CHICKAMAUGA, Ga. — Anyone wishing to keep their blood pressure down might avoid watching a Gordon Lee High School football game.
For the third consecutive week, the Trojans won in thrilling fashion, getting a 3-yard touchdown run from Carson Russell with just more than a minute to play and a Russell interception in the waning seconds to turn back upset-minded Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe, 42-35.
Gordon Lee improves to 5-2 and, more importantly, 3-1 in GHSA Region 6-AAA after its latest league nail-biter. The Trojans defeated LaFayette in overtime when the Ramblers' 2-point run to win the game in overtime was stopped short, then last week edged Coahulla Creek when the Colts missed a PAT at the end.
"They are growing up," Groce said of his young team. "They find a way to win. It's killing their head coach, though. I told them after the game, 'You guys are shortening my life every single week.'
(READ MORE: Final scores and photos from Friday night's Chattanooga-area prep football games)
The host Trojans put up nearly 400 rushing yards, led by freshman Brayden Stoker's 171 with three touchdowns. His 28-yard run to start the final drive after LFO (2-5, 1-3) tied the game on Tamoris Johnson's 7-yard run with less than five minutes to play ignited a 69-yard, 12-play series that also featured two fourth-down conversions.
The first, on fourth-and-3 from the LFO 34, fooled the Warriors as H-back Layne Vaughn, in his second carry of the night, took a handoff around left end for 10 yards on a misdirection play that had defenders keying on Stoker. Russell converted the second one with an 8-yard run to the 7, and three plays later, he scored the winner as he ran over right guard.
"We saw their kids were biting hard on the inside runs, and we thought we could misdirect them a little bit," Groce said of the initial fourth-down conversion. "Layne Vaughn did a great job on the play of getting upfield."
Gordon Lee looked as if it would run the Warriors out of Chickamauga early with run-featured drives covering 47 and 65 yards to take a 15-0 lead early in the second quarter. LFO, though, used the escapability and accurate arm of sophomore quarterback Darian Keefe to go 80 yards in just five plays, a drive that included a 52-yard toss to Ayden Bennett and ended with Thomas Long's 11-yard touchdown on an end-around run.
The teams would trade touchdowns over the next quarter and a half, including Stoker's 57-yard run and Keefe's 54-yard pass to Bennett (four catches, 119 yards) early in the third quarter. Gordon Lee's Brisyn Oliver capped a 75-yard drive with a 13-yard run at the end of the third quarter as the lead again grew to 14, but the Warriors weren't finished.
Keefe hit Carson Goff for a 39-yard gain to the 1, where Johnson, starting for the injured Tra Lewis, scored his second touchdown of the game to get within seven. The Warriors got the ball right back when Jared Mitchell intercepted a Dustin Day pass at the Gordon Lee 24.
Two plays later, Johnson scored the tying touchdown, setting up the Trojans' late drive to win.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com.