quarterback just like the last few teams we’ve faced, so while we need to have our eyes on (Thornton), there are plenty of other things we’ll have to defend well.”
    Thornton — who is verbally committed to Georgia Tech for next season — will share the field with fellow future Yellow Jacket Michael Summers, a formidable rushing threat in his own right.
    Picking up the majority of the carries for Quan Daniels — who was held out of last week’s win over Tattnall County — Summers broke the century mark and scored a touchdown and now leads all Blue Devils with 347 rushing yards on the season.
    “We’re going to continue to rush the ball,” said Pennington. “We have gotten a good effort from all of our running backs this season, but we need to improve on our blocking from last week. Tattnall County got too much penetration. That’s something that we can’t continue to allow.”
    Liberty County is in Region 2-AAAA along with the Devils, but since the teams are in opposite divisions, tonight will not count toward the region standings and won’t have any bearing on the push toward the state playoffs.
    Last season, the upset loss to the Panthers seemed to be the spark that got the Devils going. After the setback, Statesboro dropped just one more contest in the next two months before finally being eliminated in the state semifinals.

    Mike Anthony can be reached at (912) 489-9404.