Games between Effingham County and Statesboro have always been physical. Even as the teams now play in different regions, the old rivalry seems to bubble over every time the two sides play.
    However, never has a game had to have been called early due to increasing altercations between the two sides. Never in football, basketball, baseball or even wrestling. Oddly enough it took soccer to bring the old rivalry to such a heat check that officials had to call the game early, handing the Blue Devils a 2-0 victory.
    “It was absolutely a physical game the whole way, things got way too heated,” said head coach David Ball. “Some of our guys acted appropriately and some didn’t.”
    The head official called the game in the 76th minute when Effingham head coach Matt Vickery reportedly started calling for his players to start intentionally tackling Statesboro players when the game was out of reach. The two sides had already accrued 15 fouls between them, with Statesboro getting four cards in the process.
    “We heard the coach telling his players to start tackling us and he didn’t care about goals anymore,” said forward Younoussa Maiga. “That was probably the most physical game I’ve ever been apart of.”
    The ending cast a shadow over what turned about to be a good win for the Blue Devils. Statesboro handed Effingham County its second loss of the year in a 2-0 shutout, with both goals coming in the second half.
    Miaga got the offense rolling early in the second half with two shots on goal in the first six minutes — putting the Rebel defense on their heels early. Then Manny Rodriguez hit a cracker off a volley into the side of the net to put Statesboro up in the 48th minute.
    In the 62nd minute Caleb Dowden caught a deflection and rifled it into the net past the outstretched arms of the Rebels' keeper for a 2-0 lead. However after Dowden pointed down some Effingham defenders who had been tangling with him throughout the game, the junior defender was assessed a straight red card.
    “He looked back at some of the kids and the official, which are some things I probably wouldn’t condone,” Ball said. “All I can say is I’m glad our next game isn’t region or we’d be down one of our leaders.”
    The game really tumbled downhill in terms of quality after Dowden’s red card. There were multiple incidences of tripping, hard fouls and shoving between the two sides before the game was finally called.
    Statesboro (3-1-0) will look to bounce back after a tough win when they face Southeast Bulloch (0-1-2) in Brooklet on Saturday at 3 p.m.

Lady Rebels 4,                     Lady Blue Devils 1
    If you showed up to the Statesboro girls soccer game seven minutes late, you would have missed over half of the scoring action in Effingham County's 4-1 win over the Lady Blue Devils.
    The game started off like fire crackers in a cast iron skillet, although they weren’t cracking in favor of Statesboro to. In the first two minutes, Statesboro batted the ball around inside its own box, setting up an easy strike from Effingham’s Savannah Landis to make it 1-0 in a flash.
    Not three minutes later, Effingham’s star forward Savannah Leslie knocked in one of her three goals on the night off an excellent over-the-top ball from Maddi Weiss. Leslie split the defense on pure speed and, off a deft first touch, hammered the ball in for the Rebels' second goal.
    While exciting for a spectator, Statesboro found itself down as bad as it has been all season. It was an unusual place for them to be in, and head coach Brian Thomas blames the level of talent for such a slow start.
    “They were absolutely a good team for sure,” Thomas said. “They play balls far so they can use their speed to outrun you and get to the ball first. They played to type tonight.”
    But that would fire up the Lady Blue Devil side, as they’d come back with a strong response not a minute after Effingham’s second goal. Rebel goalkeeper Sydney MArtinez lined up for a goal kick, but booted what should have been a clean clearance straight to the feet of Kaitlin Carter. Carter effortlessly banged the ball in the back of the net to make it 2-1 and put Statesboro right back in the game.
    Three goals in six minutes is a lot in soccer, and it appeared to be the makings of a thrilling girls game at Womack Field.
    However, this turned out to not be the case.
    Despite controlling 51 percent of the possession, Statesboro went the next 74 minutes scoreless while Leslie knocked in two more goals to beat the Devils 4-1. Just four games in, it was their most definitive loss of the season as Statesboro was outshot 15-3.
    Even in controlling the possession, Statesboro spent a majoirty of the time trying to advance the ball out of their half of the field. Effingham was simply bigger, more athletic and better than Statesboro Tuesday night.
    “Our first move was to pass back rather than pass forward,” said Thomas. “We need to be a little better at being aggressive with our ball movement going forward.”
    Defenders Morgan Thompson and Jordan Palmer — both underclassmen — had their hands full trying to deal with Leslie up front. Thomas said by far she would be one of the best forwards Statesboro would see this year.
    On the other end, Statesboro would only get off three shots all game. The first ended in Carter’s goal, while Isabell Gutierrez would get off two early in the second half, but neither posed a serious scoring chance.
    “We have to do a better job as a team, especially on defense,” Thomas said. “We need to learn from the mistakes we made tonight because region is right around the corner.”
    The Lady Blue Devils (2-2-0) will travel to Brooklet to face cross county rivals Southeast Bulloch (1-2-0) Saturday at 1 p.m.