One year after advancing to the second round of the state playoffs for the first time since 1973 the Southeast Bulloch Yellow Jackets have missed the state playoffs for the first time since 2014 as they dropped a 35-7 decision to Wayne County Thursday night in Brooklet.
“There’s no doubt it’s tough knowing we will miss the playoffs this year,” said Zito. “We knew making the jump to 4-A would be tough and program building isn’t a one-year deal. Last year was great and we lost a talented senior class and it’s going to be a process for us. I love these kids and we have a lot of younger players and I still feel good about our future.”
The final score wasn’t exactly indicative of how close things were for most of the game. The Jacket defense actually did a great job of slowing down Wayne County running back Matthew Fuller and the two teams were scoreless through the first quarter of play.
“I thought we really played great defense for the entire first quarter and most of the second,” said coach Jared Zito. “I thought our kids once again gave great effort. We cut the lead to a one-score ballgame there in the second half, but couldn’t get any closer. Congratulations to coach Shaw, Wayne County is a solid team and played well here tonight.”
In the second quarter Wayne County finally broke the draught on a nice pass across the middle from quarterback Andy Peel to Terrione Graves for a 45-yard touchdown and a 7-0 lead. Wayne County got close again on their next drive, but Southeast Bulloch stripped the ball loose from Fuller and Jontavius Scott recovered at the 10-yard line.
The Southeast Bulloch offense was never able to get on track in the first half, and Wayne County got the ball on their own 40-yard line with less than a minute to go in the half. A pass interference and a personal foul against SEB gave Wayne County the ball at the 29-yard line. With less than five seconds to go in the half Peel tossed the ball up into the end zone and Jacquese Vail did an amazing job of reaching over the SEB defender and pulling the ball in for a touchdown and a 14-0 halftime lead.
“That play right before the half was huge,” said Zito. “It looked like we would go into the half only down by seven but a couple penalties killed us, and then credit to their player for making a great catch.”
Speaking of those penalties, it was Deja Vue from last week’s Statesboro game as the officiating crew threw 24 flags and called 10–15-yard personal fouls/unsportsmanlike penalties in the game.
The Jackets were able to strike first in the third quarter. SEB quarterback Gage DiGiovanni found a streaking Collin Smith down the near sidelines for a 73-yard touchdown to open the second half and trim the lead to 14-7.
Wayne County answered with a long drive capped off by a 5-yard touchdown run by Fuller out of the Wildcat formation for a 21-7 lead. Southeast Bulloch’s next first play didn’t work quite as well as their previous touchdown as DiGiovanni’s pass in the flat was picked off by Jah Ross who returned it 20-yards for a touchdown to make it 28-7. Wayne County added a 5-yard touchdown by Shabrun Booker in the fourth quarter for the final points of the game.
Southeast Bulloch falls to 2-7 overall and 1-3 in region play. The Yellow Jackets close out the season next Friday at home against Burke County. For first year head coach Jaybo Shaw the amazing turnaround continues as Wayne County was 0-9 last year and clinched a state playoff spot with a win Thursday night. Wayne County is 7-2 and will actually play Burke County Monday at home for the No. 2 seed in the region.
