For the second time in his three seasons at Statesboro High, head coach Matt Dobson has taken his Blue Devils on the road and pulled an upset in the opening round of the state Class 5-A playoffs. 

Friday, the No. 3 seeded Blue Devils went to Habersham Central and knocked off the No. 2 seed, 36-28, and will now travel to No. 1 seeded Woodward Academy in Atlanta next Friday.

“I am so proud of these kids for once again fighting till the end,”Dobson said. “I feel like we have been in so many of these tight games that our team is able to draw from those circumstances and feel like we can pull out a win.”

The Blue Devils put up more than 400 yards of offense, with 356 yards coming on the ground. They were led by Keon Childers with 189-yards and three touchdowns. Childers leads Class 5-At with 28 touchdowns on the season and he is seven away from the school record of 35 set by Jimtavis Walker in 2000. 

“Keon had an outstanding game,” Dobson said. “He is a warrior and left it all out on the field. Our offensive line continues to get it done and we were able to follow the game plan once again for a win.”

Childers and quarterback Beckham Jarrard both left the game with injuries in the fourth quarter, but Davis Harrison came into the game much like he did against Brunswick and picked up some huge first downs to help put the game on ice in the final minutes.

“Keon and Beckham were both injured but we have players who have stepped up all season,” Dobson said. “Davis Harrison did the same thing he did in our Brunswick win and ran the ball hard when we needed him to in order to finish off the win.” 

Habersham scored first on a two-yard run by Donnie Warren to go up 7-0. Statesboro answered on a 50-yard scoring run by Childers. The two-point conversion gave Statesboro an 8-7 lead.

The Blue Devils extended the lead to 15-7 on a two-yard run by Rashad Chavers, but the Raiders answered before the half with a 37-yard pass from Paris Wilbanks to Tylon Davis. A two-point conversion tied the game at 15-15 at the half.

In the third quarter, the Blue Devils got a 48-yard touchdown pass from Jarrard to Gage Newsome to take a 21-15 lead. They would add a huge 80-yard touchdown run by Childers to extend the lead to 29-15.

The Raiders answered again with another touchdown run by Warren, this one from 37-yards away to make it a 29-22 contest, but once again Statesboro answered with a three-yard Childers run to go up 36-22. Habersham added a five-yard score by Warren to make it 36-28 with 7:51 left. 

The Blue Devils and Raiders exchanged possessions from there but after getting the ball back with just under four minutes to go, Statesboro was able to eat up the rest of the clock and walk away with the win.

“My hope is that this is becoming the standard for Statesboro football and not the exception,” Dobson said. “Winning playoff games on a regular basis is who we now are. Certainly, our goal is to now take that next step and win our next game. Woodward Academy is a good team but we feel like we can compete with them.”