Lee County breaks Peach County’s 11-year shutout-free streak

LEESBURG — Not since Chad Campbell’s first year as head coach in Fort Valley in 2007 had an opposing team shut out Peach County.

Leave it to a former Peach County assistant to break that 11-year, 133-game streak, a streak that was the fifth-longest active streak in the state according to Georgia High School Football Historians Association research.

Lee County turned Friday’s matchup of GHSA finalists into a one-sided affair. The 33-0 Lee County victory was Peach County’s largest margin of defeat in five years and was its first shutout loss since a 40-0 loss to Shaw in the first round of the 2007 GHSA Class 3A playoffs.

“Peach County has a great football team, they’ve got a great program, and they’re going to go a long way this year,” said Lee County head coach Dean Fabrizio, who was an assistant under Campbell at Peach County before taking the Lee County head coaching position. “To be able to go in and play as well as we did and get a good victory over a very, very strong Peach County team, especially coming off a win over Dr. Phillips, is very impressive.

“I’m really, really proud of our kids, having to play two tough games back-to-back like that.”

It was a heavyweight battle that turned into a knockout. Lee County (3-0), the top-ranked team in the Georgia Sports Writers Association Class 6A poll, didn’t let Peach County (1-1), the No. 2 team in the Class 3A poll behind Calhoun of Gordon County, across the 50 until the fourth quarter.

Weather delayed the start of the game by an hour and 10 minutes. It also forced the game to end early, with Peach County conceding with 9:02 to go when lightning was detected in the area.

Lee County’s defense shut down a Peach County team that beat Northside-Warner Robins 27-24 last week. Lee County’s defense has yet to yield a touchdown this season, with Lee County posting its first shutout of the season after giving up a touchdown on a turnover against Dougherty and allowing a field goal against Dr. Phillips following a special-teams miscue that took place at the Lee County 1.

Peach County was held to 94 yards of total offense. For the season, Lee County has allowed opponents just 55 total yards, with a rushing yardage total of minus-70.

“They’re playing really good football,” Fabrizo said. “They’re playing with a lot of confidence right now. Hopefully we can keep it up.”

Jammie Robinson, a big piece of Lee County’s defense, made things happen on special teams.

The senior found an open lane down the Peach County sideline on the second-half kickoff, returning the kick 99 yards to put Lee County up 21-0.

“Before I got the ball, I told the kick return team we were going to take it to the house,” Robinson said. “Credit them for blocking.

“We practice on every small thing. Small things turn into big things on the field.”

Lee County’s offense, which went through major personnel changes during the offseason, showed some flashes of what made the unit successful during last year’s postseason with a quick scoring drive right before halftime.

Quarterback Kyle Toole led Lee County on a quick drive down the field late in the first half, finding Jeremiah Engram from 13 yards out for a touchdown with six seconds remaining in the half to cap a drive aided by a long Shaun Kimbrough run that put Lee County in position to go into the break with a 14-0 lead.

“Jeremiah Engram making that big catch right before half for the touchdown was just huge,” Fabrizio said. “They’ve got a very good defense, Peach County, and they made us earn everything. Our offense was able to do some good things out there (Friday).”