Coffee County high school football fans should take note of a little gridiron history that has been made this season. For the first time, two local high school football teams will play postseason games in the same season. The Coffee Trojans earned a playoff berth Friday night with their win over the Veterans Warhawks.
The CCA Patriots had almost certainly clinched a playoff spot regardless of the outcome of their final regular season game against the Westwood Academy Wildcats. Westwood defeated CCA, which probably wouldn’t be enough to knock the Patriots out of a postseason spot. But no one would know for sure until the final rankings came out on Sunday.
In the rankings, the Patriots barely snuck into the #7 spot (they had been #6 going into the Westwood game). On a positive note, it means they will host a home playoff game for the first time in program history this Friday night. CCA will welcome the #10-ranked Fullington Academy Trojans to Patriot Field for the first round of the playoffs. The two teams have played once before this season; the Patriots defeated the Trojans 34-28 at Fullington on September 19.
On a more somber note, the Patriots have been depleted by injuries and could use the extra week off they would get if they had defeated Westwood. The Wildcats are ranked #6, which gives them a first-round bye and a much better run through the playoffs. Whoever wins on Friday night will face the #2-ranked Vidalia Heritage Academy Eagles in Vidalia. CCA played Vidalia Heritage on October 17; the Eagles weren’t very gracious hosts and sent the Patriots home with a 64-20 defeat.
As for Coffee, the Trojans will have to wait a little longer to find out who their first-round playoff opponent will be. The Trojans still have one more regular season game to play, a Halloween showdown with the Region 2-5A champion Thomas County Central Yellow Jackets. However, the Trojans will play the #1 seed from Region 6 in the first round. If the season ended today, their opponent would be Sequoyah, the #9-ranked team in the state.
Last year, Coffee and Sequoyah played each other in the quarterfinals. The Trojans won 72-48 and then-senior running back Tyrese Woodgett set the state single-game rushing record with 605 yards (along with eight touchdowns). That record has since been broken; Ty Cummings of West Laurens rushed for 615 yards and eight touchdowns earlier this year against Baldwin.