By Kevin Price For GCS Athletics Brunswick High’s season came to a disappointing finish Friday night as the Pirates lost big to Coffee in the second round of the Class AAAAA state playoffs at Glynn County Stadium. The Trojans proved to be Brunswick’s match as they overpowered the eighth-ranked Pirates on the way to a 45-14 victory to advance to the quarterfinal round next week. “That’s a really good team. They’re gonna make a run,” said BHS head coach Garrett Grady. “They’re physical, and we gotta be able to match the physicality. At times, we did. And at times, we didn’t. And when we didn’t, it showed.” The Pirates (10-2) hadn’t lost since falling at home to Camden County 51-41 back in August in the season opener, but that evening they gave up three easy touchdowns to the Wildcats that resulted from breakdowns by their punt team. Since that game, the Pirates had won 10 games, region and city championships and a first-round playoff game while setting a new regular-season record for points scored as well with one of the highest-scoring offenses in the state and also an opportunistic defense that had scored some as well. All of that will make for good footnotes for another fine season by the 2024 Pirates who were also hoping to become the first Brunswick team since the 1999 team that played for a state championship to reach the Elite Eight. None of that fazed this Coffee team that the Pirates encountered Friday night, however. The seventh-ranked Trojans have something special going these days, too. They won their program’s first state crown a year ago with a perfect 15-0 record in Class AAAAA when Georgia had seven classifications. This season, they were placed in the second-largest class as the state went back to six classifications. Coffee (10-2) finished third in Region 2, where their only losses were to second-ranked Lee County and third-ranked Thomas County Central, which won this classification last year when it was Class AAAAAA and still the second-largest classification in the state. Those two teams also won on Friday to advance to the quarterfinals along with the region’s fourth-seed, Houston County, giving the region four teams in the final eight. “They executed in all three phases of the game,” Grady said about the Trojans. “That’s a really good team. This stinks for us, but there’s a lot of stuff we have to work on and do better if we’re going to get past the second round.” Here in Brunswick, Coffee gained 22 first downs and rushed for 454 yards against the Pirates while throwing only two passes the entire game and completing both for 4 yards to finish with 458 yards on the night. The 45 points the Trojans scored were the most anyone had scored on the Pirates since the loss to Camden in the opening game. Meantime, the Coffee defense clamped down on Brunswick’s high-powered offense, holding the Pirates to their lowest point-total of the season. Previously, the fewest points BHS had scored in a game came against Greenbrier when the Pirates won a region contest over the Wolfpack 21-14 on the road. The Pirates finished with 317 yards but were held to 94 on the ground after having minus-3 yards rushing at halftime because of lost-yardage on sacks. Brunswick threw for 223 yards. Junior quarterback Grant Moore was 7-of-19 passing with two interceptions. Kent had four catches for 204 yards. The leading rusher for BHS ended up being sophomore Nigel Gardner who ripped off an 87-yard scoring run in the third quarter after Coffee had put up two quick touchdowns to lead 35-7 after owning a 21-7 advantage at halftime. Gardner ran eight times for 103 yards in the loss. Coffee held senior running back William Heck, Brunswick’s leading rusher coming in, to only 14 yards on 11 tries. The Pirates played a second straight week without play-maker Jamarious Towns who was injured in the final game of the regular season and didn’t play in either playoff game. “They played well on defense. We knew facing them would be a challenge,” Grady said. “Their linebacking corps is really good and makes a lot of plays. “We got some yardage in the air and wanted to take advantage of that, but we’ve gotta be able to run the football. We’ve been balanced all year long, and we’ve gotta be able to run the football in certain situations.” It didn’t help, Grady noted, that the Pirates made matters harder on themselves with penalties that put them behind the chains. On their second offensive series of the night, for instance, the Pirates were flagged for three straight false starts. They picked up a first down to overcome those penalties, but later on that same drive, another false start on third-and-3 at the Coffee 23 put the Pirates in a third-and-8 from the 28. Consecutive sacks by the Trojans on the next two plays forced the Pirates to give up the ball on downs. For the game, BHS had 11 penalties for 92 yards. “We gotta do a better job. We gotta execute better,” Grady said. Coffee opened up a 21-7 lead at halftime with its first score coming on an 85-yard kick return by senior Tyrese Woodgett who was just getting a big individual night started for himself. His touchdown answered the game’s first score by the Pirates on their first possession when junior quarterback Grant Moore heaved a pass on third-and-15 to junior tight end Heze Kent along the Brunswick sideline that went for a 73-yard touchdown. Woodgett, a 185-pound running back, would carry 25 times in the game for Coffee for 217 yards and five rushing touchdowns to go with his kick return for the first Coffee score. His 5-yard TD run capped an 8-play, 60-yard drive for the Trojans that gave them a 14-7 lead late in the first quarter. A 2-yard TD run by Woodgett put the Trojans up 21-7 early in the second quarter. His third score of the game was set up by a blocked punt by the Trojans which gave them the ball first-and-goal at the Brunswick 2-yard line. Just before that, Moore escaped a possible sack on a broken play and threw a bomb 79 yards to Kent for a touchdown as the big tight end got behind the Coffee secondary. But, the six points came off the board because of a holding penalty. With Coffee ahead by two scores, Brunswick got a 64 yard kick return by Waseem Murray to the Coffee 21-yard line where they went on offense again. The Pirates could have made it a one-score game with a touchdown, but Coffee stopped Kent on back-to-back runs from the 2-yard line to keep BHS out of the end zone and take over on downs at their own 1-yard line after the defensive stand. After halftime, Coffee took complete control, taking the second-half kick and driving 62 yards with Woodget scoring his third rushing touchdown from 8 yards out for a 28-7 lead. Following a BHS punt from deep in its own territory, Coffee started its next series at the Brunswick 24. The Trojans called Woodgett’s number three straight times and he ran for 5, 16 and 3 yards to cross the goal line again as the score went to 35-7. After the Gardner run for BHS with just under eight minutes left in the third, Woodgett scored from a yard away to finish a 61-yard march by the Trojans for a 42-14 lead midway through the third. Coffee put the final score on the board moments in the fourth period with a 38-yard field goal by Jonah Saylor. Also for the Trojans, K.J. DeBruce ran for 126 yards on 17 carries while Tyrese Hansley added 41 yards on just six totes. Coffee will be back on the road next week against Sequoyah which defeated Woodward Academy 35-20 on Friday. Also on Friday, Lakeside-Evans, the runner-up in Region 1 behind Brunswick, was eliminated by Houston County which pummeled the Panthers 63-12.