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The Coffee County Red Raiders were back in action under the Friday night lights Friday, Aug. 18. While visiting Franklin County, Coffee took home a win of 10-7.

The Raiders started out receiving but failed to push past the 50. While Franklin Co. held possession, they had two incomplete passes and some flags held Franklin back from advancing the ball.

Franklin Co. then opted for a punt, but the snap flew over the head of Franklin County’s kicker giving the Raiders great field position at Franklin’s 16.

Coffee immediately managed to reach the four-yard line, but the offense couldn’t manage to punch it in for a touchdown. By the end of the Coffee’s drive on offense, Manny Gonzales came to kick a field goal, scoring the first points of the game with 7:27 left in the first quarter.

Neither team managed to impact the scoreboard for the rest of the half. At halftime, Coffee stayed on top 3-0.

In the third quarter, Caiden Martin returned a punt to the Franklin County 15-yard line. Coffee pushed forward and Jayden Carter scored a 3 yard touchdown. This ran the score in favor of the Red Raiders 10-0.

In the early fourth, Franklin Co.’s quarterback made several game changing connections. He started with two passes each for over 10 yards. Franklin County made it into the red zone and scored shortly after, closing the gap 10-7.

Franklin County continued to try and capture another touchdown within the final minute. The game reached an end when Austin Green sealed the Coffee County victory with an interception. Head coach Doug Greene spoke on this performance saying, “Austin Green gets the call late in the game for Tyler Martin and ends up getting the interception to seal the victory, so we’ve got a lot to work on but it was a hard fought victory and we’re glad to be 1-0.”

Greene continued, “It was a defensive battle with a lot of mistakes on both sides and a lot of penalties, which is expected in the first game. We got down there and had the chance to score early and had a young guy jump offsides. Anyway we squandered a point or two there.”

“Defense played really well, which we knew they would. Our kicking game was excellent though. I thought it would carry the game and it did.”

Coffee looks to the annual Coffee Pot game on Friday, Aug. 25 at Carden-Jarrell Field in an attempt to win consecutive games in the series for the first time since 2015-2016.