Bullseye returns to Lee County’s back with No. 1 ranking

LEESBURG — The bullseye that comes with a No. 1 ranking is all too familiar to Lee County.

A year ago, the Trojans climbed into the top spot for the first time but was only able to stay for a week because it came during a difficult stretch of region competition.

This year, the vault into the top spot comes much earlier in the season.

The Trojans (3-0) moved into the No. 1 spot in the Georgia Sports Writers Association Class 6A poll following Tucker’s loss Friday at Colquitt County. It wasn’t a unanimous vote: Two of the 15 voters put Coffee in the top spot, while two others kept Tucker atop the Class 6A list.

“It’s certainly a nice honor to have somebody rank you No. 1; it’s definitely a nice honor and a good thing for our team, school and community,” Lee County head coach Dean Fabrizio said. “But in the grand scheme of things, it really doesn’t matter. This isn’t the BCS or anything like that. You don’t get any extra points for it. We still have to go out and play the games. It’s really just all speculation at this point.”

Lee County has the benefit this time around of not being right in the middle of its meat-grinder portion of its schedule, which comes in Region 1-6A play in the final four games of the regular season.

Its one-week stay at No. 1 last year ended with a 26-7 loss to Northside-Warner Robins at McConnell-Talbert Stadium, with a 27-7 loss to eventual Class 6A champion Valdosta following the next week.

“When you play a really tough schedule, that can happen,” Fabrizio said. “It seemed like all of us were knocking each other off in region play for awhile there.”

This time, the first game at No. 1 is a home contest against Americus-Sumter, a team that isn’t a traditional power like Northside or Valdosta but a squad that has shown some potential so far.

Americus-Sumter (1-1) is coming off a 5-6 season but has posted some interesting results in its first two games this season. The Panthers gave Crisp County, ranked third in Class 3A, its only close game so far, with Crisp County prevailing 20-18 in Americus. Americus-Sumter then beat Dooly County 33-14.

This will be the Panthers’ final non-region game before entering Region 1-4A play next week against Westover at Hugh Mills Stadium.

Americus-Sumter runs a balanced offense, with Kobe Lewis running for 358 yards and four touchdowns and Kierston Harvey throwing for 355 yards and two scores.

“Americus has a really, really impressive team,” Fabrizio said. “Coach (Erik) Soliday is back there, and he had great success there in his previous stint. They’re very big on the offensive line and defensive line, athletic at the skill positions, run really well at linebacker. They’ve got about everything you need to have a really good team there athletically and physically.

“I think it’s the best team they’ve had since they merged the two schools together. It should be a heck of a game Friday night.”

A win over Americus-Sumter could keep Lee County in the top spot for awhile. The Trojans’ next three opponents — Luella, Thomas County Central and Houston County — have combined for just one win so far this season.

After opening the season against two ranked teams, Lee County doesn’t face a ranked team again until Oct. 13, when Northside travels to Leesburg.

“Fortunately we’ve been ranked a lot these past few years,” Fabrizio said. “It’s not like what it was five, six years ago when if we were ranked there was just a huge deal made of it, they were hearing from everybody and we had to bring them back down. Now I think our kids and community is used to us being ranked and ranked highly. It’s kind of business as usual.”