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On Thursday night, the Coffee County Red Raiders celebrated their seniors and picked up a 19-14 win over the Blackman Blaze on a rainy Halloween Night at Carden-Jarrell Field, earning a spot in the State Playoffs.

The Halloween thriller would get off to a spooky start, as the Red Raiders fumbled the ball on their first drive, turning it over on their own 42-yard line.

Blackman would take advantage on their first turn with the football, scoring on a rushing touchdown with 7:22 left in the first quarter to give themselves a 7-0 lead.

Coffee County’s next possession would go nowhere, and the Red Raiders were forced to punt from their own 22-yard line.

The Blaze would take over on the Coffee County 47, but the Red Raider defense sprang to action, as Austin Green snatched a pass out of the air for an interception, running it back inside Blackman territory to the Blaze 13.

The Red Raiders would make the most of a good opportunity, as Jayden Carter bulldozed his way through to the endzone to tie the score at 7-7 with 40 seconds to go in the opening quarter.

Blackman moved the ball well on their next drive with the help of some penalties on the Raider defense, but the Blaze fumbled the football and Zander Gomez would recover it and run it 60 yards back to give Coffee County the lead.

Jayden Silva’s extra point attempt would clang off the left upright, but the Red Raiders still took a 13-7 lead with three minutes gone in the second quarter.

After a slow start by Coffee County, it was now Blackman who found themselves in a house of horrors.

The Blaze would again have the ball inside Coffee County territory, but the impactful play of Jayden Carter was put on display again, as the senior linebacker stripped the ball away and rumbled 70 yards through the rain for another defensive score.

The Red Raiders would fail on an ensuing two point conversion attempt, but Coffee County still took an odd, two score lead of 19-7 with 7:25 left in the second quarter, and the score would stay that way until the halftime break.

Blackman’s first two possessions of the second half would both end in a turnover on downs; the first one ending at their own 47, and the second one ending at the Raider 35.

In between, the Red Raider offense answered with punts on each of their first two drives of the half.

The Blaze would begin the fourth quarter with their first score in almost 29 minutes of game time, scoring a rushing touchdown 20 seconds into the period, but the Red Raiders still held a 19-14 advantage.

Coffee County’s offense would begin their next drive on their own 23, and the possession would turn out to arguably be the best drive of the season.

The Red Raiders methodically worked the clock, killing off a massive 10 minutes of game time with the help of some big first down runs by Jayden Carter and Deontae Short before finally running out of gas at the Blackman 20.

Coffee County would go for it on fourth-and-inches, but the ball was placed short, and the Blaze took over with 1:29 left in regulation.

Despite some penalties, the Red Raider defense held up strong, sealing a 19-14 win.

“It was a fabulous effort from these kids and Coach Oliver did a fabulous job managing the offense tonight,” said Coach Haynes. “Our defense also did a great job in the first half causing those turnovers and scoring. Our special teams unit stepped up tonight and we didn’t have any major hiccups there.”

With the win, the Red Raiders earn a spot in the State Playoffs next week as the #3 seed from 6A Region 3.

“I’m really happy for this group of seniors,” said Haynes. “It’s all they’ve talked about throughout the season, making the playoffs. We’ve had some adversity with attitudes and we’ve had some adversity with a lot of injuries, and for it to culminate with this and for us to not have to wait until tomorrow night, that was our goal heading into this game. We didn’t want our future to be in anybody else’s hands and they took care of that and that’s what I’m most proud of.”

The Red Raiders finish the 2024 regular season with a 5-5 record and a 2-3 mark in region play and will travel to Mount Juliet (9-1) next Friday, Nov. 8 for their first round game of the State Playoffs with kickoff scheduled for 7 p.m.

The Golden Bears will be coming off their only loss of the regular season in a 12-0 contest at Green Hill, placing them second in the 6A Region 4 standings.