Kickoff A look at Brunswick High’s game in the second round of the Class AAAAA state playoffs: Opponent: Coffee When: 7:30 p.m. Friday Where: Glynn County Stadium Radio: 107.7 FM Records: BHS 10-1, No. 1-seed from Region 1-AAAAA; Coffee 9-2, No.-3 seed from Region 2-AAAAA. Last week: BHS defeated Villa Rica 43-13; Coffee defeated Jackson County 31-7. Last meeting/All-time: Coffee won 38-21 in 2019; Coffee leads 13-6 in overall series. Game Preview Brunswick High is set to face off against Coffee in a Southeast Georgia heavyweight battle at Glynn County Stadium on Friday night. The second-round game is a matchup between a pair of top-10 teams in Class AAAAA. Coffee is ranked seventh in the state while the Pirates are ranked eighth. Brunswick is riding a 10-game winning streak coming into Friday’s showdown. The Pirates dropped the season-opening game to Camden County at home but have not lost since, winning their final nine games in the regular season before rolling past Villa Rica last week in the playoff opener. Of course, the Pirates went a perfect 8-0 in Region 1 en route to their third league championship in four seasons to earn the No. 1 seed for the state playoffs as well. Coffee lost twice this season, falling to Lee County and Thomas County Central, the top two teams respectively from their region. Lee finished the regular season ranked No. 2 in the state after claiming the Region 2 title. Lee defeated Coffee 48-14 on Oct. 11. Coffee was ranked third in the state at the time. The Trojans also had won 21 straight games as they were 6-0 to start the 2024 season after going 15-0 last fall on the way to the Class AAAAA state title which was the first in program history. The Trojans’ other loss this season was to Thomas County Central in the final game of the regular season. The Yellow Jackets won 38-7 to secure the No. 2 seed for the playoffs. The Jackets, ranked third in the state, lost only to Lee County during the season and won Class AAAAAA last season when Georgia had seven classes. This game between the Pirates and Trojans will be the 20th meeting between the two Southeast Georgia foes who have met in non-region and region games, league playoff games and one other state playoff contest in the past. Coffee leads the all-time series 13-6, having won the last six meetings. The teams actually haven’t played since 2019 when the Trojans won the season opener for both teams by 38-21. The one state playoff game between Brunswick and Coffee took place in 1999 when the Pirates won 62-16 in the opening round to kick off their run to the Class AAAA title game that season. Friday’s meeting will match one of the state’s highest-scoring offenses against one of the premier defenses. Brunswick averages 45.7 points per game while Coffee allows 14.2 points a game. The Pirates, while setting a single-season scoring record in the regular season with 460 points that included several defensive scores, have topped 40 points in all but one of the 11 games they have played to date. The only time the Pirates didn’t bust the 40-point mark, they won 21-14 at Greenbrier in late September after falling behind 14-0 early in the game. Meantime, the only opponents to score more than more than 20 points on the Trojans were Lee County and Thomas County Central. In their other nine games, Ware County scored the most against the Trojans with 16 in a four-point loss in the annual rivalry game between the teams in late August. Players to watch on the BHS offense are junior quarterback Grant Moore, senior tailback William Heck, senior receiver Jamarious Towns, sophomore receiver Waseem Murray and junior tight end Heze Kent. Top players for the Brunswick defense include senior linebackers J’Shawn Towns, the Region 1 Defensive Player of the Year, and Caleb Butler, also an All-Region selection who is committed to Georgia Southern, fellow senior linebacker Jeremiah Robbins, senior defensive back Sehki Ashley and junior defensive back Aviyon Addison. Players to keep an eye on from Coffee include senior running back Tyrese Woodgett, senior linebackers Chris Reed and Jyarius Carter and senior cornerback Jayden Hancock. A victory for the Pirates would be their first in the second round since the 1999 season. The Brunswick-Coffee winner will advance to the quarterfinals to face the winner of the second-round game between Woodward Academy-Sequoyah. The Pirates would be at home against Sequoyah as a higher seed. Sequoyah is a No. 2 seed. BHS would be forced to travel to face Woodward, another No. 1 seed. That’s because the universal coin flip by the Georgia High School Association that took place at the start of the week favored teams in the lower half of the brackets in the event that like-seeds were to meet in the quarterfinals. Coffee would be on the road in the quarterfinals against either Woodward or Sequoyah since the Trojans are a No. 3 seed in the brackets. ---- Compiled by Kevin Price for GCS Athletics