BROOKLET — Coming in to Friday night’s game, Southeast Bulloch had only forced two turnovers through five games. That changed dramatically as the Yellow Jackets forced five turnovers in a dominating defensive performance as SEB defeated Savannah High School 41-7.
    Cecil McCollum had two interceptions and Jontrell Wells picked off a pass in the third quarter and returned it 75 yards for a score to keep the Yellow Jackets atop their 1-AAA sub-region at 2-0 while improving their season record to 3-3 on the year.
    “I’m really proud of our defense,” said SEB Head Coach Pat Collins. “We played a great game and had to do it without two of our defensive starters. It was a total team effort.”
    The Yellow Jacket offense picked up where it left off last week, scoring on its two drives in the first quarter. After being set up by McCollum’s first interception, quaterback Jaylon Wells faked a handoff and ran 38 yards around the left side for their first score of the night. Fullback Chase Walker added a two-yard plunge near the end of the quarter to give SEB a 14-0 lead.
    While the offense sputtered in the second quarter, the SEB defense continued to shut out the Blue Jacket offense. Southeast Bulloch’s defense yielded only five first downs to the Blue Jackets in the first half as Savannah only advanced into Yellow Jacket territory on their opening drive.
    The third quarter saw the SEB offense come back to life, starting with a 54-yard touchdown run by Michael Davis.
    D’Andre Boyle intercepted the Blue Jacket pass on their first play of the second half, setting up the SEB offense at the Savannah 26 yard line.
    Three plays later, Walker scored the second of his two touchdowns to give SEB a 27-0 lead less than three minutes in to the quarter.
    “I thought the team settled down a little bit a halftime and came out in the third quarter and played well,” Collins said.
    Later in the third, Wells’ interception return put the Yellow Jackets up 34-0. Then, following a blocked Blue Jackets’ punt, Davis scored his second touchdown of the night to cap off the Yellow Jacket scoring two plays later.
    The fourth quarter saw a running clock and also saw plenty of playing time for some of the younger Yellow Jackets. Savannah added a late score to avoid the shutout.
    In addition to the turnovers, the Yellow Jackets held Savannah to 152 rushing yards on 40 carries.
    Offensively, the Yellow Jackets didn’t attempt a pass as they relied on their rushing attack. Davis finished the night with 134 yards on 11 carries while Jaylon Wells and Walker added 66 and 47 respectively as SEB ran for 265 yards on the night.