Bishop Media Sports Network
Statesboro Buries Phoenix
By: Mike Anthony
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
A week ago, there were plenty of nerves at Womack Field as the Statesboro Blue Devils gutted out a win over South Effingham to punch their first ticket to the state playoffs since 2013.
On Friday night, the Devils were able to keep the momentum rolling. Statesboro found itself trailing New Hampstead by a count of 21-7 midway through the second quarter, but rallied to score the final four touchdowns of the contest to claim a 35-21 victory.
Statesboro took an early advantage when leading rusher Jaylen Roberson continued his suburb season with a 21-yard touchdown run.
As the second quarter began, the Phoenix answered with a bang. Deyandre Ruffin found open space for a 65-yard scoring run and Justin Mckithen topped that with a 90-yard touchdown run to put New Hampstead on top.
Things appeared to be heading for disaster when the Phoenix blocked and recovered an SHS punt for a touchdown and a 21-7 lead with just a minute remaining in the half, but the Devils got off the mat.
Statesboro responded with a stellar kick return by Will Yawn, another big run by Roberson and a pitch-and-catch from Drake Horton to Ryan Lindsey to reach the red zone.
Horton completed the textbook two-minute drill by finding Corey Gibson for a 10-yard touchdown strike to cut the Devils’ deficit to 21-14 at halftime.
From there on out, it was all Blue Devils.
Roberson found the end zone again midway through the third quarter and the ensuing extra point tied things up. It was Roberson doing the damage again early in the fourth quarter with a 4-yard run on the first play of the final period putting him in the end zone for the third time on the night.
The big plays that had spurred the Phoenix to their early lead were nowhere to be found in the second half as the SHS defense clamped down. And with 1:54 to play, Devardrion Lipsey plunged in from four yards out to wrap things up.
With the win, the Blue Devils improved to 4-6 on the season. More importantly, the Devils and Phoenix entered Friday’s game with identical 1-2 marks in Region 2-AAAAA competition.
The regular season finale turned into a de facto region playoff for seeding. The big win for Statesboro bumped them into the region’s No. 3 seed while New Hampstead was left with the No. 4 seed and will have to tangle with Region 3-AAAAA champion Starr’s Mill in next week’s first round action.
Statesboro will travel to face Griffin next Friday. Ironically, it was a loss at Griffin in the second round of the 2013 playoffs that marks the last time the Blue Devils made an appearance in a state playoff game.
The Blue Devils’ fourth win of the season equaled the total wins for the program over the last three seasons combined and is the most in a single year since a 9-3 mark in the 2013 playoff season.
The team will be a prohibitive underdog at Griffin next week, but now in the second year of the Jeff Kaiser coaching era and with a handful of junior playmakers who have keyed the improvement, Statesboro could be well on its way to reestablishing itself as a perennial playoff participant.
The Jason Bishop Show with Kipp Branch November 3
Knights Claim Another Region Title
By: Rich Bontrager
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
In an epic game between two bitter rivals, the Frederica Knights surprised many fans and sports reporters with a spectacular win against Bulloch Academy, 49-12.
Coming into this Region Championship matchup, the series between these two powerhouses stood at 2-2. In each of those four games, the home team had prevailed. This season, the Knights would arrive in Statesboro, GA and dominate in most all areas of the game.
What made the victory extra unique was that Frederica had 6 players not suited up due to injury and Jashawn Sheffield (SR. WR/Safety) was limited to only offensive plays due to a minor injury from last week’s John Milledge loss.
The Knights won the coin toss and elected to start on defense, as they have done all but one game this season. Coach Brandon Derrick trusted his defense to set the tone of the game and create short field position for his offensive squad. The defense did just that.
The Knights would score 14 unanswered points in the first half. First on a 3-yard rushing TD by Jaylin Simpson (Sr. QB) and then again on a 13-yard run by Isaiah Jackson (Sr. RB). Both extra-point kicks were good by Logan Bauer (Sr. K).
In fact, Bauer would kick a perfect game and go 7 for 7, something he had never done all season.
The Knight’s defensive gave Bulloch’s offense moments of frustration. Several times the Gators carried the ball into the “red zone” only to turn the ball over on downs, or miss a field goal.
The Knight’s defense gave up plenty of rushing yards, but always found a way to shut down Bulloch’s offensive machine. Including a big first half-sack by Will Counts (So., DL).
While the Knights would miss yet another scoring opportunity just before halftime, they scored on the first offensive play of the second half as Denver Anthony (Jr., RB) scored on a 60-yard rushing play.
A few plays later, Harry Veal (Sr., LB) recovered a bad lateral by Don Aarons of the Gators. Moments later, Denver Anthony ran for his second TD (16 yds) in less than 2 minutes of the third quarter play. Those scores put Frederica up 28-0.
The defense continued to set up the offense well as Josh Meadow’s made a big 4th down stop on Bulloch and Will Thompson would sack QB Don Aarons.
In total the Knights scored 21 points in the third quarter, and an additional 14 in the fourth.
One of the of most significant factors in getting such a disproportionate win over such
an intense rival like Bulloch was the “team’s unity”, said Coach Brandon Derrick after the game. “Yes, we made mental mistakes late in the game, but our team played extremely well as a unit, and for one another”, he said.
With the Region Championship title, Frederica will enjoy a bye week before beginning playoff action at home on, Friday, November, 16th.
The Knights will have home field advantage throughout the regional play. Along with home field advantage, Frederica will be able to get the six injured and sick players healed up as the “March to Mercer” officially gets underway.
With this win, the Knights conclude the regular season with a record of 7-3, and 4-0 in region play.
Playoff Terrors
By: Jason Bishop
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The Glynn Academy Red Terrors have won their 4th straight Region Championship.
Glynn beat the Bradwell Tigers 42-21.
The Red Terrors took a 7-0 lead on their second possession of the game. Bradwell tied the game up at 7-7 early in the 2nd quarter.
Glynn took charge of the game with two unanswered touchdowns before the half to take a 21-7 advantage into halftime.
Glynn Academy put the game away midway through the 3rd quarter on a 1-yard TD run by TJ Lewis, giving Glynn a 28-7 lead.
The Terrors would pour it on by adding another score late in the 3rd quarter, via a 15-yard TD run by Quany Bostick for a 35-7 lead.
Bradwell would score early in the 4th to make it a 35-14 game. The Red Terrors would respond would score a rushing TD to go up 42-14 mid way through the 4th. The Tigers would score a TD late in the 4th quarter to make the score a little more respectable, 42-21. That would be the final
Glynn Academy picked a great time to play their best of the year, heading into the playoffs.
Bradwell had a chance to win the #1 seed if they could beat Glynn and gotten a favorable scenario in a tie breaker, pending the outcome of the Richmond Hill/Effingham game.
However, with the Terrors win that tie breaker scenario was void and the Red Terrors secured the #1 seed.
The Red Terrors will play Lakeside Evans in the first round of the playoffs. Lakeside Evans won the #4 seed from region 3-6A. That game will be played next week at Glynn County Stadium. With the loss Bradwell falls to the 4th seed.
Glynn Academy finishes the regular season at 7-3. It was a weird regular season for the Red Terrors. It was a season that saw Glynn Academy benefit from a forfeit win by Fort Dorchester, lose three games in a row in the middle of the season and then rebound to win four in row to close the season, all region wins.
Frederica Academy Knights Coach’s Show with Brandon Derrick October 31
MCA Buccaneers Coach’s Show with Tony Glazer October 30
Glynn Academy Red Terrors Coach’s Show with Rocky Hidalgo October 30
Brunswick High Pirates Coach’s Show with Sean Pender October 30
Young And Talented
By: Kenneth Harrison Jr.
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The NBA season has recently started. The Atlanta Hawks finished the 2017-18 season 24-58 and earned the third pick in the draft. They drafted Luka Doncic from Spain then traded him to Dallas for the fifth pick, Trae Young.
In his lone season at Oklahoma, Young established himself as a multi-talented scoring threat. Young finished his freshman regular season leading the country in many statistics: assists (271), turnovers (161), points (848), points per game (27.4), assists per game (8.7), and assist percentage (48.6%).
The 811 points scored in the Big 12 would break the conference’s record for most points scored by a freshman player, which was previously held by Kevin Durant and Michael Beasley.
Young has received a lot of hype with some labeling him as the next Steph Curry. So far, he has done well, leading rookies with 19.8 points per game. His season high was 35 points against Cleveland. The Cavs also have a stud rookie point guard, Collin Sexton. The Hawks won the game 133-111 for the first win of the season.
The next game Atlanta played Dallas in the battle of traded draft picks. Kent Bazemore led the way with 32 points. Small forward Taurean Prince scored 24 and Young had 17. Doncic played well for the Mavs and had 21 points. Atlanta won 111-104.
Doncic is averaging 18.7 ppg, 6.2 rebounds per game and 4 assists per game. We are still early in the season so we cannot tell which team won the draft day trade. I felt Atlanta should have kept Doncic but time will tell which player will have the most success.
The last game was at home against Chicago. The Bulls won 97-85. Prince, Young and Bazemore combined for 15 of Atlanta’s 22 turnovers on a night when the Hawks shot 32.1 percent (27 of 84).
”Coming off two games where we played well (and won), it was a lesson in how you handle success,” Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce said. ”Sometimes, we were trying to do too much, and it was evident with our 22 turnovers. … I thought right from the start we were trying to hit home runs.”
So far Prince has been a pleasant surprise in his second year. He’s averaging 20.6 ppg and 5 apg. He forms a solid young tandem with Young.
DeAndre’ Bembrey is also a second year small forward and he’s playing well coming off the bench. He averages 9 points and 5.4 rpg.
The Hawks have some veterans on the team to help. Vince Carter is in his 20th season. He transitioned from being a great dunker into a three-point shooter.
The team is 2-3 and currently ninth in the East. Time will tell if they can sustain this current pace or be one of the worst teams in the league.
There is some excitement around the team, which has been lacking for quite some time. The stadium underwent a $213.5 million renovation and has been renamed State Farm Arena (formerly Philips Arena).
I know they aren’t going to the playoffs but this team is exciting to watch. Young is a potential Rookie of the Year candidate.
The Eagles Return
By: JJ Lanier
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
It’s been a bit of a roller coaster ride for Georgia Southern since they transitioned from the FCS to the FBS in 2014.
Their short-lived tenure on the FBS level reminds me of Darius Rucker’s music career (yes, I just heard Hootie & Blowfish 0n the radio and now I can’t stop thinking about how the Dolphins make him cry).
The inaugural season, in which they won the Sun Belt outright, was far more successful than anyone could have imagined; much like “Cracked Rear View Mirror”. The following seasons were basically like every other Hootie album that came after their debut album.
This current season, a redemption of sorts, is kind of like Rucker’s exploration into country music I guess.
Anyway, bad pop culture references aside, the Eagles are making another unexpected run at the Sun Belt, which gained steam after their home win over Appalachian State.
Even though the Mountaineers lost their starting quarterback on the first series, and their backups made Nathan Peterman look like Joe Montana, Georgia Southern completely dominated the game.
While you can’t look too much into all the turnovers Georgia Southern forced because of Appalachian’s quarterback situation, you can’t say the same about the other side of the ball.
Appalachian entered the game with one of the stingiest defenses in the country, which Georgia Southern promptly dominated upfront and ran all over them.
I’m not saying Georgia Southern is as good as Penn State, but as someone who has watched every App. St. game this year, I haven’t seen them be handled like that on defense all season, including the Penn State game.
With the Sun Belt’s new division alignment, and conference championship game, the next few weeks will be interesting. The big game for Georgia Southern is their November 10th matchup against Troy. If both teams win their upcoming games, the winner will take sole possession of first place within the East Division.
(The Louisiana Monroe game this weekend could be a sneaky one for Southern since it is positioned right in between the Appalachian and Troy games. Georgia Southern is the better team, but ULM is good enough to give them fits if the Eagles are looking ahead to Troy.)
If Georgia Southern beats Troy they’ll own the tiebreaker with both Troy and Appalachian State, with only Coastal Carolina and Georgia State remaining on their schedule; two teams they should defeat easily.
A loss would require Southern fans to root for Appalachian to beat Troy in the season finale, which is like asking a Georgia fan to pull for Florida to win, causing a three-way tie for the division title.
Of course, all of this would require each of those three teams to win their remaining games, outside of the ones I just outlined.
Saying a team “controls their own destiny” is one of the most clichéd sports lines there is, so I’ll simply make this statement: at this point Georgia Southern has the “authority to decide whether or not they will take advantage of the situation ordained to them by a higher power.”
Regardless of the outcome, the Eagles have begun re-staking their claim as one of the better programs within the Sun Belt Conference.
With Appalachian State and Troy both residing in the same division, having Georgia Southern back makes the East Division one of the most exciting and competitive ones in all of college football.
