Lee County beats Coffee 31-20 to reach postseason

DOUGLAS — Lee County coaches didn’t want to give their players an option.

They didn’t want to wait on Valdosta to beat Houston County for the Trojans to make the state playoffs.

Instead, Lee County took matters into its own hands, beating Coffee 31-20 Friday night at Jardine Stadium in its regular-season finale to lock up a playoff bid.

Valdosta ended Houston County’s season with a 28-24 victory over the Bears, meaning Lee County could have lost and still made the postseason.

Lee County, who finished as the region’s No. 3 seed, will travel to Evans next Friday to meet Region 3-AAAAA runner-up Evans High School at Blanchard Stadium. Coffee, meanwhile, will travel to Conyers to face Heritage High School.

Region champion Valdosta will be the top seed, while Northside-Warner Robins will be the second seed as the first round of the Georgia High School Association state football playoffs begin next Friday. Valdosta plays host to Lakeside-Evans, while Grovetown will play Northside.

Regardless of Friday’s outcomes, Lee’s Trojans didn’t want its postseason hopes hinging on what another team did. Its defense forced five turnovers, including two crucial interceptions at the goal line to thwart potential Coffee scores, while the offense played perhaps its best game of the season.

“The last thing we wanted was for somebody else to have to help us get in,” Lee County coach Dean Fabrizio said.

With the exception of a game-tying touchdown in the first quarter, Coffee most of the game trying to play catch-up. Coffee’s offense had some success against Lee’s crushing defense, but Lee never trailed after going ahead 14-7.

“We knew what we had to do,” said defensive back Otis Reese. “We knew we just had to play hard. Our coaches have told us that nobody plays more physical than us.”

Lee (7-2) also forced three fumbles, one of which led to a 27-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Jase Orndorff to Tyquavious Terrell to give them a 21-7 advantage.

Then its last fumble recovery led to a 31-yard Dylan Brendel field goal to make it 31-14 with 10:30 left in the game.

“We wanted to control what we could control,” Fabrizio said. “And we could control how we played.”

Lee County started quickly, getting a 14-yard run from Terrien Wester to grab an early 7-0 lead with 6:51 left in the opening quarter.

Coffee, however, answered on its ensuing drive, using a 69-yard touchdown scamper to tie the game.

But Orndorff quickly marched Lee back down the field, then scored on a 10-yard keeper to make it 14-7 with 36 seconds left in the first quarter.

Coffee (5-5) scored all of its touchdowns on big plays.

After Lee built a 21-7 lead in the second quarter, Coffee caught Lee’s secondary sleeping and quarterback Max Hughes hit Demeterius Davis on an 85-yard touchdown pass with 10:49 left in the first half.

But that was Coffee’s last score until a late touchdown with less than two minutes left.

“Our offense got back on track tonight,” Fabrizio said. “We got some confidence. But I couldn’t be more proud of this group.”