VALDOSTA —
When Robby Pruitt announced he was leaving Fitzgerald High School after 11 successful seasons as the head football coach and announced he was taking the position the same position at Coffee High School, the overall feeling throughout South Georgia was Region 1-AAAAAA just got a whole lot tougher to win.
Many believed the Trojans would be a team to look out for in Region 1.
Through seven games this season, Coffee is 5-2 and in the hunt for a playoff berth, exactly as people expected.
The Trojans will look to take a huge step forward in securing a playoff berth when they visit the fourth-ranked Lowndes Vikings tonight at Martin Stadium. Kickoff is set for 8 p.m.
“They are hungry, they know what they’re doing and they are coming in here ready to go,” Lowndes head coach Randy McPherson said. “I promise you that.”
Tonight will be the 27th all-time meeting between the Vikings (7-0) and Trojans. Lowndes holds a 20-6 record and has won every meeting in the series since 2002.
But those wins were against Coffee teams of the past. This is a new era of Coffee football.
“I’m telling you, they are a really good football team,” McPherson said.
McPherson said he has been reiterating to his team that the region championship is on the line each Friday night, something he has done all season long.
“What is on the line for us is the region championship,” McPherson said. “We told our guys that you can’t think of it any other way than it is for the region championship. You can’t get into going to look at what their record might be or what might have happened last year or the year before or the year before that. That is exactly how you get beat.
“We are going to come out here and give it our best shot.”
The truth of the matter, the region championship very well could be on the line tonight, just like McPherson said.
Camden County and Lowndes are both 3-0 in the region, while Coffee and Colquitt County both have one loss in the region. A loss for the Vikings tonight would drop them into a tie with Coffee, and they still have to play top-ranked Camden County in two weeks.
Offensively, Coffee has implemented the spread-style offense under Pruitt, who went 120-21 in his 11 seasons as the coach of the Purple Hurricanes.
With the running game being the main priority of the offense, the Trojans have three players with at least four rushing touchdowns, including Lacarvius Sears and Timoreion Simmons, both of whom rushed for over 135 yards with multiple scores in last week’s 42-26 win over Brunswick.
“They run an offense very similar to us,” McPherson said. “They have very good running backs.”
When the Trojans do put the ball into the air, quarterback Keegan McGovern is effective. The junior has completed 53 of his 94 passing attempts for 878 yards with 10 touchdowns and just two interceptions. He has also added three touchdowns on the ground.
McGovern’s favorite target is Brandon Roe, who has a team-leading 17 catches for 312 yards with four touchdowns.
When studying the Trojans on film, McPherson came away impressed with what he saw.
“He is a big kid (and) he is fast,” he said.
Defensively, Coffee runs a base 3-3-5 stack defense, according to McPherson. The defensive formation is very similar to what the Vikings will see later this season when they host Camden County.
“They have speed everywhere,” said McPherson of Coffee.
The Trojans’ base defense could give the Vikings room to run up the middle. On the season, running back Nick Burgman has rushed for 649 yards with nine touchdowns and sophomore Ahman Brown has added 347 yards with seven touchdowns.
As a whole, the Vikings have rushed for 1,904 yards and 27 touchdowns this season.
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Related Photos
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Lowndes quarterback Seth Carlo (11) fakes a hand-off to Nick Burgman (21) after handing the ball off to Tevin Orr (36) in a game against Brunswick two weeks ago at Martin Stadium. The Vikings host the Coffee Trojans tonight at 8 p.m. at Martin Stadium. Brandon Powers | The Valdosta Daily Times
Discussion
Vikings battle Coffee tonight
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