Lee County Wins Thriller – Beats Scotland 38-31 To Take Lead For Top 3A Spot From Conference

BJ Brown & Tyric McKendall Lead Big-Play Yellow Jackets to Win

The Lee County Yellow Jackets answered Scotland County all night long and finally took a 3rd quarter lead and then gutted out a 38-31 win in a thriller at Paul Gay Stadium in Sanford.   Lee County improved to 6-3, 3-2 in conference play and moved past Scotland in the standings in hopes of locking up the #1 Seed from the 3A schools next Friday night at Southern Lee.  Scotland led 7-0, 14-7, 21-14 and 24-21 in the first half and Lee County answered each time to tie the score at 24-all at the half.   Lee County had the only score in the 3^rd on a spectacular run by BJ Brown to take a 31-24 lead and Scotland tied the score at 31 with just over 5 minutes to play.   Scotland got the ball back and with 1:15 remaining in the game, Tyric McKendall picked off a Scotland pass and returned it 47 yards across the field and then down the sidelines to win the game for Lee County.

McKendall scored on a 77-yard pass play to tie the game at 7 early on and then after a Scotland TD put the Scots up 14-7, BJ Brown return the ensuing kickoff 72 yards for a score to tie the game at 14.  Christian Cole kicked a 27-yard FG with 19 seconds left in the half, but the Yellow Jackets – with the help of a penalty against Scotland – got close enough for Kennedy Hernandez to kick a 43-yard FG as time expired and sent the Yellow Jackets to the half with the momentum.

BJ Brown led the Yellow Jacket offense with 191 yards on 22 carries plus a kickoff return for the 2^nd straight week.   Scotland won the time of possession – 33:00 minutes to 15:00 for the Jackets – with their time-consuming ground game.   The Yellow Jackets gave up 432 yards of total offense to the Scots, but only 110 of those yards came in the 2^nd half when the Jacket defense came up with some huge plays.  

Scoring

Scotland       21     3     0     7     31

Lee County   14    10    7    7     38

Scoring Summary

SC – Nicholson 6 run (Cole kick)

LC – Tyric McKendall 77 pass from Will Patterson (Kennedy Hernandez kick)

SC – Nicholson 15 run (Cole kick)

LC – BJ Brown 72 KO return (Hernanadez kick)

SC – Graham 29 pass from Revelle (Cole kick)

LC – Kendall Morris 10 run (Hernandez kick)

SC – Cole 27 FG

LC – Hernandez 43 FG

LC – BJ Brown 49 run (Hernandez kick)

SC – Revelle 12 run (Cole kick)

LC – Tyric McKendall 47 Int Return

Rushing

SC – Nicholson 14-84, McKayhan 17-47, Primus 13-108  Team Totals 48-240

LC – BJ Brown 22-191, Kendall Morris 4-35, Patterson 2-(-26)  Team Totals 28-200

Passing

SC – Revelle 14-29-192, 1TD, 3 INT

LC – Will Patterson 6-10-95, 1TD, 1 INT

Receiving

SC – Totals 14-192

LC – McKendall 4-89, Kenyon Palmer 1-5, BJ Brown 1-1  Totals 6-95

• BJ Brown was selected as the Normann Financial Group Offensive Player of the Game for Lee County and Tyric McKendall was the Defensive Player of the Game for the Yellow Jackets.
• Scotland had 22 first downs to 9 for Lee County and finished with 432 yards of offense to 295 for Lee County.   Lee County outgained Scotland in the 2nd half 143 yards of offense to 110 for Scotland.
• Three interceptions by the Yellow Jackets (2 in the 2^nd half) now gives Lee County 9 on the season.  In addition to the McKendall interception, Kenyon Palmer got his 3^rd pick of the year and Jeremiah Eatmon coming up with the other.
• Lee County will travel to Southern Lee next Friday in the final regular season game