The Southeast Bulloch Yellow Jackets showed no signs of rust after a bye week as they took out the Visiting Islands Sharks 43-7 Friday at Fred Shaver Field.
The Jackets did not punt all night and the only time they didn’t score on a drive was when they fumbled on the Islands two-yard line.
Quentin Reed and Colby Smith each scored a pair of touchdowns. The Yellow Jacket defense created four turnovers and ended up scoring a touchdown and a safety as the Jackets breezed past Islands.
“I challenged our guys to clean up some things from the season opener and I think we really did that tonight,” said Southeast Bulloch coach Jared Zito. “We really challenged our defense and I thought they stepped up to the challenge. We have talked about playing to a standard, no matter who the other team is, and we did what we needed to in order to get our first region win of the year.”
The Jackets started the scoring as a errant snap sailed over the head of Islands quarterback Chet Bachman and Jayden Murphy touched him in the end zone to complete the safety.
On their opening drive Southeast Bulloch converted a fourth down and capped their drive with a two-yard Colby Smith touchdown for a 9-0 lead.
An Islands fumble and a 23-yard run by Smith put the Jackets back at the Sharks 10-yard line where Quentin Reed would go in for a touchdown to extend the lead to 16-0.
Early in the second quarter facing third and long, Backman rolled left but was picked off by Chase Douglas who went 23-yards for the score for a 23-0 SEB lead.
Late in the second Murphy broke free for a 38-yard run inside the five-yard line. On the very next play looking for extra yards after contact, Murphy was hit and coughed up the ball at the two-yard line.
The defense came right back to get the offense the ball back as Brant Horst lowered the boom on Sharks running back Ethan McKinney who fumbled. Kyle O’Brein recovered at the two-yard line. Reed took it into the end zone on the very next play and SEB led 30-0 at the half.
Jacket sophomore quarterback Rhett Morgan started off the third quarter throwing a strike to Smith down the far sidelines for his first high school touchdown pass. The 53-yarder extended the lead to 37-0.
Moments later Douglas looked like he would haul in another pick-six as he anticipated another Bachman pass and jumped in front of the receiver. With no one in front of him and the closest defender almost 20-yards away Douglas accidentally stepped out of bounds at the 10-yard line.
To start the fourth quarter Zito inserted back-up quarterback Aaden Peterson into the game. The son of legendary Georgia Southern running back Adrian Peterson made his pop proud as he took a couple hard hits, stayed on his feet and scored his first high school touchdown on a three-yard run to cap the scoring on a 43-7 victory.
“It’s always great to get the back-ups into the game,” Zito said. “It’s also important because we learned last year how tough it can be if you lose a starter. I thought all the youngsters did a great job. They are the future here and it’s invaluable to get snaps under the light on a Friday night.”
The Yellow Jackets improve to 2-0, 1-0 in region play. Up next SEB hits the road for a tough test with Calvary Day Friday in Savannah.
