By CHRIS STANLEY
cstanley@statesboroherald.com

    A 22-0 run will cure a lot of ails in a struggling soccer club — including one that had won just four games in 13 attempts.
    Southeast Bulloch’s boys soccer team has taken its lumps this year. The group was ravaged by injuries at season’s start, which was pushed back a week to begin with because first year head coach Jonathan Graham was still dealing with girls basketball duties.
    Couple Graham having to learn his team on the fly while dealing with injuries to four projected starters  and the trap was set for a poor start to the season. SEB has lost as many as four games in a row this season, and prior to this week had only won two of its last 11 games.
    So it was nice for SEB to have the chance to finally have a week to blow off some steam with a 10-0 win over Johnson Tuesday followed by a 12-0 win over Savannah Thursday night. Those 22 goals were more than the Jackets had scored in their other 11 games combined.
    While the quality of opponent was subpar, it still doesn’t change the fact Graham knows his team has deserved a week like this for a long time.
    “We’re finally healthy as a team, so now that we’re all on the field we can trust each other a little more,” Graham said. “You’ve seen that in our play I think these last couple of games.”
    The 10-0 win Tuesday secured SEB’s spot in the top half of region 3-AAA’s playoff bracket. The Yellow Jackets are guaranteed to go to the playoffs now, so Thursday’s whitewash was just icing on the cake to their best week of the season.
    40 minutes of mercy rule ball is all it took for SEB to secure its first home win of the year. Ten different players scored goals for SEB, including Austria-native Max Muellner — who was playing up front in the midfield rather than his normal keeper spot.
    His goal came off a pass from his host brother Evan Schlieff, who scored the next goal for SEB in the 30th minute.
    Andrew Cribbs and Michael Chambers each scored two goals — all within nine minutes of each other. The best of the bunch was the sixth of the game by Cribbs, which came off a volley from just inside the box for a near 18-yard rifle past an overmatched keeper.
    “We’re still looking for a statement win this season,” Graham said. “I think we let one slip away last week against Glynn Academy, but I feel like, by season’s end, we will finally get ours.”
    SEB (4-7-2, 4-3) won’t have much time to savor their wins, as the end of the schedule is no easy road to hoe.
    The Jackets get Effingham County (9-5-0) tonight in Springfield at 7 p.m., followed by Beach (3-6-1) on Tuesday and finish out with Savannah Country Day (6-3-1) on April 7.

SEB girls dominate
    From a bird’s eye view in the press box, something didn’t seem right on the field for the Southeast Bulloch girl’s soccer game versus Savannah Thursday afternoon.
    Before opening kick, there seemed to be a lot more Savannah blue jerseys than SEB whites on the field. It wasn’t an optical illusion either. Southeast Bulloch only fielded eight players to Savannah’s 11, which from the offset seems like an advantage for Savannah until you really zoom in on these teams.
    SEB is on a five-game unbeaten streak, and Savannah’s lone victory came against Beach on March 3. Yet SEB coach Kristin Barnhill conceding the advantage had nothing to do with tactics.
    She simply wanted to give the eight players who showed up on time for warm ups.
    “Perhaps there was some confusion, perhaps there wasn’t enough urgency because we were playing Savannah,” Barnhill said. “Either way, I said be here at a certain time.”
    However Barnhill only got to play this lineup for ten minutes and 58 seconds on account of lighting leftover from Thursday’s showers. Shaylynn Buenrostro and Emily Barnard all managed to notch goals with Makayla James assisting on Barnard’s third goal before the game was delayed for over an hour.
    Cole Robertson and Blair Chapman also notched goals before the game ended in a 13-0 mercy rule win. The undefeated streak for SEB extended to six games, and three of those games were 10-0 or worse mercy rule, region affairs.
    The region slate has been frustrating for Barnhill so far. They’ve lost 3-1 to Islands and 4-0 to Savannah Arts, but outside those two games SEB has outscored region opponents 39-1. While they still have one more region game left in Beach, Barnhill knows her team will be tested in their final week of play.
    “It’ll be nice for us to get some games under out belt right before we head to the postseason,” Barnhill said. “But I would be lying if I didn’t say this winning streak didn’t feel nice.”
    Effingham County (12-1-0) and Calvary Day (9-2-0) are two of the better teams in their respective classifications and will test SEB will before their rematch against Islands in the region tournament for a potential No. 2 seed and home playoff game.
    The game against the Rebels will see SEB (7-4-1, 5-2) travel to Springfield tonight with first kick set for 5 p.m.