GUYTON – While Effingham County senior Tucker Perkins is listed at quarterback, a basketball position might be just as appropriate with the way he distributes the ball.
“Just got to be a point guard out there at quarterback,” Perkins said following the Rebels’ 49-21 victory on Friday night over their county rivals and hosts, the South Effingham Mustangs. “(Find) an open receiver. We’ve got concepts. I go through my reads and I just put the ball wherever it needs to be.”
Perkins completed 14 of 20 passes for 283 yards and four touchdowns. Five different teammates scored the seven touchdowns for Effingham County (3-2, 2-1 Region 1-5A).
Trayvis Hunter caught two scores among his five receptions for 62 yards. Malik Letman had three catches for 120 yards, including a 36-yard TD. Isaiah (Zeke) Brown caught three passes for 62 yards.
Running back Jmere Doe-Davis had three receptions for 39 yards, including a 25-yard score to go along with his 16 carries for 115 yards rushing. JR McKenzie ran for two touchdowns (2 and 42 yards) and a two-point conversion.
“That’s how we want to be,” Effingham County coach John Ford said of multiple contributors and a variety of scorers. “We want to be able to punish you, no matter what. We want to be able to spread you horizontally and attack you vertically and be physical in the A-B gap with the run. That’s kind of the design and our kids executed really well tonight and I’m proud of them.”
The Rebels have now won six straight and nine of the last 10 against the Mustangs (1-3, 1-1 region), who were primed for the annual matchup after winning a week earlier in overtime at home against Lakeside-Evans to snap a 13-game losing skid dating back to November 2023.
It didn’t matter that Effingham County had outscored them 296-95 going back to the 2016 meeting, nor that SEHS had been shut out in three of the last five losses going into Friday’s contest.
This is a game between rivals, the only two high schools in the county.
“Our kids believe and they fight,” Mustangs coach Loren Purvis said after the game. “At New Hampstead, we let it slip away (a season-opening 14-6 loss). We should have won that game. Last week, we knew we should have won by more (against Lakeside), but we let it slip right there at the end. Our kids are fighters. They believe in themselves, and they believe in this team.”
That faith could have been damaged by the opening kickoff, which was muffed and Effingham County’s Jernard Albright recovered at the SEHS 6. Albright then took the snap in the wildcat formation and hurdled a tackler before bulling his way into the end zone for 7-0 – just 12 seconds into the game.
“We’re mentally tougher than that,” Purvis said of the almost-instant deficit. “We’ve got a lot more pride about what we do than to let something like that affect us.”
The Rebels scored on their next possession, an 80-yard drive keyed by a 52-yard catch and run by Letman and culminating in Perkins’ 25-yard scoring toss to Doe-Davis. The extra point was wide right, leaving the score at 13-0 with 4:54 left in the first quarter.
The Mustangs closed to 13-7 by converting a fumble on a punt return into a short field and Danny Murtha’s 5-yard TD run on the first play of the second quarter.
Purvis said afterward that the Rebels were able to make “huge plays” for fast scoring drives, and that was true as Perkins connected with Brown for a 46-yard bomb followed by a 13-yard score to Hunter, who in a small space eluded defenders and somehow slipped through to the end zone for 20-7.
After the Mustangs turned it over on downs for great field position at the SEHS 47, Perkins found Doe-Davis for an 11-yard gain, then Letman for a 36-yard score when missed tackles allowed him to sprint along the sideline.
Perkins said the quick passes, or speed outs, to the sideline have a purpose in getting playmakers the ball in space.
“That’s what you’ve got to do when you have guys like this on the team,” said Perkins, who also praised the offensive line for blocking for him in pass protection.
Ford said team objectives included stopping the Mustangs’ run game, preventing deep passes and, “offensively, we wanted to score every time we had the ball and put them in chase mode.”
Down 27-7, SEHS was chasing but received a gift when the defense forced a punt and the snap went over the head of the punter, who was tackled at the ECHS 2-yard line.
Freshman quarterback Liam Coburn converted the mistake into points when he ran in from 8 yards for a 27-14 deficit with 4:00 left in the second quarter.
Effingham County started a drive with 1:05 remaining in the first half and benefitted from SEHS penalties – roughing the passer, facemask, pass interference – as well as Letman’s 32-yard reception. McKenzie scored from 2 yards, then after the Mustangs were offside on the extra-point attempt, ECHS went for two and McKenzie ran in for a 35-14 advantage 14 seconds before halftime.
The Mustangs closed to 35-21 on Maddox Vasquez’s 33-yard TD run in the third quarter, but McKenzie and Hunter scored their second TDs in the fourth for a comfortable cushion.
Purvis said the ECHS has “too many weapons” to key on only a few offensive players, but he also said his team needs to improve, and not just on defense.
“We missed tackles, but we’ve (also) got to make blocks up front,” Purvis said. “We’ve got to make catches. We’ve got to make throws. It wasn’t just because they were really good on offense that we lost tonight. Our defense played tough. We’ve got to do a better job all around.”
The Mustangs never got the passing game going, as Coburn was 5 of 11 for 31 yards. The team’s rushing attack had some success, led by standout junior Khyran White’s hard, angry runs for 102 yards.
“You can’t stop our run game,” Purvis said. “It’s just (ECHS) got up so much at times where we had to make play calls to try to throw ourselves back in (the game), and that’s a hard spot to be in. We missed some tackles that we should have made. But our kids fought. I’m really proud of them. Hats off to our kids. We held our composure.”
Ford also praised his players and coaches for how “they handled the situation” as a game that featured physical play and hard hits from the start got chippy at times in the second half.
“Rivalries are intense,” Ford said. “This one felt a little more personal during the week with the some of the trash talk that happens in the community. That probably led to some spillover on the field.”
Perkins said that the teams’ 2024 game – a 47-0 ECHS victory in Springfield – was not as heated.
That might be because Friday’s game was more competitive, and the teams and their fans remain passionate as the rivalry matters in their communities.
“We were all friends with the kids over there last year, but this year there were new faces,” Perkins said. “It was a lot more intense.”
|
EFFINGHAM 49, SOUTH EFFINGHAM 21 |
|||||
| Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Total |
| ECHS | 13 | 22 | 0 | 14 | 49 |
| SEHS | 0 | 14 | 7 | 0 | 21 |
First Quarter
ECHS—Jernard Albright 6 run (Jackson Wilhote kick)
ECHS—Jmere Doe-Davis 25 pass from Tucker Perkins (kick failed)
Second Quarter
SEHS—Danny Murtha 5 run (Adam Alonso kick)
ECHS—Trayvis Hunter 13 pass from Perkins (Wilhote kick)
ECHS—Malik Letman 36 pass from Perkins (Wilhote kick)
SEHS—Liam Coburn 8 run (Alonso kick)
ECHS – JR McKenzie 2 run (McKenzie run)
Third Quarter
SEHS – Maddox Vasquez 33 run (Alonso kick)
Fourth Quarter
ECHS—Hunter 8 pass from Perkins (Wilhote kick)
ECHS—McKenzie 42 run (Wilhote kick)
Records—ECHS 3-2, 2-1 Region 1-5A; SEHS 1-3, 1-1 region.
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WEEK 6 SCHEDULE
Sept. 19
Buchholtz (FL) 21, Richmond Hill 0 F (called at half weather)
Statesboro 38, Bradwell 28
Effingham County 49, South Effingham 21
Benedictine 56, Westminster 7
Long County 22, Beach 21,
Jenkins 41, Calvary Day 33
Johnson 35, Groves 26
Liberty County 34, Islands 8
SE Bulloch 50, Windsor Forest 15
Savannah Country Day 34, Tattnall County 21
ECI 30, Bryan County 12
Bethesda 56, Patrick Henry 0
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Photo: Courtesy Gilbert Miller
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