The Coffee Trojans fell to the Thomas County Central Yellow Jackets 38-7 Friday night in Thomasville in the final game of the regular season. The loss gives the Trojans an 8-2 overall record and a 3-2 region mark. Coffee has secured the #3 seed in the playoffs and will face Jackson County on November 15 in Hoschton.
The game was scoreless until late in the first quarter when the Yellow Jackets got on the board with a double pass from quarterback Jaylen Johnson to Jabari Watkins to Gary Pringle for a 26-yard touchdown. The Yellow Jackets scored again when Johnson found Deuce Lawrence on a wheel route out of the backfield for another 26-yard touchdown on the first play of the second quarter.
TCC added 10 more points in the first half on a 39-yard field goal by Drew Reneau and a punt return by Kendarius Reddick. The Yellow Jackets led 24-0 at halftime.
The Trojans scored their one and only touchdown on their first drive of the third quarter. Coffee launched a 58-yard drive that ended with a 21-yard touchdown run by Tyrese Woodgett. The score narrowed the gap to 24-7 with 8:17 remaining in the third quarter.
On the Yellow Jackets’ next drive, Coffee’s KJ Smith tipped a pass from Johnson that Jyarius Carter picked off for his second interception of the year. The Trojans, however, were unable to get any points out of the miscue and turned the ball over to TCC on downs.
In the fourth quarter, the Yellow Jackets scored two more times – on a 17-yard run by AJ Clark and another on a Kobe Carnage punt return. The final touchdown gave TCC a 38-7 advantage with 7:24 remaining. And that’s how the game would end.
In the second quarter, Woodgett surpassed the 1,000-yard rushing mark for the season. He came into the game needing only 19 yards to reach that milestone and it didn’t take him long at all to do it. Woodgett rushed for 87 yards on 19 carries.
The Yellow Jackets outgained the Trojans 327 total yards to 201. Nearly all of Coffee’s yards were on the ground; the passing game only accounted for eight yards. Most of TCC’s yards also were courtesy of its running attack — Johnson was 5-19 for 109 yards, one interception, and one touchdown. Watkins threw for another touchdown on the aforementioned double pass. Lawrence stung the Trojans for 132 yards on eight carries and one receiving touchdown.
Following the game, Coffee head coach Mike Coe said a couple of things put the Trojans in some difficult circumstances – most notably an unsuccessful fake punt at Coffee’s own 35 and a fourth down at the Trojans’ own 29 that the Yellow Jackets stuffed. That led to the Clark touchdown. “I really put the defense in a bad spot with those calls,” he said.
Coe added that in spite of the score, there were some positives. “It looked bad but there are some things we can build on. We just got our tails whipped. That starts with me. We’ve got to get better. They’ve got a good team. They’re well coached and they’re defending state champions, too,” he said.
The Trojans get a week off next week then they travel to Hoschton to face the Jackson County Panthers, the #2 seed from Region 8-5A.