By: Kaleb Edwards

SANFORD – Dayreon Jennings scored a two-yard rushing touchdown with under three minutes to play and Lee County High School snapped a three-game losing streak and defeated Southern Lee 26-22 Friday night.

The win was the seventh straight against the Cavaliers for the Yellow Jackets (7-3, 3-3 SAC).

“It’s been a while and we had to remember how to do that,” said head coach Steve Burdeau of snapping the skid.

“We realized we were better and we executed what we do every week at practice,” Jennings said.  

“Lee County, we really don’t lose and after those past three weeks, we had to come back and take the win and our spot in the playoffs,” said senior quarterback Mark Schlesinger.

Jennings, a workhorse all night, rushed five times on the final drive, including the final push into the endzone. 

“I always have a read guy but at that time I chose Jo and when I wanted I chose him,” said Schlesinger of Jennings’ final push to give the Yellow Jackets the lead.

On the game’s opening drive, Schlesinger found Kendall Morris for a 13-yard touchdown to give the Jackets the early advantage. That was the first of two connections on the night between Schlesinger and Morris, with the other coming in the fourth quarter to give the Jackets a 20-16 advantage.

“I could see the hunger Kendall had,” Jennings said. “Him coming from Southern to here to play and play in this game he just wanted it.

In the third quarter LCHS got an interception and they scored plus the point after conversion turning the score to 14-10. Anthony Robinson a player for Southern was able to make a touchdown, but they failed the field goal leaving the third quarter with southern leading 16-14.

Southern’s Tyreese Douglas was able to score a six-yard touchdown with the two point conversion being no good putting the score, with them in the lead, at 22-20. From there, the Jackets gave the ball to Jennings to finish off the game.

“Exhausted,” Jennings said about how he felt after the win. “After working hard tonight, but we are going to fix the kinks on Saturday and come right back on Monday.

“I just know we need to practice and there are key things we need to work on but I’m confident we will get them worked out,” Schlesinger added.

With the win, the Yellow Jackets clinch a spot in the 3A state playoffs. The Yellow Jackets will hit the road Friday at Currituck County for the first round of the NCHSAA state playoffs.