By HORACE HOLLOMAN
hholloman@statesboroherald.com
   
    Statesboro High School boys soccer team punched its ticket to the state playoffs with a last-minute 4-3 victory over Camden County Tuesday.
    Now in the 3-AAAAA region playoff semifinals, the Blue Devils (8-6) have a chance to avenge two early-season losses and clinch an automatic home state playoff game when they face Effingham County (13-3) on the road today at 7 p.m.
    Effingham County handed SHS a 3-2 loss in the sixth game of the season, and again on March 24 by a score of 3-2.
    SHS head coach Nick Thrower said his team has improved since the last matchup against the Rebels.
    “They beat us twice and in both games it was very close, but we have gotten a lot better since the last time we faced them,” Thrower said. “We want to put the best team on the field that we had all season at their place.”
    The Blue Devils have won three of its last four games, including wins over South Effingham County and Southeast Bulloch High School. Defensively, the team has given up an average of two goals per game during that span.
    “We want to be a little more defensively sound, which we have been improving on. They have a couple of key players so we’ve really been working on shutting down guys who are faster than us,” Thrower said. “With Camden their entire team was faster than us yesterday so we really worked on getting a tactical advantage over guys who try to beat us with speed.”
WHAT TO WATCH:
    The matchup between SHS and Effingham County could come down to a classic battle of strength versus speed.
    Coach Thrower said his team has worked hard preparing for faster, quicker teams. The advantage for the Blue Devils could be the strength and size, seemingly at every position.
“We want to defend set pieces. We’ve been doing really good with that,” Thrower said. “It’s something we want to continue to build on. Recently, we’ve learned to dominate the mid-field and that’s something we want to continue to build on.”
    Junior Alex Wagner said the team’s physical play could be the difference in the game as they take on Effingham.
“I think we’re going to try our best and keep our head on straight. We just have to go in there and work harder than them,” Wagner said. “We our big, we are fast and a lot of teams don’t know how to handle that.”
WHO TO WATCH:
    If physicality could be the difference in the game, look no further than SHS’s Uche Okafor. Okafor’s physical style of play drives players, and fans alike, crazy.
    Okafor put on a defensive clinic against Southeast Bulloch, shutting down the middle. Okafor could be the x-factor for the Blue Devils.
    “Uche has been doing some great things for us. If there are 10 50-50 balls, he wins about nine of them. He’s very good about that so we’ve been working with him to really win the midfield,” Thrower said.
   
Horace Holloman may be reached at (912) 489-9408.