STATE CHAMPS: Lee County claims first state football title in 28-21 overtime win

LEESBURG — Drequan Garmon started the 2017 season with a knee injury. He ended it with a game-winning state championship touchdown that put an exclamation point on Lee County’s wild postseason.

Garmon, one of the 41 seniors on the Lee County football roster, worked his way back quickly from a July ACL tear, playing again toward the end of the season. He came up big Friday in the GHSA Class 6A championship game, scoring two touchdowns, including an 11-yarder from Jase Orndorff in overtime, to lift the Trojans to a 28-21 victory over Coffee and their first state championship.

“Coming off that injury at the beginning of the season and not being able to play and me working my butt off and trusting God, it feels so good to me to be back with this team, playing for a state championship and coming out with a W,” Garmon said.

Delayed a week by snow in Atlanta and unable to play in Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the Class 6A title game was moved to Leesburg in accordance with GHSA precedent. The game was played in front of a capacity crowd at Trojan Field, thanks to Lee County’s regular-season victory over Coffee that delivered the Region 1-6A title, and those in attendance, including country music star and Lee County native Luke Bryan, were treated to a South Georgia football classic.

For the second time in as many games, Lee County (14-1) trailed by double-figures in the second quarter before scoring in the final minute before halftime to claim some momentum. And, just like the Trojans’ semifinal win two weeks earlier over Glynn Academy in which Lee County overcame a 25-point deficit, the drama went right to the end.

Coffee’s 21-14 halftime lead, built on Jameon Gaskin’s three short touchdown runs, held well into the fourth quarter. Lee County had the ball on its own 21 with 6:35 to go after muffing and recovering a punt, setting up a four-minute, 21-second drive in which it burned its final timeout with 2:21 to go after taking two timeouts early in the third quarter.

The final timeout, however, was well-spent. Orndorff (20-of-39, 238 yards) went deep on a first-down play at the Coffee 30, and Garmon grabbed the ball in the end zone to tie things at 21.

“The safety and the corner, they got discombobulated,” said Garmon, who finished with 76 yards on five catches. “Jase just put it up for me, and there was nobody over the top.”

Taking advantage of a short squib kick and a pass interference call, Coffee (10-4) drove inside the Lee County 15 as time wound down. Coffee called its final timeout with less than three seconds to go to set up a 29-yard, game-winning field goal attempt, but a snap and hold that wasn’t spot-on led to a kick that was tipped by Lee County freshman Baron Hopson, sending the game to overtime.

Lee County won the overtime coin toss, but instead of starting overtime on defense, Lee County head coach Dean Fabrizio chose to drive into the north end zone, where Lee County’s students were sitting, as opposed to the south end zone where Coffee fans were seated.

Overtime played out for Lee County’s offense in a similar fashion to how things went in the Trojans’ Oct. 13 overtime win over Northside-Warner Robins. After a short gain on first down, Lee County’s receivers ran a crossing route that freed up the receiver heading toward the far corner of the end zone. In this case, Garmon was the open man.

“He was cleared just a few weeks ago,” Fabrizio said of Garmon. “There’s not a kid who deserves that moment more than him. I’m just so happy for him.”

Coffee never got much going in its overtime possession. After getting hit with an illegal block in the back call and two false starts, the game ended for Coffee on third-and-long when Tay Mayo, who was helped off the field earlier in the game with an injury, intercepted a tipped pass and set off a celebration among Lee County fans.

The win gave metro Albany its first GHSA football championship since Dougherty won 19 years ago, in 1998.

“I can’t say enough about our defense,” Fabrizio said. “In the first half they were moved around some, but in the second half and overtime they just played lights out.”