The Southeast Bulloch flag football team began defense of their third-straight state championship with a pair of wins Wednesday as they knocked off McDonough 20-0 and then took out South Effingham 13-6 to run their overall win streak to 64 games.

Southeast Bulloch senior Jaci Kitchings got the scoring started with an interception against McDonough. She also ran in a pair of touchdowns. Against South Effingham Kitchings scored a pair of short touchdown runs and first-year quarterback Emma Cate Barron connected on a pair of long passes to help set up the scores.

“Emma Cate did a great job for her first start,” said coach Marci Cochran. “She is learning how to read the defense and how to adjust to game compared to what she saw in the J.V. Overall, she handled the pressure well and is eager to watch film and learn. I also felt Jaci Kitchings and Jadyn Williams stepped up as leaders and played really well of us.” 

With only three returning players on offense and three on defense Cochran knows there will be some growing pains, but was pleased by how things looked Wednesday.

“We played well considering it was our first game of the season,” and after the long break from the hurricane,” Cochran said. “We also had the long break after the hurricane and we are also missing players due to fall sports. Our offensive played well the first game and executed really good and our defensive played just like we had practiced. The second game was a challenge with fatigue setting in due to some players having to play both sides of the ball because of missing players. We missed way too many flags on defense and our offense wasn’t as explosive as I would like to see. Hopefully we can get some of that straightened out in practice.”

The Jackets are now 2-0 and will next play St. Vincents and Beach Oct. 21 at home at 5:00 and 6:00.