Kyle Toole’s five TD passes lift Lee County over Americus-Sumter

AMERICUS — Kyle Toole had plenty of time to prepare for his turn as Lee County’s starting quarterback.

Toole, a junior, spent all of last year as Jase Orndorff’s understudy, the go-to player if Orndorff, who threw for 3,337 yards and 27 touchdowns in helping lead the Trojans to a state championship as a senior last season, needed a break.

So far this year, Toole’s on-field performance has been solid, helping Lee County to a 4-0 start that includes the Trojans’ 49-7 victory Friday at Americus-Sumter.

Toole threw five first-half touchdown passes in the win over Americus-Sumter, completing 11-of-15 passes for 198 yards. He has yet to throw an interception this season, and he has completed 65.3 percent of his passes.

“Kyle’s got a lot of ability,” Lee County head coach Dean Fabrizio said of Toole, who has 649 passing yards and nine touchdowns through four games. “We’ve been fortunate here and blessed at Lee County that we’ve had a string of great quarterbacks. We think Kyle is the next one in line to make a big name for himself, and we’ve got a lot of confidence in him.

“He’s gaining experience each week, and he has a good receiving corps. He really stepped up his game (Friday) and played really well.”

Lee County, the top-ranked team in the Georgia Sports Writers Association Class 6A poll, took control early against Americus-Sumter, last year’s GHSA Region 1-4A champion.

Artavius Warren and Daveon Sanders each caught two touchdown passes, with David Goodwin hauling in the fifth scoring pass. The five touchdowns accounted for 133 of Toole’s passing yards.

Lee County led 42-7 at halftime. Warren finished with 115 receiving yards on five catches. Sanders picked up 55 yards on three catches, and he also had a 10-yard touchdown run in the first quarter.

“Our receivers ran real crisp routes, good routes, getting open and finding the ball,” Toole said. “They found open holes in the defense.”

The Lee County defense’s string of not allowing a touchdown this season came to an end with 2:55 to go in the first quarter when Americus-Sumter’s Montrellis Wilson caught an 8-yard scoring pass from Kierston Harvey, a score aided by a pair of 15-yard Lee County penalties.

Jammie Robinson came up with his second special teams for Lee County in as many weeks, returning a punt 40 yards for a touchdown in the second half.

Lee County hosts Southwest-Macon on Friday, while Americus-Sumter (1-2) returns to region play Friday with a home game against Shaw.

Last year, Americus-Sumter lost to Lee County by a similar margin before winning seven straight in region play to secure the Region 1-4A title.

“Lee County has a great program, and they’re state champs for a reason,” Americus-Sumter head coach Larry Harold said. “We got our measuring stick. As a coaching staff and myself, we see that we have a long ways to go before we compete at that level. Thank God that we get to go back into region play and hopefully get to redeem ourselves.”