Author: Robert Preston

There were certainly some tense moments during the Coffee Trojans’ 34-22 win over the South Effingham Mustangs Friday night. At halftime, the Trojans held on to a slim 14-7 lead. With about five minutes left in the game, Coffee was ahead by five points with South Effingham across midfield and driving. The Mustangs were moving the ball seemingly at will, with Coffee offering little resistance to a surprisingly effective South Effingham passing attack. However, an incompletion on a big 4th and 6 with the Mustangs in Trojan territory gave Coffee the ball and, for all practical purposes, the win. “We…

It’s not often that a team can lose the turnover battle yet still win a game. Yet that’s exactly what happened Friday night in Statesboro as the Coffee Trojans defeated the Statesboro High Blue Devils 39-20 in what started out as a very close contest. Once again, special teams plagued the Trojans. Coffee missed three extra points, was on the wrong end of a blocked punt that led to a Statesboro touchdown, dropped two punts, and made a mental mistake on blocked field goal that nearly led to another Blue Devil score. Almost amazingly, however, Coffee managed to pull it…

“If you’re going to win, sometimes you’ve got to win ugly.” Those were the words of Coffee Trojans head football coach Robby Pruitt after Friday night’s 20-14 Homecoming win over the Effingham County Rebels. Coffee had indeed won. And was indeed ugly. The Trojan offense sputtered all night and never seemed to hit its stride. And the lightning bolt that ignited the Trojans came from an unlikely place. Coffee fans haven’t heard much from junior wide receiver/quarterback/running back/defensive back Jeremiah Ashley this year. Originally penciled in to be the Trojans’ signal caller after Tyree Paulk graduated, the Coffee staff decided…

A Friday night shooting at Eastwood Apartments in Douglas has left two dead and one injured. According to Brannen Pruette of the Douglas Police Department, Curtis Wallace, 51, shot and killed his wife, Kathy Wallace, then, after a fairly lengthy standoff, killed himself before he could be apprehended. A second victim, Christy Rhoden, 23, was also shot but sustained minor injuries. Rhoden was treated and released from Coffee Regional Medical Center. The shooting took place around 7:35 p.m. Friday at the apartments on North McDonald Avenue. After shooting both Rhoden and Kathy Wallace in an upstairs apartment, Curtis Wallace fled…

Officers from the Douglas Police Department, Georgia State Patrol, the Coffee County Sheriff’s Office, and an area SWAT team swarmed the neighborhood surrounding Amelia Apartments on North McDonald Avenue Friday night after a gunman shot two individuals, one fatally, and barricaded himself inside an apartment. As of Friday around 11 p.m., the gunman, who family on the scene identified as Curtis Wallace, was still barricaded inside the apartment. According to a police spokesman, the body of the deceased female was inside the apartment as well. A second female who had been shot had gotten out of the building and was…

Focused. Determined. Stifling. Relentless. Those are but a few words you could use to describe the Coffee Trojans’ defense Friday night. The defensive unit pounded the Glynn Academy Red Terrors into submission as the Trojans picked up a much needed region win in Brunswick, defeating the Terrors 22-0. The offense was adequate, special teams improved. But it was the defense that kept the Trojans in the game all night long. Glynn Academy is one of the region’s sleeper teams, seldom mentioned in the region championship discussion but one of the more dangerous teams on the schedule. Last year, the Red…

When junior defensive lineman Troy Taft sacked Ware County’s quarterback for a 16-yard loss deep in Coffee territory at the end of the second quarter, it should have a game-defining play. Instead, it was a footnote in a painful 23-14 loss to the Gators in Jardine Stadium Friday night. The Trojans were holding on to a slim 7-3 lead when a bad snap on a punt gave Ware the ball on Coffee’s 10 yard line. With time running out in the second quarter, the turnover should have resulted in a Gator touchdown and a halftime lead. Instead, the Coffee defense…

Just prior to the kickoff of the Coffee Trojans’ home opener against the Savannah High School Blue Jackets Friday night, fans watched a tribute to the late Riccardo Ingram and Malik Sparkman, two Trojans who lost battles with cancer this year. Coffee linebackers coach Neil Graham, who himself was waging his own war against cancer, was listening to the game in a bed at Northside Hospital in Atlanta. Hours later, after hearing his Trojans win 38-0, Coach Graham joined Ingram and Sparkman in death, the third Trojan to succumb to cancer in recent months. Neil Graham came to Coffee County…

Friday night’s game between the Coffee Trojans and the Savannah High Blue Jackets was over almost before it started. It really was. Coffee running back Demetrius Davis scored on an 84-yard touchdown run just 17 seconds into the game. The Trojans would roll from there, eventually defeating the Blue Jackets 38-0 at Jardine Stadium. The game began with a touching tribute on the Jumbotron to Riccardo Ingram and Malik Sparkman, two Trojans who tragically lost brave battles with cancer earlier this year. Once the game, which was Coffee’s home opener, was underway, the Trojans hit their stride early and never…

Five Trojans scored a total of six touchdowns in Coffee’s 39-0 win over the North Oconee Titans at the Erk Russell Classic in Statesboro’s Paulson Stadium Saturday afternoon. Junior running back Demetrius Davis scored twice, once on a seven-yard run in the first quarter and again on 58-yard run near the end of the fourth quarter. The game started an hour late due to lightning and rain, which caused both teams to play sloppily in the first half. The Trojans had opportunities but kept making costly mistakes. At half-time, Coffee held on to a slim 6-0 lead. The second half,…