Statesboro High head football coach Matt Dobson has preached for the team to hold the course and become one of four teams to advance to the state playoffs. Despite some lopsided defeats, and heartbreaking losses, Friday night the Blue Devils finally had a break-out night as they knocked off Jenkins HS 35-0 to advance to the state playoffs as the No. 3 seed.
“I am just so dang proud of our guys,” Dobson said. “This was the first game all year where we played complete in all three phases of the game. We also won the turnover margin, we stopped the running game and we stayed away from penalties. We also finished the fourth quarter exceptionally well.”
Statesboro was paced by senior Kam Mikell who had 156 of the Blue Devils 177 yards rushing in the game. Mikell also completed nine passes for 80 yards.
“Kam came to me today and said he wasn’t going to let this team lose tonight,” Dobson said. “He put the team on his back and really came through tonight playing like we knew he could all year. That shows you his character and his senior leadership.”
The Blue Devils grabbed momentum early as Mikell took off and outran the Warrior defense for a 71-yard touchdown. On the ensuing kickoff, a pooch by Keith Howard, the ball was recovered my Mikell at the Jenkins 22-yard line. Mikell later went in from five-yards away on a keeper to extend the Blue Devil lead to 14-0.
“That was huge to be able to get out to a 14-0 lead like that,” said Dobson. We have been working on that pooch kick and it was perfect by Keith Howard and Kam did a great job recovering.”
In the second quarter Mikell showed some touch with his arm as he found Raylin Grant for a 36-yard touchdown to give Statesboro a 21-0 lead into halftime.
After a scoreless third quarter the Blue Devils capped things off with a pair of touchdowns. Ty Chambers ran in a four-yard touchdown to make it 28-0. The Blue Devils defense put up the final points as Dylan Pryor picked off a pass and went 40-yards into the end zone for the final points of the game.
The Statesboro defense held Jenkins to just 68-yards rushing and 29-yards passing for a total of 97 yards in the game.
“It’s all about reaching your ceiling,” Dobson said. “We have told our kids to just find a pay to be one of four. Our guys battled to get one of those spots and now we get a trip to Tucker. In the state playoffs I have learned anything can happen. If we play like we did tonight we have a chance.”
A Blue Devil victory over the previous 2-2 Warriors, coupled with a 32-29 win by Greenbrier over Bradwell gave the Blue Devils the No. 3 seed and they will travel to Tucker next Friday night.
