Coming off a thrilling win over Long County last week on the road, the Southeast Bulloch Yellow Jackets turn their attention to Beach High School as they look to solidify their playoff chances in another region matchup. 

It’s Homecoming week for the Yellow Jackets (6-2, 5-2), who are currently third in Region 3-AAA as they own the tiebreaker over Long County by virtue of last week’s win. Beach (4-4, 3-4), meanwhile, enter Friday’s game following a 14-0 defeat to Liberty County.

The Bulldogs have potential to be an explosive offense. They have won by scores of 41-0 and 43-18 this year. But they also are prone to offensive sputtering as they’ve been held under 10 points three times this season, including being shut out twice. 

Yellow Jackets’ Head Coach Jared Zito said Beach has some explosive athletes who will need to be contained, including a dual threat at quarterback who can run and throw and size on both the offensive and defensive line that the Yellow Jackets will need to contend with.

The Yellow Jackets will stick to the formula that has worked so far this season. Their success starts at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. The offensive line needs to create holes for the SEB running game that is averaging 260 yards a game. Meanwhile, the defensive line needs to plug the gaps

Junior Colby Smith has been the primary beneficiary of the offensive line play as he’s rushed for a team-leading 945 yards and 11 touchdowns on the season. Jayden Murphy has added 601 yards and five touchdowns as well while averaging more than 9.0 yards per carry.

Zito said homecoming week presents its own challenges as he wants to allow the team to enjoy the festivities while also focusing on the game at hand on Friday night.

“It’s distracting for sure,” he said. “We don’t want them to be military robots and not be able to enjoy this, but we want to make sure we keep the main thing the main thing,” he said, adding that the crowd at the game wants to see them win.

A victory would clinch at least third place in region play for the Yellow Jackets and secure a spot in the state playoffs. However, even Zito isn’t one hundred percent sure how that will work with the changes to how the state playoffs work with the addition of Power Rankings and the private schools being placed in their own bracket.

“We’ll take care of what we can control  and we’ll go play wherever the (Georgia High School Association) tells us we’re playing,” Zito said. 

Kickoff is set for 7:30 at Fred Shaver Field in Brooklet.