Friday night against Lee County, the Yellow Jackets fumbled it away six times. Luckily for the them, the Trojans offense had bigger problems.
Lee County could only turn the six fumble recoveries into seven points and when the ball wasn’t slipping out of the hands of TCC the Yellow Jackets were busy running up 456 yards of offense en route to an easy 35-7 victory against the winless Trojans at Trojan Field.
“It is hard to explain,” Thomas County Central coach Bill Shaver said. “We hang on to the ball, it is hard to tell how much we would have had.”
Even with the turnovers, the Yellow Jackets had more than enough to keep Lee County (0-7 overall, 0-4 in Region 1-AAA) winless on the season. As the energy level rose with Trojans defenders repeatedly sprinting off the soggy turf with a turnover in tow, it was deflated time and again as proceeding drives ended in punts.
Outside of one drive that culminated in quarterback Matt Aldrich sneaking in Lee County’s lone touchdown of the night from the 1, the Trojans didn’t earn one first down after recovering the other five fumbles and also threw an interception.
“We got some young players that make mistakes,” Lee County coach Dave Johnson said. “We got some older players that are working hard and you are going to have that at times, we just got to go to work on Monday.”
They went to bed on Friday with nightmares of Shawn Bryant. The Yellow Jackets senior fullback rolled up 256 yards of total offense on the night with three touchdowns.
Bryant sprinted down the seam after reeling in a 70-yard TD pass from Taylor Payne for the first score of the game. He then answered the Trojans lone score —which closed the gap to 21-7 in the fourth quarter Ð by breaking up the middle 23 yards for his last touchdown.
With his season stats officially padded, Bryant enjoyed a few jokes and a sly smile after the game.
“I think I can do better than that,” he said, pretending to stretch his legs out. “I think I was a little slow (Friday).”
The tone was more serious on the Trojans sideline, but still upbeat after a game Lee County held the state’s Class AAAA No. 5 team within two scores in the fourth.
Johnson utilized a two-quarterback rotation of Aldrich and sophomore Justin Walker which flashed moments of promise. The Trojans knew rushing yards would be tough to come by against a physical front of the Yellow Jackets, so they resorted to the pass. Aldrich finished 5-of-11 for 61 yards with an interception and the rushing touchdown. Walker was 4-of-8 for 20 yards, also with an interception.
Lee County completed five pass plays for double-digit yardage, but couldn’t sustain a drive until the end.
Lee will be working toward their next game against Upson-Lee, who picked up their first win of the year against Americus-Sumter on Friday. That looks to a more winnable game and the best shot yet for Lee County to crack the win column.
In the immediate aftermath of the missed opportunities of Friday, however, Johnson wasn’t thinking about next week.
“This game was winnable,” he said. “We had a turnover in the first half and a big play. It is 14-0 at halftime, I think we played well we just didn’t finish the game off like we needed to.”
