Yellow Jackets Lose Defensive Battle at Union Pines 7-6

Lee County and Union Pines locked into a defensive battle Friday night and the Vikings held off Lee County 7-6 to pick up a key win in the Sandhills 3A/4A Conference.   The teams battled to a scoreless first half with each team having only two possessions, but the Vikings used a botched Lee County extra point in the 4^th quarter to stay in front and stopped Lee County several times late to get the win. 

Union Pines got the first score in the game midway through the 3^rd on a 2-yard run and led 7-6 going into the 4^th.   Lee finally got their 1^st score at the 9:57 mark of the 4^th, but a mishandled PAT snap kept the score at 7-6.   Lee County had two more offensive opportunities, but penalties stalled each drive, and the Vikings would get the win.   Lee County twice got the ball inside the Viking red zone – once inside the Viking 5-yard line – only to have both gains nullified by holding calls that wiped out the plays and stalled the drives.

Drake Brown led the Lee rushing attack with 139 yards on 25 carries and two Lee Quarterbacks combined for 191 yards passing but Lee couldn’t find the end zone except the one time in the 4^th quarter.   Jayden Hill led Lee’s receivers with 7 catches for 78 yards.

Scoring

Lee County      0     0     0     6     6

Union Pines    0     0     7     0     7

Scoring Summary

UP – 7:30 3^rd – Milton 2 run (kick good)

LC – 9:57 4^th – Drake Brown 3 run (kick failed)

Rushing

LC – Drake Brown 25-139, Brandon Baldwin 7-45, Jack Martin 3-12, Aiden Poole 2-1 Totals 37-197

UP – Totals 24-63

Passing

LC – Jack Martin 9-10-88, Aiden Poole 10-14-103 Totals 19-24-191

UP – Goswick 11-14-99

Receiving

LC – Jayden Hill 7-78, Raymond Knotts 3-31, Aundre Gray 3-43, Lincoln Smith 1-6, Cedric Lett 2-15, Drake Brown 3-18  Totals 19-191

• Friday’s 1^st half saw each team with 12 minutes of time of possession, two long drives each, each time moving into the red zone, and no points.
• While the Yellow Jackets racked up 8 penalties for 65 yards, Lee County also had 78 yards of offense called back on those plays involving penalties for effectively 143 lost yardage from penalties.
• Drake Brown was selected as the Normann financial group Offensive Player of the Game and Cody Graham was selected as the Defensive Player of the Game.  Drake Browns 26-yard run in the 4^th that led to Lee’s only score was the Lee County impact player of the game.
• Lee County will travel to Hoke County this Friday night for a Sandhills 3A/4A Conference matchup.