I like reading polls and I also used to sit in radio stations playing Top 40 shows. The two are pretty similar when you think about it...so it is only natural that since I now have a place to post my inane musings that I would decide to do my own football poll/countdown mash-up.
Earlier this week, I mentioned C.E. Murray and how I thought they were being slighted somewhat by not having been ranked last week. The way polls work is daily sportswriters across the state all fill out A, AA, AAA and AAAA top 10 polls, then they're cross-bread in a cold, dirty clinic where doctors don't wash their forceps. Or maybe in a computer. Yes...in a computer. Anyway, they do a good job, but there is no way anybody can possibly see all the teams they are voting on. Early in the season you essentially have to go by how teams did the previous year, how many starters are returning and maybe program tradition. As the season wears on you use a combination of what you've seen, records and what you hear from sources. So, I decided I'd just do my own poll, then I couldn't complain or whine about who is or isn't ranked. The first PigskinAndPigskins Class A poll won't utilize any of that information-gathering and first-hand viewing stuff I spoke of, though. Nope. IT'S ALL ME BABY...LIKE I WANTS IT! Actually, I'm going to use a combination of the eye test on teams I've seen, overall records, quality victories and strength of schedule. This is where my background as an on-air flunky/button-punching monkey comes in. I'm not just going to list the number one team first, then descend in numerical order. That's boring. I spent many a Saturday morning running Casey's Top 40 when I first started working in radio as a high school sophomore in the early 90s. I mean, if Casey had just started the show by saying "blah, blah whatever Mariah Carey's new song is, is number one again" there'd be no reason to continue listening. You didn't care that Go West had a struggling single stuck at number 37...but you'd sit and listen to it with the promise that better stuff, including the prestigious number one song in America was coming up in three or four hours. Then Casey would say "the top 10 is just around the corner, but up two to number 11 this week is 'Justified and Ancient' by the musical odd couple of The KLF and Tammy Wynette." HOLY CRAP WE'RE ALMOST TO THE TOP 10! The anticipation builds! Is Mariah's dog whistle ditty still number one? Perhaps she's been supplanted by Michael Bolton! You had to wait and see! At some point Casey would play a request and dedication and the song would in no way match up with the letter the person sent in. "'Dear Casey, my name is Daphne and I'm five. My dearest goldfish Herman passed away last week and daddy flushed him down the poo pot. I'm sad. Will you play a song for Herman'? I sure will Daphne. To commemorate your special little fish, here's Wreckx-N-Effect with 'Rumpshaker.'" Wha? I'm off track here. I am very off track here. I'm going to start at number 10 and work my way to number one, is my point. So here we go and just remember, we won't stop till we reach the top! Bubbling under: A couple of teams that are just on the outside looking in include Hunter-Kinard-Tyler, Williston-Elko and Lake View. All are about to get into the meat of their region schedules and could easily be in the top 10 next week with a win or a loss by someone just above them. I mean, if I do this next week. I really might not. 10. Southside Christian-If you quibble with the tie I have at nine, then bump the Sabres off, put Whitmire 10 and Ridge Spring 9. Their only loss is to a decent AAA Traveler's Rest team. Their wins over McCormick, Dixie and SCA aren't attention-getters, but the way they handled Fox Creek last week was impressive. Quinty Reeder ran for over 300 yards and they played salty defense against a Predators team that had been lighting up the scoreboard. "But Travis, if there's a tie at number nine, then there isn't a number 10, because you'd already have 10." Yeah...my poll. 9. (tie) Whitmire and Ridge Spring-Monetta- Fine, I'm wussing out. This poll stuff is harder than it looks. I just wanted to do my Casey Kasem jokes, mention The Tami Show and go on about my life. Whitmire didn't play the toughest early schedule, but they ran roughshod over Calhoun Falls Charter, North, Branchville and Wagener-Salley. They allowed 14 points combined in those wins. That is a top 10 resume. Ridge Spring-Monetta lost early games in one-sided fashion to Saluda and Batesburg-Leesville, but those don't look like bad losses now. They also took a convincing win over the Wolverines with whom I have them tied...but hey, my poll, I'll put Whitmire in here if I want to. Besides, you are waiting for number one and sometimes you have to sit through Natural Selection to get there. 8. C.E. Murray- The War Eagles could perhaps be even higher than I have them. They have quality wins over AA Kingstree and AAA Manning and their lone loss is to a good Cross team. They don't blow people people out by gigantic scores, but when you can run the ball and play beastly defense with guys like Shyheim White, whom other high school children can't block, you don't have to. Looking forward, they should probably finish the regular season 9-1. 7. Cross- They won 28-6 over C.E. Murray and blew out Scott's Branch and HKT. Their losses came to a good AA Timberland team and by a 26-23 score last Friday to 5-0 AA team Lake Marion. The quality of the losses and the win over C.E. Murray earns them this spot. 6. Lamar-The team's two losses are to VERY good AAA teams in Hartsville and Darlington, they got a close win over a good Lake View team and they dispatched Timmonsville and AA Mullins with extreme prejudice. Ceasar and Durant can rack up ridiculous numbers on the ground in a hurry and they might be the only team with a real shot at beating our number one team...but we can't tell you who that is yet, instead here's Kathy Troccoli. 5. Calhoun County-The Saints are here largely based on the fact that they are unbeaten, but those five wins have come against teams with a combined 5-21 record. They'll only play two teams down the stretch that currently have winning records. So they could conceivably run the table and we still wouldn't know how good they are. Still, undefeated is undefeated. 4. Christ Church-Understand that if I were doing power rankings instead of a poll, they would be higher. Don't take the fact that I've talked them down a tad to mean they aren't good. They are down only when compared with their recently-ended 55-game streak of greatness. They lost badly to a good AA Abbeville team, but got a close win over what has turned out to be a really good AAA Eastside team. That win gets them a spot ahead of Calhoun County, who doesn't have a quality win, but can't vault them over the top three teams...or The Soup Dragons. 3. Allendale-Fairfax-They are undefeated and possess quality victories over three AA teams. Our team at number two might the only ones capable of inflicting a loss upon them in the regular season. 2. Bamberg-Ehrhardt-Like Allendale-Fairfax, the Raiders are undefeated and have three wins over AA squads. The reason I have them ahead is by comparing scores from common opponent games. AF beat Edisto 20-7, BE beat them 47-0. AF beat Blackville-Hilda 24-12, BE downed them 28-6. They routed Williston and destroyed AA Woodland 43-0. They'd be number one, except... 1. McBee-Jordan Fair, Dashonnell Wright and company have, to be blunt, just laid a plus-sized whoopin' on everybody they've played. They soundly beat AAA Lakewood, blew out a good AA Chesterfield team, dropped 84 on AA Andrew Jackson, then dismantled a pair of Class A opponents. They are the undisputed, unquestioned number one team in the state. Now, here's Stevie B...
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Ware Shoals-22
Calhoun Falls Charter-20 Southside Christian-24 Fox Creek-14 McCormick-14 St. Joe's-10 Ridge Spring-Monetta-39 Whitmire-14 Christ Church-45 Christ School-Nam Dreher-47 C.A. Johnson-Not nam Wagener-Salley-36 Great Falls-20 Lancaster-42 Lewisville-12 Bamberg-Ehrhardt-28 Blackville-Hilda-6 Calhoun County-43 Gray Collegiate-26 Pelion-40 North-6 Branchville-30 Lincoln-14 North Charleston-28 Baptist Hill-22 Academic Magnet-43 Burke-0 Lake Marion-26 Cross-23 Scott's Branch-52 Military Magnet-20 C.E. Murray-21 Carvers Bay-10 Latta-42 East Clarendon-OWW! Johnsonville-52 Hannah-Pamplico-13 Lee Central-44 Timmonsville-8 Kingstree-38 Creek Bridge-16 Andrews-29 Hemingway-7 Lake View-44 Aynor-8 Breakdown-Nearly everyone has now completed the non-region portion of their schedule, so aside from the folks with an odd number of teams in their region, we're about done with the "playing up" games. This past weekend was not a particularly good one for Class A in that respect, since Class A went just 1-10 against their AA and AAA counterparts. The lone win in such games was Lake View's 44-8 rootin' of Aynor. The numbers aren't quite as bad as they sound, since a lot of those losses were by teams that are stuggling this year (Burke, North, C.A. Johnson etc.) or came to very good teams (see Lewisville's loss to unbeaten AAA Lancaster). The Lake View win was an impressive one, as they held an Aynor team that came in averaging 43 points and 337 yards a game to just 128 yards and eight point and that came with only a few second left in the fourth quarter, probably against JV players and girls from the middle school step team...or not...probably not. Delvon Bethea ran two punts back for scores and had a touchdown catch for Lake View. If you look at their body of work so far, you see this good win, a narrow loss to a very good Lamar squad and a bad loss to AA Dillon, who hands out bad losses on a weekly basis. They could have a good shot at winning their region. One of the Class A losses was a narrow 26-23 Cross loss to AA Lake Marion. Cross scored two defensive touchdowns but also turned it over in the red zone multiple times. They actually held a lead at the half, fell behind, then rallied at the end. Sounds like it was a excellent game. We start this week with one less undefeated team as Whitmire lost a tough 39-14 game to Ridge Spring-Monetta. I saw the Trojans in the pre-season and was very impressed with their size and physical nature. They pound you with a double-tight, fullhouse backfield wishbone look but throw it juuussst well enough to pop you with a big play in the passing game when you're selling out to stop the run and they did just that against the Wolverines. I wrote a story about Whitmire last week, about how they'd gone from an 0-44 stretch to winning nine of their past 15 games. Did I jink them? Is there a PigskinAndPigskins cover jinx? Am I like John Madden without the luxury bus and excitable Brett Favre hyperbole? Maybe...but you kind of knew Whitmire was entering a tough four-game stretch with RSM, Christ Church, St. Joe's and Southside Christian. They just have to regroup and get ready for the next one. I said in previewing this past Friday's games that a couple of contests intruiged me because they'd give us more insight into teams that were still unknown quantities. One of those was Fox Creek-Southside Christian, which the Sabres won 24-14. Prior to their match-up, both teams had beaten who they were supposed to and lost to who they were supposed to. I think the game shows that Southside Christian has taken a big step forward. I don't know if they're a contender yet in the big Class A division since McBee (with their array of disturbing masks and drill bits) and Christ Church both reside there, but I'd say they are definitely in that top tier. They've made that move up in recent years in basketball and baseball as well. If you look at their remaining schedule, they look like a 7-3 team at worst. Quinty Reeder ran for 313 flippin' yards for Southside Christian...which I'm told is good. Fox Creek is good offensively but this makes at least two weeks in a row they've given up more than 350 yards on the ground...which I'm told is not good. Quick hits- When you were younger and on the single scene, did you ever see a pretty girl across the room, but when you went to talk to her you discovered she had really stank breath or hairy thumbs? I am terrible at analogies...really terrible. My point is that you can't really tell a lot by just taking a cursory glance. Blackville-Hilda is 1-4, but they've played competitive games the last two weeks against Bamberg-Ehrhardt and Allendale-Fairfax, two of the best squads in Class A. They play unbeaten Calhoun County this week. The Saints are 5-0, but that has come against teams with a combined 5-21 record. I think B-H might not have stank breath...er, might be better than their record says. That game could be interesting...When the new prep ranking come out, C.E. Murray should be ranked. The way the polls work is that daily sportswriters fill out a poll. They take it seriously and do a good job, but no one person can see every team. You kinda go by records and maybe asking other writers about teams you haven't seen. Some teams, like C.E. Murray, aren't really in the coverage area of any daily papers being out in Williamsburg County as they are, so folks might not know a whole lot about them. Well, they're 5-1, their only loss is to a good Cross team and they've beaten AA Kingstree and AAA Manning. Sounds like top 10 material to me...Ware Shoals has now gone from having a 14-game losing streak to a two-game winning streak after a come-from-behind victory over Calhoun Falls Charter. They have a legit shot to stretch that to three games this week against a struggling St. Joe's team that lost to McCormick. And seriously...pulled pork nachos in the concession stand. It's worth the trip just for that. Suggested Reading No mention of nachos, but you'll see here that Ware Shoals won one of the most entertaining games in Class A last week. Southside Christian's running back had 313 yards and their quarterback tossed two long touchdowns. Balance, people... You can read about Lake View's high intensity diddling of Aynor. You don't have to and I can't make you, just passing the word along, Hoss. Multiple red zone turnovers proved most injurious to Cross' hopes of beating AA Lake Marion. Was Bamberg-Ehrhardt distracted by purty, purty dresses or is Blackville scrappy and better than advertised? And seriously...hairy thumbs? I am a ridiculous person. Denmark-Olar (1-4) at Allendale-Fairfax (5-0)
Denmark-Olar picked up its first win of the season last week with a 48-6 win over North High School. I had sort of tagged that as a game between two teams that didn't necessarily have many more chances on the schedule for wins this year, so good for them. Their reward is a trip to one of Class A's five unbeaten teams, fresh off a 24-12 dispatching of Blackville-Hilda. It's kind of like crappy Halloween treats. You're all excited because it's Halloween and you look super awesome in your Batman outfit and visions of Rollos and Bit-O-Honeys are dancing in your head...and at the first house you go to, an old lady gives you soap. THIS IS TERRIBLE! I HATE HALLOWEEN! That's how Denmark feels, I bet. Maybe. Branchville (1-3) at Lincoln (2-2) Branchville dropped a 26-14 decision to North Charleston last Friday. Lincoln was off but is on a two game winning streak, having shut out Creek Bridge 14-0 last time out. In fact, they've won two straight, both by shutout. I don't know a ton about these teams (a need a guy for that...I have that one for SCISA) but it feels like this should be competitive game between two of the smallest public schools that field football teams in the state. North Charleston (4-0) at Baptist Hill (0-4) I'll be brief here...North Charleston in undefeated, Baptist Hill has been shut out twice and allowed 50 or more points three times. Those are what we in the business refer to as "indicators." Lake Marion (4-0) at Cross (3-1) With many teams starting region play, this is one of the few "play up" games this week. AA Lake Marion downed Burke 46-7 last week. Cross was a 40-0 winner against Scott's Branch. Both teams have some two-way studs...Lake Marion's Davondre Robinson ran for 125 yards and two touchdowns and had a 45-yard interception return for a score. Tyrin Footman ran for 110 yards and a touchdown for Cross and had a 52-yard interception return. Neil Davis added a 31-yard fumble return. This one was fairly competitive last year (26-7 Lake Marion) and should be again tonight. Scott's Branch (1-3) at Military Magnet (0-4) Scott's Branch was on the business end of the aforementioned 40-0 loss to Cross last Friday. Military Magnet lost the battle (see what I did there) against Ridgeland/Hardeeville (who I'm now calling the Big Cookies or the Moose Cups because Hardees is basically in their name) 58-0. MM has struggled mightily on defense, this year, giving up between 48 and 70 points in their four contests. Yeah...bout all I got for on this one Jabbo. C.E. Murray (4-1) at Carvers Bay (1-3) C.E. Murray beat AAA Manning last week 18-12. Shyheim White had nine solo tackles, seven assists and three tackles-for-loss from his defensive line spot. So he's like a grown man playing with children...a grown man with anger issues playing against small, sickly children. That's a horrible way to try to explain that he's an all-state player...doing my best man. Carver's Bay's 1-3 record is sort of deceptive because tonight marks their first game against a Class A team. They gave AAA Georgetown all they wanted in a 34-27 loss last week. East Clarendon (1-3) at Latta (2-2) East Clarendon narrowly defeated Camden Military 15-12 last week. Latta can definitely score points, as evidenced by the 65 they scored against Aynor a few weeks ago. These two have one common opponent...East Clarendon lost to McBee 67-0, Latta dropped a 56-14 decision to the drill-wielding Panthers last week. Maybe the two can sit around and compare scars...dress one another's terrible drill wounds. Hannah-Pamplico (0-5) at Johnsonville (3-1) Johnsonville (not the ones that make delicious sausages) blew out Hemingway 47-14 last week. Robert Ripley ran for 251 yards and two touchdowns believe it or not...see what happened there? HAHA WOO HOO! HP lost to St. James 42-7 last Friday. Lee Central (0-4) at Timmonsville (0-5) Lee Central is a AA team and kudos to them for playing a growed-up man schedule. They've battled Christ Church, Fairfield Central and Hartsville this year. I mean, they haven't beaten any of them, but they did play them so hey, yeah. Timmonsville dropped to 0-5 but acquitted themselves well in last week's 44-28 loss to AA Mullins. Creek Bridge (0-4) at Kingstree (1-4) Kingstree lost to Lake City 54-0 last week and have scored just 28 points this year. Creek Bridge was off last week, but lost to Lincoln (the state's smallest public school) 14-0 in their last game and lost some lopsided contests early in the season. They've scored just 12 points all year. My prediction for tonight is a lack of points. Hemingway (2-2) at Andrews (3-1) Hemingway was flogged by the Johnsonville sausages last Friday. We already established it's not THAT Johnsonville didn't we? I'll move on. Andrews was off last week, but rolled over Carvers Bay 35-14 their last time out. Lake View (2-2) at Aynor Lake View actually impressed me in a loss last week, standing toe-to-toe with a very good Lamar team before falling 36-30. Aynor is a solid 4-1 AA team, but did give up 65 points two weeks ago to Latta. Also, Aynor has a funny name. Calhoun Falls Charter (1-3) at Ware Shoals (1-3)
Ware Shoals broke a year-plus long losing streak last week with a 20-0 shutout of Dixie. There weren't any stats that really popped off the page in that one. Ware Shoals threw for 49 yards and had a pair of rushers with around 60 yards. Both teams had right around 200 yards of offense, actually, but the purple dirt dobbers, or whatever Ware Shoals is, forced four turnovers. Now they have a chance to go from a 14-game losing skid to a winning streak. Calhoun Falls Charter was off last week but lost badly to St. Joe's in their last game. I wanted to see how this game went last year, but apparently they didn't play one another. Ware Shoals cycled something called The Anderson Cavaliers off their schedule and picked up the Flashes. That team routed Ware Shoals last year. My interest was piqued, so I looked up the Anderson Cavaliers and discovered that they are a Christ-centered team for boys 12-18. Surely the 12-year-olds don't suit up against high school players? That makes it sound like Ware Shoals lost to the VBS all-stars last year...I'm moving on, right after I tell you that you should check out this very good story from the Index-Journal about a Ware Shoals player who battled back from injury and accepted a position switch for the good of the team. Fox Creek (2-2) at Southside Christian (3-1) This game will be very instructive, since it's difficult to tell much about these teams based on what they've done so far. The Barbarians, or the Twins...Fox Creek is named for some AHNALD movie. I think it's the Predators. Yes. They have so far beaten Augusta Christian, who I know nothing about (despite having a guy for that) and a struggling Wagener-Salley team while losing to AAA Dreher and a good Williston-Elko squad. Southside Christian lost to AAA Traveler's Rest and beat one-win McCormick, no-win Dixie and Spartanburg Christian Academy 3-0 in a lightning-shortened game. My hunch is that both are improved and are pretty good, it's just hard to judge because they've kinda beaten who they should've and lost to who you expect. Fox Creek did not allow a passing yard last week to Williston-Elko. Of course, Williston only attempted two throws and ran for 400 yards, so that claim is sort of like touting being the valedictorian of summer school. I know Fox Creek's offense is legit. Caleb Charlton threw for 332 yards and four scores in that loss last Friday. Malik Hightower had 167 receiving yards, Jontae Herrin 115 yards. Southside Christian was off. We'll know a lot more about the squads after tonight. St. Joe's (2-2) at McCormick (1-3) St. Joe's was off last week. McCormick had a rough night, losing to AA Saluda 54-12. Losing five fumbles proved most delitarious to their chances of victory. Mataeo Durant ran for 115 yards in the losing effort. St. Joe's, like Fox Creek and Southside Christian, is kind of an unknown quantity, since they've beaten two not-very-good teams and lost to two good ones. Of course if the ball gets all slippy on McCormick five times in this game, we still really won't know a whole lot about St. Joe's...other than maybe they are good at recovering fumbles. Ridge Spring-Monetta (2-2) at Whitmire (4-0) I think this is one of the games of the week in Class A. RSM lost to Batesburg-Leesville 40-20 last week, but if you look at the past few years, the Trojans have started slow and caught fire late in the year. Johnathan Gibson had over 200 total yards in the loss and three scores. They are a big, physical team that pounds it on the ground, normally out of a wishbone. Whitmire was a 30-8 winner over Wagener-Salley to continue their magical run of unbeaten goodness last Friday. It's amazing how far the Wolverines have come since a 44-game losing streak that ended last year (hey, I wrote a little story on that one). They've allowed only 14 points this year and are one of five remaining unbeaten Class A teams. They run a scrum offense, but quarterback Austin Jenkins has a spread background and is a deft passer when he needs to be...not be confused with a def passer, because this isn't a Krush Groove or some underground breakdancing contest. But I digress...a coach from RSM told me that in last year's 28-21 win over the Wolverines, Whitmire just fought them with everything they had on every play despite being considerably smaller at most every position. Expect the same tonight and, probably, a great Class A football game. Christ Church (3-1) at Christ School (3-1) I got nothing for you on this one. Not a thing. Christ Church was off last week, while a schedule I found notes that Christ School beat "Varsity Opponent 2-0 by forfeit." You shut out old Varsity Opponent, you did a day's work now. Christ Church won this match-up 46-7 last year. C.A. Johnson was supposed to play AAA Dreher last night. It rained so much in Columbia that I saw a video of some drunk frat boy floating down the street on an inner tube drinking what looked to be low-grade beer. Jimmy Jack's Pee-Colored Pilsner or something. They didn't play the game, I don't know when they'll make it up, etc. etc. etc. Wagener-Salley (1-3) at Great Falls (0-4) Wagener-Salley lost the aforementioned 30-8 game to Whitmire last week. Great Falls was off. The Red Devils don't have a lot of depth and that problem has been compounded by injuries at key positions, like quarterback. I don't know a lot about the War Eagles other than running back KeAunri Holmes has game-breaking speed. This feels like a good place for the Red Devils to get their first win. They rolled WS 36-7 last year, when the War Eagles had a 300-pound fullback. I'm not exagerating. He ran East-West a lot which felt unproductive to me. When I see 5'11, 300-pound people wearing pads and a helmet, "nimble" doesn't spring immediately to mind. He did score their lone touchdown against Great Falls last year. He graduated, so there was almost no point in me telling you all that. Lewisville (1-4) at Lancaster (4-0) I'd been calling it and Lewisville did deliver their first win last week with a hard-fought 12-8 victory over a very improved North Central team. I've mentioned how well their defense has been playing...well how does 16 tackles-for-loss last week grab you? The negative for the Lions is a brutal schedule...the hardest in Class A in my opinion. Next week they will play their first Class A opponent, and that will be top-ranked McBee with their imposing power drill of doom, then Lamar. Lancaster doesn't do anything especially impressive. They spread to run it, throw it about 10 times a game, don't turn the ball over, don't rack up many penalties and play good defense. Just pretty solid all-around. I will say they haven't played much of a schedule so far. Their four opponents have a combined record of 2-14. A win might be asking a bit much since Lancaster is a very large AAA (almost AAAA actually) team, but I wouldn't be shocked to see the Lions stick around for a while. Blackville-Hilda (1-3) at Bamberg-Ehrhardt (4-0) Bamberg-Ehrhardt ran over AA Woodland 43-0 last week. They scored on special teams, the defense had a pair of interception and Keshawn Orr ran for a couple of touchdowns. It was a dominant all-around performance...much like they've offered up in each game this year. Blackville-Hilda's only win was against a one-win Denmark-Olar team, they were soundly beaten by Ridge Spring-Monetta and Barnwell but did give Allendale-Fairfax a pretty good game before losing 24-12 last week. I don't think that equals "good things" for them this week, unfortunately. Calhoun County (4-0) at Gray Collegiate Academy (1-3) The Saints were a 46-6 winner over Bethune-Bowman last week. Quarterback Terrance Brunson ran for 167 yards and five of his eight pass completions were for touchdowns. That would make his quarterback rating infinity, or a googel, or pi or something. Gray gave Estill a good game before falling to Estill 30-24. These two teams played a few weeks ago and Calhoun County won 29-8. Pelion (0-4) at North (0-4) Oddly, though Pelion is a AA team, I think this may be North's best chance for a victory this season. Pelion has already lost 18-0 to previously winless Class A C.A. Johnson, have been shut out by Mid-Carolina, beaten by a SCISA team and blown out by Gilbert. Aside from Whitmire, North's losses have all come to Class A teams with one win...with all those wins being against North. Given what Pelion has done so far, this week and next against Eau Claire are about their only reasonable chances of notching victories this season. Somebody will get a win, which'll be cool and whatnot. For three years running, Class A has had at least one of its two champions finish with an undefeated record. At the midway point of the season, there are only five teams remaining capable of achieving that feat this season.
Generally, you are much less apt to see a team go unbeaten in Class A than in other classes. That's mostly because, before the region slate kicks in, Class A teams often load their schedules with teams of higher classification. They do that for gate receipts, to accrue playoff points, to maintain old rivalries or sometimes just to fill a schedule opening with whoever they can find to play. Take this week and last just as an example. Lewisville, with its 365 students, is playing AAA Lancaster, with an enrollment of 1,355, this week. Last week, St. John's played a AAAA team in James Island, which has more than five times as many students as it does. HKT, with its 158 students battled Wade Hampton (the one down yonder, not up this'a way) which has an enrollment of 737. Lamar, which is now under 300 students, played a pair of good AAA teams in the last three weeks, giving Darlington and Hartsville all they wanted before losing. I appreciate anybody who nuts up...cowboys up...guns up...whatever people say now, and plays a tough schedule. But that big a disparity in enrollment means that big a disparity in the number of athletes in most all cases, not to mention the difference in resources, facilities etc. When Class A has to play up, particularly way up, the deck is stacked against them. That is demonstrated by the fact that Class A is 26-67 in "playing up" games so far this season. Anyway, largely because of that, Whitmire, McBee, Calhoun County, Allendale-Fairfax and Bamberg-Ehrhardt are the only teams to have unblemished records in Class A right now. Can they stay that way? Crap, who knows man? If I could see the future I probably wouldn't be using that skill to figure out whether Calhoun County can stop the run against Williston-Elko. Ponies...I'd use it on the ponies. The best we can do is look at the remaining schedules of those five teams and take an educated guess... Whitmire (4-0) Remaining Schedule: Ridge Spring-Monetta (2-2) at Christ Church (3-1) St. Joe's (2-2) Southside Christian (3-1) Dixie (0-5) at Ware Shoals (1-3) It goes without saying that nothing is a sure thing, but at this point Whitmire would be considered prohibitive favorites against Dixie and Ware Shoals. Dixie gave up 56 points in losing to the same Calhoun Falls Charter team Whitmire beat 42-6. Ware Shoals did a good job in breaking a year-plus losing in last week's 20-0 win over Dixie...but it was against a struggling 0-5 Dixie team. They also dropped a 28-14 decision to McCormick (McCormick's only win). I'm not sure what to make of Southside Christian since their three wins are against a SCISA school (and that was a 3-0 game halted before halftime by lightning), McCormick and Dixie. We'll have a better idea where they stand after Friday's game against Fox Creek. St. Joe's seems to be a bit down after a couple of very successful seasons, but it's hard to tell because their two losses came to a good AA Ninety-Six team and a pretty good AAA team in Broome, while their wins are against Calhoun Falls Charter and the Peculiar Generation Lions. I'd like Whitmire in that match-up, but it does have to be considered that St. Joe's rolled them last year 48-6 (the Wolverines are much better than last year) and that St. Joe's has about three times the students Whitmire does...many of whom are there specifically to compete in athletics...no need to be any more graphic than that. So that one is sorta toss-up-y, as is this Friday's Ridge Spring-Monetta game. That will be a very physical game...like back in the day when guys named Clem and Hoss fought 50 round bare knuckle matches in hay barns. I'm pretty sure that used to happen. The Wolverines and Trojans will just kick the snot out of one another for 48 minutes is what I'm getting at. Obviously, the toughest out left for the Wolverines, the one where the would be considered a longshot, will be Christ Church, which while down a bit from the form that saw them win 55 straight games is still easily one of the two or three best teams in Class A. We'll see. McBee (5-0) Remaining Schedule: at Lewisville (1-4) C.A. Johnson (1-4) Great Falls (0-4) Camden Military (2-1) Lamar (3-2) McBee will spend this week lubing up its big scary power drill and finding a frightening new mask to wear. They have a bye is my point. They then go to a Lewisville team that is better than that 1-4 record indicates. Keep in mind they've played nothing but AA and AAA teams so far. And not scrub ones either, their opponents thus far have a combined 15-7 record. Lewisville's defense is playing good football right now, having held Indian Land to 238 yards and North Central to less than 100. Their regular-season game with McBee was 21-19 right before the half last year...then the drill got bumped from the "dent cardboard" setting up to "burrow through granite" and it ended up 63-19. Lewisville has big play-makers on offense but also has a single wing set that can move the chains and eat clock. They are better than last year, much, but so is McBee. The Panthers will be heavily favored over C.A. Johnson and Great Falls and I don't know what they are getting out of playing Camden Military. It's like Camden Military lost some horrible bet. Like the goobers who agree to get pastel tats of unicorns wearing ski boots on their butts if they don't win their fantasy football league. It made sense for McBee to play them a few years ago when they were awful and putting up consecutive one-win seasons...they have improved since then, you have perhaps noticed. Circle the Lamar game. The Silver Foxes have the athletes to score on anybody...but they don't seem to have the offensive balance of past years and I don't know that they can stop McBee. Really, it's hard to see McBee losing one in the regular season but Lamar and Lewisville could at least make it interesting. Calhoun County (4-0) Remaining Schedule: at Gray Collegiate (1-3) at Blackville-Hilda (1-3) Hunter-Kinard-Tyler (3-2) Wagener-Salley (1-3) at North (0-4) Williston-Elko (3-2) To be blunt, Calhoun County has played a fairly weak schedule so far and it only gets moderately tougher. The four teams they've played so far have a combined record of 4-15. They play Gray, who they already beat 29-8 a few weeks ago, then a struggling Blackville-Hilda team. Hunter-Kinard-Tyler, of course, is the two-time defending little Class A champion, but they are also the second smallest public school in the state that plays football and are breaking in some new skill players. That will at least be a test. Wagener-Salley and North don't look like they'll present the Saints with challenges...barring a surprise of some kind. That leaves a Williston team that seems to be getting on a roll after a tough 0-2 start. On paper, that looks like the only game Calhoun County might lose, but of course games aren't played on paper...because you would have to have a big ass piece of paper to play a football game on. Allendale-Fairfax (5-0) Remaining Schedule: Denmark-Olar (1-4) at Bamberg-Ehrhardt (4-0) Branchville (1-3) Bethune-Bowman (1-4) at Estill (3-2) Allendale-Fairfax has knocked off three AA teams this year, which included the only loss so far for Garrett College Online Academic U, or whatever they're called. It wouldn't appear Denmark, Branchville or Bethune will be derailing the Tigers. I'm not especially well-schooled on Estill. They are 3-1 in games they've actually played (they forfeited to Porter-Gaud...no idea why, though I do have a guy for that) with close wins over Battery Creek, Gray and the purveyor's of the big cookie (Ridgeland/Hardeeville). Basically, whether or not the Tigers can go undefeated comes down to their match-up with Bamberg-Ehrhardt. Bamberg-Ehrhardt (4-0) Remaining Schedule: Blackville-Hilda (1-3) Bethune-Bowman (1-4) Allendale-Fairfax (5-0) at Estill (3-2) at Branchville (1-3) Denmark-Olar (1-4) The Raiders have mauled everyone on their schedule so far and to be succinct, it kinda looks like they'll continue that pattern with their only real test remaining being Allendale-Fairfax. That October 9 match-up will likely decide the lowerstate, big Class A number one seed. When the Whitmire Wolverines finished up their practice last Wednesday evening, very few players left the field. Most were huddled around a middle school player doing some discipline-related bear crawls across the field. Some got down on all fours and did them with him.
"The funny thing is, I didn't tell them to do that," said Whitmire Head Coach Charlie Jenkins. "They're doing it on their own. They didn't want that young man to quit, so they're encouraging him. That's just how those kids are." Jenkins said that kind of togetherness is on display every day on his team. It may be part of the reason the Wolverines have gone from having the state's longest losing streak to now holding a place in the Class A rankings with a 4-0 record. Whitmire, located in Newberry County just a few miles from the Union County line, is steeped in football tradition. It's the hometown of Pro Football Hall of Famer Donnie Shell and winner of a state championship in 1978. The school fielded fairly consistent winners on the gridiron until the late 80s, when Whitmire, like many small Southern towns with mill-based economies, started to suffer. Disappearing jobs led to a shrinking population, which had a negative trickle-down effect on Wolverine athletics. Whitmire, simply put, was just much smaller in terms of enrollment and athletes than most teams they faced and for a 14-year period starting in the early 1990s, the school had only two winning seasons (8-3 in 1992 and 6-5 in 1999). Those fortunes changed a bit in 2004, when coach Louis Alexander got the team to a 7-5 record and the Wolverines won the school's first playoff game since 1981. He left after that year to go to Mid-Carolina, but Donald Addis kept things going, with Whitmire posting a 6-6 record in 2006 with another playoff win. The 2007 season was a special one for the Wolverines. With do-everything speedster Michael Ruff (a Mr. Football finalist who would go on to star at Presbyterian College), multi-position athlete Dez Harp and others, the program captured a region crown and the number one seed in the little Class A on the way to 10-2 mark. Another winning season followed, but Whitmire went 3-8 in 2009 and ended the year on a four-game losing streak. The bottom seemed to drop in 2010 because of a drop in attendance (under 140 students) and a brutal schedule that featured AA teams Indian Land and Mid-Carolina out-of-region, and emerging powerhouse private schools Christ Church and St. Joe's in the region. Throw in Landrum and Blacksburg, both of which were growing toward AA status and had three or more times the students of Whitmire, and the Wolverines were 0-10. The next season, with an equally rugged schedule and a very young squad, Whitmire went winless again...then again...then again. The streak was at 44 games going into 2014. Addis stepped down from his coaching job to focus on his athletic director duties and about that time, Jenkins was looking to make a career move. In many ways, he was a perfect fit. His father is a Whitmire native and graduate ("King of Hearts at Whitmire, Class of 1962," Jenkins noted). Jenkins himself grew up in nearby Union, playing JV football and varsity basketball (he was team captain) for the Yellow Jackets. He began coaching while he was still in college, started his teaching career at Newberry Junior High School and made the drive to Union to help coach the basketball team. Former Union coach Shell Dula added him to the football staff in 1995 at which point he started teaching at Sims in Union. His first year as a football coach brought a state title and he was a part of the continued success and subsequent titles for the Yellow Jackets under Mike Anthony. When Jonesville and Lockhart were closed in 2007 and consolidated into the new Union County High, he went to Saluda for a while as head basketball coach and offensive coordinator for the football team, then to Mid-Carolina. He and his wife Melanie (also from Union) had a young son by that time. Whitmire was appealing based on proximity and family history but had another positive too. "I like being an underdog," Jenkins said. Still, he did have one worry. With the team on a 44-game losing streak, Jenkins didn't want to go somewhere he couldn't win. Coaching is about shaping lives and providing a positive outlet for young people, but the pressure and grind of losing wear on anyone after a while. He applied for the job and only needed to get a look at the Wolverines basketball team to know he had the athletes to be competitive. "Me and my little boy went to a game. Thirteen of the 15 guys on the team also played football. I called a buddy on the way home said 'we can win here,'" Jenkins said. He was offered the job and accepted it. When he first arrived on campus, he found players who were a little beaten down from the years of losing (the rising seniors had never won a game) but were eager to embrace change and do whatever Jenkins asked of them to turn it around. His first order of business was to install a new offense. The Wolverines had been running a pass-heavy spread, but he wanted to take them 180 degrees in the other direction, putting in a double-wing offense that most people call "the scrum." It was made popular by current Broome head man Jet Turner. "It's not the most glamorous offense and I might have lost a few kids that play wide receiver but I thought it would fit our talent," Jenkins said. A lot of things hinged on whether quarterback Austin Jenkins (no relation to the coach) would buy in. "If he hadn't embraced it or had quit, it would've changed the whole mood of it. It was a big change. He was going from being in the gun and throwing it to being up under center and having to get to the corner and block on a lot of plays" said the demonstrative Jenkins, who mimicked getting under center and spinning out toward the corner to block the end as he talked. Luckily, the young signal-caller not only embraced the changed, he relished the opportunity to be physical and hit defenders. "He loves it," Jenkins said. "That's the kind of kid he is and I'm telling you, he's talented. He would have started on most all the teams I coached at Union, Mid-Carolina and Saluda." Jenkins said he inherited a coaching staff that fit exactly what he wanted. Jarrod King, Andrew Campbell and Harp are all home-grown guys and former Whitmire players who are emotionally invested in the team's success. Chris Martin (Whitmire's head baseball coach) is a mainstay at the school and Steve Lockwood, the former head football coach at Southside Christian, is on the staff as well. Coaching isn't just a job or hobby to those men, it's about school pride and upholding a tradition. Whitmire is important to all of them and they can teach players how important it must be to them. Further aiding the cause of turning around the losing streak was a schedule tweak. Instead of playing Class A powerhouses out of region like Great Falls or AA programs, Addis lined up games against more like-sized schools. Whitmire is the third-smallest public football playing school, so most any opponent is still going to be bigger in terms of enrollment, but Calhoun Falls Charter, North, Branchville and Wagener-Salley are at least in the same ballpark. Jenkins said he got a little taste of smaller school football during his two stints after leaving Union, but really came to know what Class A football was like when he got to Whitmire. At Union, the team would practice for 90 or so minutes most days. At small Class A schools, where offensive lineman are also defensive linemen and your starting quarterback is usually a starting safety, you can't have the offense doing its thing on one end and the defense on the other. Too many players go both ways, so to get the full practice reps players need, practice takes longer. Jenkins learned another lesson when he went to his first Whitmire pep rally, which he found oddly subdued. "There wasn't much energy and there weren't many kids in the stands," he remembered. "Then I thought about it. The football players, cheerleaders, tennis players, the band and volleyball players were all out on the floor. There almost weren't any kids left to sit in the stands and cheer." Jenkins' first game was against the Calhoun Falls Charter. He'd learn quickly whether the work players had put in, the homegrown coaches and the offensive switch would bear fruit. It only took 48 minutes of football for the team to go from 0-44 to 42-0. That was the final margin of victory for the Wolverines against the Flashes. Jenkins had not been part of the losing streak but said he felt the burden of it just the same because his players, coaches and athletic director had been. "A lot of the guys had gotten use to losing. It was a weight off our shoulders," said Harp. Jenkins said, in the eyes of many people, breaking the streak was all that mattered, so anything beyond that "was just gravy." Whitmire ended up with a lot of gravy, winning five games, being much more competitive in losses and earning a playoff slot. A good Ridge Spring-Monetta team beat the Wolverines 28-21 but said afterward that Whitmire, which didn't have near the size of the Trojans, gave them a full-on fight for 48 minutes. "Those guys had taken their lumps for a couple of years...they were ready to start giving out some whoopins," Jenkins said. Not only had the record changed, though, the mentality at Whitmire had been altered. Just winning a game or two wasn't going to cut it. A bar had been set and Jenkins challenged his team to clear it. Because of "how those kids are" they accepted the challenge. "We told them they had to get bigger and stronger. We said 'you want to get better, here's what you do.' They've all embraced the grind to be good. We had almost perfect attendance at weight-lifting this summer," Harp said. It paid off. Whitmire opened 2015 with a 42-6 win over Calhoun Falls Charter and followed that with a 30-0 win over Branchville that was stopped at halftime because of bad weather. Up next was a road trip to North High School, which is about a two hour bus ride from Whitmire. The team bus pulled into River Bluff High in the midlands briefly so the team "could stretch its legs for a minute" and that stopped gave the team a view of the veritable palace the new River Bluff High plays in, with a video scoreboard, field turf and luxury boxes. Like all Class A coaches, Jenkins knows there are disparities in funding and facilities between big urban and suburban schools and their small rural counterparts. The back corner of one of Whitmire's end zones actually slopes upward at a fairly steep angle ("we have to run uphill to run a fade to that side," Jenkins noted). But, fancy scoreboards that show instant replays don't win games, teams do and Whitmire brought home a 40-0 blowout from North that night. They followed that with a 30-8 victory over Wagener-Salley. At 4-0 the team is now ranked in the top 10 in Class A. Defensively, the Wolverines have allowed just 14 points this season and offensively, the scrum is working, but Austin Jenkins' background as a spread quarterback has paid some dividends as Whitmire often catches opponents off-guard with a precision passing attack. Not everything has followed a plan, though. Jenkins has a young man named Cole Eison, who had never kicked in practice, start booming kicks with an odd one-step delivery at 6:15 the night of last year's Calhoun Falls game. Alex Ellison, who was supposed to handle kicking duties, told Jenkins he needed to come watch Eison. Jenkins asked Eison if he thought he could keep doing that once the game started and Ellison, who badly wanted to do what was best for the squad, relinquished his kicking duties. Eison's leg has helped with field position and with PATs. It's just one more piece to the puzzle. All that, all the hard work and a lot of support from Addis, the administration and community has come together perfectly. "We can't get ahead of ourselves and think we're better than we are, but it's been great so far," Jenkins said. Anyone thinking Whitmire is a flash-in-the-pan driven by one good class of athletes better think again. At a school with 158 students, 60 boys are in the football program including 16 ninth graders, all of whom have taken on the mentality of the upperclassmen they are watching win games on Friday nights. "The younger guys have started looking up to the older guys," Harp said. Whitmire has a big rematch with Ridge Spring-Monetta this Friday. Jenkins is expecting a tough one and a good one. "That will be two physical football teams going at each other. It will be a great Class A football game," Jenkins said. The region slate won't be easy either, with the opponents including four-time defending state champion Christ Church. Jenkins said his team won't back down from anybody and will leave every bit of themselves on the field every Friday...that's just how those kids are. Below, Whitmire players do up-downs in a recent practice. Ware Shoals-20
Dixie-0 Williston-Elko-50 Fox Creek-34 Saluda-54 McCormick-12 Batesburg-Leesville-40 Ridge Spring-Monetta-20 Whitmire-30 Wagener-Salley-8 Barnwell Barts-48 C.A. Johnson-6 Lamar-36 Lake View-30 Lewisville-12 North Central-8 McBee-56 Latta-14 Allendale-Fairfax-24 Blackville-Hilda-12 Calhoun County-46 Bethune-Bowman-6 Wade Hampton-28 Hunter-Kinard-Tyler-6 Denmark-Olar-48 North-6 Bamberg-Ehrhardt-43 Woodland-Not Nam North Charleston-26 Branchville-14 Estill-30 Gray Collegiate-24 Academic Magnet-50 Baptist Hill-14 Lake Marion-46 Burke-7 Cross-40 Scott's Branch-nern Ridgeland/Hardeeville-58 Military Magnet-0 James Island-41 St. John's- 0.0 C.E. Murray-18 Manning-12 East Clarendon-15 Camden Military-12 St. James-42 Hannah-Pamplico-7 Mullins-44 Timmonsville-28 Georgetown-34 Carver's Bay-27 Waccamaw-40 Green Sea-Floyds-8 Johnsonville-47 Hemingway-14 Breakdown- A lot of teams will be into their region slates next week, so we'll start seeing fewer "playing up" games. Class A had a little bit of a rough week playing AA, AAA and in one case a AAAA team, posting a 3-11 record. The three winners were Lewisville over North Central, Bamberg-Ehrhardt over Woodland and C.E. Murray over AAA Manning. There weren't really any shocking outcomes this week. I was surprised how close Lamar's game with Lake View was. I flippantly predicted a Silver Foxes blowout win because all I knew about Lake View, having not seen them, was that they'd won the two games they were supposed to win (St. John's and Scott's Branch) and badly lost the game they were supposed to badly lose (Dillon). It turned out to be a super tight contest from start to finish. Trey Ceasar (143 yards and three touchdowns) and Decobie Durant (12-131 and a touchdown) provided a double-barreled blast of running game awesomeness to secure the win. Whitmire is still undefeated after a 30-8 win over Wagener-Salley. The Wolverines actually trailed for the first time this year, falling behind 8-0 early, but Austin Jenkins...whose name just sweats and poops greatness, threw a couple of touchdown passes. The team will have its biggest test of the year this Friday against a big, physical Ridge Spring-Monetta team. An RSM coach told me a few weeks ago that Whitmire was a tough out last year...that they fought them hard for 48 minutes. Expect something similar, and expect a good game behind the brick wall in the Pearl of the Piedmont. When a Class A team beats a school of higher classification, I feel it's worth mentioning, but when they give them a truly proper seeing to...the kind of beating where you kiss the guy's wife on the mouth and set his lawn on fire just because he's not gonna do anything about it, I feel it warrants a few sentences. I know very little about AA Woodland...if you read my last blog entry you'll see that I admit to being unaware that Woodland was a thing that existed on this planet until just recently. Maybe they aren't especially good, but they're still a AA school and they got totally trucked by Bamberg-Ehrhardt 43-0. Keshawn Orr had a couple of touchdown runs, the Raiders defense set up a couple of scores with interceptions and they got a safety on special teams. So it was a pretty solid effort all-the-way-around. Bamberg-Ehrhardt has a couple of games coming up where they should be favored heavily, but go ahead and circle October 9...that's the night Allendale-Fairfax comes to town. Quick hits-I'd hoped to find some info on C.E. Murray's win over Manning, but was only able to locate some short little blurbs that basically just had the score. One of those blurbs had a comment from someone who is obviously a big War Eagles fan, "You are my inspiration , I have few blogs and very sporadically run out from to brand." I hear ya pal, War Damn Eagles...(Note, since writing this, I was able to get in touch with C.E. Murray coach Brian Smith. Isiah Odom had 33 carries for 155 yards against Manning. Jamariqoui Barr graded out at 95 percent on the offensive line and Shyheim White, an all-state defensive tackle last year, put up some beastly "you can't block me so don't even try" kinda stats. He had nine solo tackles, seven assists and three tackles-for-loss. For good measure, and to show he can abuse defensive linemen just as easily as he does offensive linemen, he also threw in three pancake blocks playing guard. We likes it when Class A teams knock off the "big boys")... I'd been calling it for a few weeks, but Lewisville finally got their first win, taking a hard-fought 12-8 victory over an improved North Central team. They aren't blessed with a ton of size, but they're fast, their defense is playing super salty and their skill position guys on offense (Keels, Hill, Peeler et al) are growing together and putting up big numbers. Not many soft touches on the schedule, though, with AAA Lancaster and top-ranked McBee being the opponents in the next two games...In my Class A preview last week, I noted there were a couple of match-ups between teams who, unfortunately, don't seem to have many wins on their schedule going forward. Ware Shoals won one of those over Dixie 20-0 and Denmark-Olar got the W in the other, taking out North 48-6. You'll notice from the scoreboard above I've decided, for now, that Barnwell is the Barts. It's a Simpson's reference (since they have a nuclear waste facility there) and it is alliterative...which means it has lots of the Bs. Suggested reading Ware Shoals broke a losing streak that dated back to 2013...read about it here while understanding they have a game clock with actual hands on it and serve pulled pork nachos in the concession stand there. McCormick did not share in the success of their Lakelands brethren. Whitmire was actually behind on the scoreboard for the first time in 2015 and stayed there for, gosh, a couple of minutes. Levi White had a heck of a game for Carvers Bay, but it wasn't quite enough to get past Georgetown. Scroll through these game capsules for a couple of Class A reports, including one on Lamar's narrow win. Or don't...it's your life Hoss and I ain't calling the shots. WOODLAND'S LAWN IS ON FIRE! This isn't a game report as much as it's an acknowledgement that McBee has good players and is beating the crap out of everybody they play. The SCHSL League heard realignment appeals last week and upheld just one. Tough beans Dreher. Williston-Elko (2-2) at Fox Creek (2-1)
Both teams are coming in on two-game winning streaks. Williston beat Denmark-Olar 38-18 last week. The Predators, or Commandos...The Kindergarten Cops, they're named after some Arnold movie, anyway they beat Wagener-Salley 48-14 behind 282 yards and five touchdowns from quarterback Caleb Charlton. This is an opportunity for one or the other of these teams to register a quality win. Williston has beaten Barnwell and Denmark...Fox Creek beat Augusta Christian and Wagener, so nothing that falls into the "lawdy that's a biggun" category. Saluda (3-0) at McCormick (1-2) Saluda continued its impressive start last week by beating Gilbert 31-21. McCormick notched its first win with a 28-14 triumph over Ware Shoals. Sophomore running back Mataeo Durant had 226 yards rushing on 13 carries in that one...which is, I understand, good. Dixie (0-4) at Ware Shoals (0-3) If past performance is a guarantee of future results, this is one of the few games on the schedule each will have a shot to win. Dixie lost badly to Southside Christian last week 49-13. Speaking of them, I notice all the Greenville County private schools are off tonight. Must be a big recruiting weekend or something. Hey, listen to me. I kid...I kid because I'm serious. Ware Shoals has fallen on some real hard times, losing to previously winless McCormick 28-14 last week and managing just 190 total yards in the process. Whitmire (3-0) at Wagener-Salley (1-2) I actually went and watched part of a Whitmire practice this week (story coming soon) and was very impressed. For one thing, a school with 140 kids has about 60 boys in the football program right now. Playing the normal population statistics, that would mean 60 of 70 boys on campus play football...even the ones with an uhealthy Dungeons and Dragons obsession and the heavy ones that would normally play tuba in the band are suiting up. It's a very together bunch and there is some talent there too. They laid it on North 40-0 last week. I expect they'll be 4-0 after this week. Wagener-Salley dropped a 48-14 game to Fox Creek last Friday. C.A. Johnson (1-3) at Barnwell (1-2) I didn't predict a Hornets win last week, but I hinted at it...kind of like your kindly old aunt does when she pats your stomach and says "I'm glad you don't miss many meals Travey." Thanks Fercie. The Hornets not only beat Pelion, they shut them out 18-0. From what I've read, C.A. Johnson hasn't changed much from the past few years...a quarterback who can scramble that throws low percentage passes deep down the field. Jaquan Perry averages over 15 yards a completion and Malik Sulaiman gets about 20 a catch. Shaquan Murphy adds a good running element to the mix. At Barnwell might be too heavy a lift this week, but that win over a AA team last week paired with just one region victory will all but assure the Hornets a playoff spot. The Radioactive War Horses lost to Bamberg-Ehrhardt badly last week...they're near a nuclear waste dump, hence the name. Could I call them the Homers? The Moes? I'll work on that for next week. Lake View (2-1) at Lamar (2-2) The Silver Foxes led Darlington at halftime last week before size and depth played really started to play a role, leading to a 43-31 loss. Trey Ceasar ran for 223 yards and remains one of the best and most underrated tailbacks in the state. In Lamar's two games against non-AAA competition, they've won by a combined score of 119-20. What does that mean for Class A competitor Lake View tonight? Um, nothing good, I'm thinking. McBee (4-0) at Latta (2-1) These two teams combined for 132 points last week. Again, those two no-tackling ne'er-do-wells in Pennsylvania think that is super cute. McBee snuck out of their closet wearing a jester hat and a welding mask, drill in hand and ambushed the unsuspecting and amorous teens defiling his beloved granny's couch. If you don't know what I'm talking about, read this...then realize what I just said still makes almost no sense. My point is they beat East Clarendon 67-0. Latta, in a game spread out over two days, beat Aynor 65-48. I'm not familiar with the work of Kartillus McFadden, but I guess I should be since he ran for 302 yards in that game. McBee, with Wright and Fair and their bevy of scary weapons and drills, may not lose a game this season. I don't think they'll lose this one, but it could at least be entertaining. Lewisville (0-4) at North Central (3-0) The Lions lost a tough one to Indian Land 27-14 last week. They gave the much bigger and deeper Warriors a short field to work with three times, which pretty much sealed the deal. Still, they held Indian Land 238 total yards, they ran the ball well and Mike Hill had his typical, ho-hum two touchdown game. Haven't seen North Central and don't know a lot about them, but they're 3-0 for the first time since 1993. I'm told they mix the run and pass well and have some good size up front. This should be a good one. Allendale-Fairfax (4-0) at Blackville-Hilda (1-2) Both schools have hyphens in their names. That's the kind of insight you've come to expect from me. Allendale-Fairfax ran for almost 300 yards in a 20-7 win over Edisto last week. Deon Priester had three tackles for loss in the game...which I mention only so I can point out that Allendale-Fairfax has an endless supply of Priesters. They do some mass procreating. Blackville-Hilda lost to Ridge Spring-Monetta 39-6. Calhoun County (3-0) at Bethune-Bowman (0-4) Calhoun County actually trailed Gray Collegiate early last week but emerged with a 29-8 win. Quarterback Terance Brunson didn't put up big passing yards, but ran for 123 yards and three scores. Tavarius Ellis had 144 more. Bethune-Bowman remained winless with a 34-0 loss to Woodland. Wade Hampton (2-2) at Hunter-Kinard-Tyler (3-1) HKT beat up on Baptist Hill 50-20 last week with quarterback Devante Scott running for a score and throwing two more. Wade Hampton dropped a 49-7 decision to Screven County...thus ends the "crap I can say about this game" portion of the program. Ridge Spring-Monetta (2-1) at Batesburg-Leesville (3-0) The Trojans got great penetration last week. They ran the ball well? What did you think I meant? It was 39-6 and RSM is a big, physical team that just pounds you with that wishbone. Batesburg-Leesville beat Mid-Carolina 32-14 to remain unbeaten, so this shapes up as a big one tonight and likely a barn-burner that you should go see if you're in the area...mainly because Shealy's is right down the road from the stadium. North (0-3) at Denmark-Olar (0-4) As with Dixie-Ware Shoals, you start looking at the upcoming schedules and there may not be a lot of wins to find for these schools. So, this is a big one for both teams. North lost to Whitmire 40-0 last week, while D-O as I'll call them...which is close to both B-O and D-Q. It would be funny to run into someone with B-O at D-Q. Or not. They lost 35-6 to Williston-Elko last week. Bamberg-Ehrhardt (3-0) at Woodland (1-3) Bamberg-Ehrhardt knocked off Barnwell 47-10 last week. Keyshawn Orr led the way with 118 yards rushing and three scores. Woodland beat Bethune-Bowman 34-0. I previously was unaware Woodland existed on planet Earth, so hey, learned something. North Charleston (3-0) at Branchville (1-2) North Charleston was a 46-7 winner over Burke. Branchville lost to the slide-rule jockeys of Academic Magnet 32-6. Gray Collegiate (1-2) at Estill (2-2) Gray jumped out to an early 8-0 lead on Calhoun County but fell 29-8. I saw Gray earlier in the year...they put a wristband on me when I came in the stadium, which excited me because I thought it meant they were selling beer or something. I expected a strobe light and woo hoo!!! There was none of that so I still have figured the whole wristband thing. They are efficient offensively and big up front but they have almost no depth. They'll be an actual league member in AAA next year, so they may want to find some. Estill took out Ridgeland/Hardeeville 22-0, forcing six turnovers in the process. Baptist Hill (0-3) at Academic Magnet (3-0) Academic Magnet stayed perfect last week with a 32-6 win over Branchville. They would probably also win a quiz bowl. Baptist Hill lost to HKT 50-20. Lake Marion (3-0) at Burke (0-3) This game will be played at The Citadel's Johnson-Haygood Stadium. Considering one of these teams is unbeaten and the other is winless, and one scored 62 points last week while the other lost by 39, that whole playing at The Citadel thing is what we call "the positive spin." Scott's Branch (1-2) at Cross (2-1) Scott's Branch was off last week. Cross ran for almost 300 yards in a 28-6 drubbing of previously unbeaten C.E. Murray. Ridgeland/Hardeeville (0-2) at Military Magnet Is there a Hardees in Hardeeville? There should be. And while I'm on the subject, how about less of the "how much crap can we ram between two slices of bread" approach and more of the Big Cookie. BRING BACK THE BIG COOKIE! NO COOKIE, NO PEACE! They lost to Estill 22-0 last week. Military Magnet got bombed (see what I did there) 71-14 by Garrett Academy Cosmotology and Auto Repair Tech. St. John's (1-3) at James Island (1-3) St. John's fell to Lake View 32-6 last Friday. James Island beat R.B. Stall 53-6. Sure did. Those are accurate scores...maybe I shouldn't feel the need to write X number of words for each game. Last week's scores and "that's all I got" should probably suffice sometimes. C.E. Murray (3-1) at Manning (2-1) C.E. Murray got knocked from the ranks of the unbeaten last Friday, losing to Cross 28-6. Manning pulled out a 14-13 win over Lake City. "That's all I got." East Clarendon (0-3) at Camden Military East Clarendon was off last week. Camden Military beat something or someone named the Sandhills Titans. Is that even a real thing? Is that the prep equivalent of College of the Faith? I ask those questions out loud sometimes and seem to forget that the collective knowledge of man is available on this thing called the intraweb. I did a search and it is apparently a Christian, home-school team. They have a promo video on their website which is def, or jive...or whatever the kids say these days. St. James (1-2) at Hannah-Pamplico (0-4) St. James lost Carolina Forest 28-10 last time out. HP was a 25-21 loser to Hemingway. Quarterback Mason Hicks accounted for a couple of scores, but the team had a rash of late penalties that turned out to be a back-breaker. Mullins (1-3) at Timmonsville (0-4) The Auctioneers (my favorite team name ever) fell to Marion 44-30 on Friday. Timmonsville was a 22-16 loser to Kingstree. Both team got totally rogered by Lamar (Mullins 69-14, Timmonsville 50-6) so hey, common ground. Carver's Bay (1-2) at Georgetown (2-1) Carver's Bay was on the wrong end of a 35-14 score against Andrews last week despite 124 yards rushing and a pair of scoring passes from quarterback Levi White. Georgetown defeated Waccamaw 35-14. Creek Bridge (0-4) at Kingstree (1-2) Creek Bridge lost to the state's smallest public school, Lincoln, 14-0 last Friday. Let me say as an aside, good job to Lincoln. They have 108 students on campus...not 108 athletic boys...kids...total. They've won two straight and I couldn't be happier for them. What was I talking about now? Oh, Kingstree narrowly got by Timmonsville 22-16. Waccamaw (1-3) at Green Sea-Floyds (2-2) Waccamaw lost the aforementioned game to Georgetown 35-14. GSF, after a 2-0 start, has lost two straight, falling to Loris 31-6. Johnsonville (2-1) at Hemingway (2-1) Johnsonville was off...maybe needing extra time to make their sausage. Is that not the same Johnsonville? I'm running out of steam here, frankly. Hemingway beat Hannah-Pamplico 25-21. Quarterback Keyshawn Davis ran in the winning score late in the fourth quarter. There you have it, the week that will be in Class A football. Comments, suggestions or feedback is welcome in the comment section or at [email protected] St. Joe's-40
Calhoun Calls Charter-20 Southside Christian-49 Dixie-13 Fox Creek-48 Wagener-Salley-14 McCormick-28 Ware Shoals-14 Whitmire-40 North-0 Christ Church-55 Carolina-7 C.A. Johnson-18 Pelion-0 Andrew Jackson-35 Great Falls-13 Darlington-43 Lamar-31 Indian Land-27 Lewisville-13 McBee-67 East Clarendon-OWWW! Calhoun County-29 Gray Collegiate-8 Hunter-Kinard-Tyler-50 Baptist Hill-20 Williston-Elko-38 Denmark-Olar-18 Allendale-Fairfax-20 Edisto-7 Bamberg-Ehrhardt-47 The Barnwell Radioactive War Horses-10 Woodland-34 Bethune-Bowman-0 Academic Magnet-32 Branchville-6 Estill-22 Ridgeland/Hardeeville-0 North Charleston-46 Burke-7 Cross-28 C.E. Murray-6 Lincoln-14 Creek Bridge-Nam The State College of Garrett-71 Military Magnet-14 Lake View-32 St. John's-6 Hemingway-25 Hannah-Pamplico-21 Kingstree-22 Timmonsville-16 Andrews-36 Carvers Bay-14 Loris-31 Green Sea-Floyds-6 Latta-65 Aynor-48 Breakdown- We're almost into region play, so we're almost to the end of "playing up" games. Class A held its own pretty well in those contests this past week, though, posting a solid 5-8 record against AA and AAA opponents. The winners in such games were Christ Church over AA Carolina, C.A. Johnson over AA Pelion, Allendale-Fairfax over AA Edisto, Bamberg-Ehrhardt over AA Barnwell and Latta over AA Aynor. There weren't a ton of shocking outcomes this past Friday. It might have taken some folks by surprise that C.A. Johnson not only won a game over AA Pelion, but that they won by shutout. Given that Pelion had already been destroyed by Gilbert and SCISA team Cardinal Newman, it's hard to call anyone beating them a shock. Give the Hornets credit, though, for not only snapping an 11-game losing streak, but doing so by shutout with an 18-0 final score. It was the program's first shutout since a 41-0 win over McBee in 2012. Really get your head around that...In the not-too-distant past, C.A. Johnson shut out McBee. That's kinda like how you might run into a former classmate from high school and she's all hot now, but back in the day she was missing a lip and smelled like okra. Teams improve...so does okra-smelling girl...I should probably move on. Christ Church got back on track with a 55-7 blowout of Carolina, which is frankly no great shakes. That game went about like you'd figure it would. The Cavs are off this week but will hit a real schedule lull for a while. Their only competitive game down the stretch may come from Whitmire, so it they won't have many measuring sticks for improvement. That isn't to say they aren't still a huge threat to win it all, because they sure are, it will just be difficult to tell how much better they are getting for the next few weeks. Speaking of Whitmire, how about those 3-0 Wolverines? Whitmire blew out North 40-0 behind three touchdown passes and a touchdown run by quarterback Austin Jenkins Friday. It's hard not to root for a school with 140-ish kids that coming into last year was nursing a 40-plus-game losing streak. They're the feel-good hit of the summer, or fall...it sounds like I'm turning them into some horrible chick flick. I'll stop doing that now. Admittedly they haven't played the toughest slate as of yet, but they are winning these games convincingly. Friday's victory marked the team's second-straight shutout. They held a Calhoun Falls Charter team that has put up some big point totals on everyone they've played to just six in Week 1. Defense like that will keep them in every game. Now, they have Wagener-Salley this week which is game they'll be heavy favorites to win...I say that like Vegas is setting a line on the Whitmire-Wagener-Salley game. If that game is listed on some card, someone please send me a picture of it. The point is, they should win this week, then they'll really be tested against Ridge Spring-Monetta, Christ Church and St. Joe's. The way their playing now I don't think it's out of the question that they could win one of those...or two...or all three. I'll be excited to see that. Quick hits- I was not one bit surprised to see Lamar take Darlington down to the wire. They led at halftime before the superior size and depth probably started tilting things in Darlington's favor, but Trey Caesar show again that he can play against (and could play for) ANYBODY. All he did was drop 223 yards the other night...I keep saying Lewisville is going to start winning some of these close games, but they fell to Indian Land 27-14 Friday. The Warriors got the benefit of a short field on three of their four scores. Still, Mike Hill had two more touchdown grabs, giving him eight in four games. An upstart and rejuvenated North Central team (3-0) is on the docket this week...McBee now seems to lead the world in handing out good rootins. Also, the scary drill meme is now a thing if you hadn't already heard...Lincoln, the state's smallest public school is now on a winning streak after Creek Bridge 14-0. They have shut out the opposition in both games...salty defense in McClellanville. Suggested Reading Latta and Aynor combined to score 113 points! Of course, those two freak bag teams in Pennsylvania probably think that is super cute...just adorable. Whitmire is remained in the ranks of the unbeaten with a blow-out of North Friday. AAA Darlington had a tough time shaking Lamar Friday, get all clicky here to read about it. Gray jumped out to an early lead, but couldn't hold it against Calhoun County. I've not made a dumber call on this blog than saying HKT might be down. Scroll to the bottom of this collection of capsules...and stop on the way to read about Allendale-Fairfax winning if you want. I can't make you. I'm not the boss of you. Have you ever had something that became a thing? Um, I should probably be more specific.
My cousin Kevin and I will sometimes yell at one another that we "don't want no (expletive) crowder peas." I'm not sure how crowder peas ever entered a conversation we were having, maybe we were eating at a meat-and-three place and crowder peas were offered as an option for one of the three. I like crowder peas fine, maybe he doesn't, I don't know. It just turned into thing that we still throw at each other 20 years later..."don't even consider offering me no (expletive) crowder peas." We say it and laugh, because deep inside our decidedly adult bodies, we are five. One upon a time, my sister and I were watching David Letterman. At the conclusion of his show, as per usual, was the logo for his production company Worldwide Pants. A voice simply intoned "pants" and we laughed heartily. Granted, "pants" is a funny word, but not nearly as funny as we seemed to think it was that evening. We just started screaming "pants" over and over and laughing like complete goobers each time we did. Somewhere along the line, we decided that we sort of sounded like the old guy who screams "Science" in Thomas Dolby's song "She Blinded me with Science." So we started making up a terrible song..."She blinded me with pa-ants. Corduroy in motion..." And we laughed because inside the grown-up exterior we both possess, we aren't even five. We rarely have a conversation that doesn't involve one or the other hollering "pants." It's become a thing...a dumb, inexplicable thing that's now been dragging on for 12 or so years. So, fast-forward to this past week. In writing my weekly Class A football previews, I got to the McBee-East Clarendon match-up. It sure felt like a terribly one-sided game was in the offing, so I offered up the following point of comparison, which managed to be both really dumb and completely age-inappropriate... "Are you like me? Did you like slasher movies when you were a kid? You know how two unclothed people would be about to do what unclothed people do at sketchy co-ed campgrounds, when they'd hear a noise in the closet? You'd yell at them not to open the closet, because there was a crazy guy in there wearing a monkey mask, armed with a power drill or something. This is a terrible analogy, frankly, but East Clarendon SHOULD NOT OPEN THE CLOSET DOOR! They lost to North Central 28-0 last week. McBee has so far beaten a AAA team and two AA teams, including (an) 84-14 flogging of Andrew Jackson. They forced eight turnovers (against AJ), they scored 56 points in the first half, Jordan Fair and Dashonnell Wright could play for any team in the state...and they have that power drill. Scary man." So, once games commenced on Friday night, McBee, quite predictably, began to put up big numbers. By the time they had taken a 48-0 halftime lead on the way to a 67-0 blowout win, several people started to send me drill references and "don't open the door" mentions on Twitter. I couldn't believe it...among people who read my goofy McBee-East Clarendon breakdown, the crazy dude with a power drill had become a thing. I was proud...or not. Maybe horrified, I'm not exactly sure, but once you've got a thing, you should milk it for all it's worth. I should probably be more specific...the power drill comparison was gaining steam, so as with my cousin and crowder peas and my sister and pants, we have to keep the thing going. When I got back to my office after taking in the Lewisville-Indian Land game I was continuing to get "drill" tweets, so I did a quick image search of "power drill massacre." Apparently, there are games, memes and other intraweb stuff built around a power drill massacre. I found what looks like a power drill massacre movie poster. I took that and a McBee Panthers logo and had my friend and very occasional PigskinAndPigskins blogger Jed Blackwell make an intentionally campy graphic out of it. I'm the idea man, you see, and can't be bothered to dirty my hands with "the work." Also, I don't know how and he does, whatever. Anyway, here is the end result. McBee's scary power drill...now you and I, dear reader, have a thing. Calhoun Falls Charter (1-2) at St. Joe's (1-2)
After winning in a shootout over Dixie in Week 0, Calhoun Falls Charter has lost two straight, including last week's 40-18 game to Crescent. The Flashes have given up at least 40 points in each game. It would be funny if their mascot was The Flashers instead of Flashes. They could have a weird dude in a trench coat on the sidelines. That has nothing to do with anything, just an observation. St. Joe's lost to Broome last week 41-14. Southside Christian (2-1) at Dixie (0-3) Southside Christian bears some watching, I think. They've gotten markedly better at baseball and basketball in the last few years and the football team seems to have gotten a drink of that water too. They lost close to AAA Travelers Rest in the opener, but have won two straight since, including a lightning-shortened game to Spartanburg Christian last week. Dixie has struggled, giving up 45 a game. Wagener-Salley (1-1) at Fox Creek (1-1) Wagener-Salley lost to Ridge Spring-Monetta 52-14 last week after opening the year with a victory over Bethune-Bowman. Also they tout their love of chittlins. Off topic here, but I generally don't go for things that have to have poo sprayed out of them before cooking. That's just me, eat what you want. Anyway, Fox Creek got three Caleb Charlton-to-Malik Hightower touchdown passes in the second half to knock off Augusta Christian 45-6. In the process they won a paddle. Is this the kind you spank people with or...wait, I've read more about it. This game every year is called "The Battle for the Paddle" because the schools are right across the river from each other. So the answer is no...not the paddle you administer spankings with. McCormick (0-2) at Ware Shoals (0-2) McCormick was off last week while Ware Shoals was getting hammered by Ninety-Six 62-19 while allowing over 400 rushing yards. They lost the game before that 41-6, while McCormick has lost its two games by a combined score of 96-27. Both still have winnable games against Dixie and Calhoun Falls Charter on the schedule, but this game will be one of the best opportunities each has for a win this season. Blackville-Hilda (1-1) at Ridge Spring-Monetta Ridge Spring-Monetta picked up a blow-out win over Wagener-Salley last week. Blackville-Hilda was 35-6 winner over Denmark-Olar...thus ending everything I have to say about this game that is relevant. Whitmire (2-0) at North (0-2) This feels like a really good opportunity for the Wolverines to move to 3-0 on the year. As I wrote earlier in the week, this represents good scheduling for both schools. When Whitmire was losing 40-some games in-a-row, their out-of-region scheduling featured Indian Land, North Central, Great Falls...teams they didn't realistically have a shot at beating largely because of their small enrollment numbers. Well, the team has gotten better while at the same time they've lined up more like-sized competition on the early-season slate. Whitmire was up 30-0 on Branchville last week when the game was called at halftime because of lightning. For comparison's sake, Whitmire scored 18 points in the entire 2012 season. West Jenkins had three touchdown against Branchville (two rushing, one receiving). North lost to Bethune-Bowman 32-16 last week and dropped a 28-26 decision to that same Branchville team Whitmire scored 30 on in a half...I'm just sayin'. Carolina (0-2) at Christ Church (2-1) I've discussed ad nauseum that Christ Church appears to be down from the form that won it a state-record 55-straight games. They needed a late safety to beat Eastside 15-13 last week...the same Eastside they hung more than 50 on last year. Now they are getting to a stretch of their schedule that is less than challenging. Carolina lost 63-0 to Southside last week. Winless McCormick and Ware Shoals, a private school I've never heard of and a kinda down St. Joe's are coming up. This could be an opportunity for some new starters to grow into their positions, or maybe they'll only appear to against lesser teams. Might be a mirage, subterfuge, the old okie doke, a smokescreen, umm fool's gold? I'm running out, but you get my point here. C.A. Johnson (0-3) at Pelion (0-2) C.A. Johnson didn't fare as badly as I imagined they would last week, falling to Keenan 26-0. They have a good receiver in Malik Sulaimon, who has three touchdowns grabs in three games...the bad part is that's three of the five the team has scored. After the Hornets lost to Eau Claire I pretty well declared their chances of winning a game to be dead, but I might have been wrong. Pelion lost to Gilbert last week 56-6 and that came after they dropped their opener to SCISA member Cardinal Newman 37-6. I'd love to give you details on that game but I know SCISA like I know nuclear fission (I do have a guy for that, though). Pelion has North and Eau Claire still on the schedule, so they may not go winless, but this one could be competitive and, counter to what I thought a few weeks ago, the Hornets have a shot. Andrew Jackson (0-2) at Great Falls (0-3) The Volunteers might still be walking crooked after what happened to them last week. They lost to McBee 84-14, which I assumed meant that McBee stuck it them sideways and on fire. As it turns out, AJ turned the ball over eight times. They actually got a good effort from Heath Gandy, who ran for better than 100 yards and scored two touchdowns. However, the Volunteers have now been outscored 132-14 in two games. Things haven't gone a lot better for Great Falls, which had nine turnovers in a 48-0 loss to Buford last week. The Red Devils are young in lots of spots, most notably on the offensive line and have a young back-up quarterback under center right now. Starting signal-caller Pierce Funderburk is recovering from an injury and should be back after next week's off week. Not sure how to call this one, but I'll take a stab and say turnovers might settle it. Indian Land (2-0) at Lewisville (0-3) I keep saying Lewisville is going to start winning some and I'm inclined to think this might be the night. The Lions got in a big hole early last week after giving up two kick returns and an interception return for touchdowns. However, They battled back to make it a 49-32 final, with Trey Keels throwing for almost 400 yards (a school record) and Mike Hill catching eight balls for 236 yards and three touchdowns (the yardage is a school record...and is also dumb Playstation level stuff). History is on Lewisville's side, with the Lions having beaten the Warriors 20 straight times until last year. Indian Land is much bigger in terms of numbers and size than the Lions. They'll use that to their advantage by pounding it on the ground out of multiple formations, almost exclusively. Still, the competitive losses will start turning to wins for the Lions eventually and tonight could be the night. East Clarendon (0-2) at McBee (3-0) Are you like me? Did you like slasher movies when you were a kid? You know how two unclothed people would be about to do what unclothed people do at sketchy co-ed campgrounds, when they'd hear a noise in the closet? You'd yell at them not to open the closet, because there was a crazy guy in there wearing a monkey mask, armed with a power drill or something. This is a terrible analogy, frankly, but East Clarendon SHOULD NOT OPEN THE CLOSET DOOR! They lost to North Central 28-0 last week. McBee has so far beaten a AAA team and two AA teams, including the aforementioned 84-14 flogging of Andrew Jackson. They forced eight turnovers, they scored 56 points in the first half, Jordan Fair and Dashonnell Wright could play for any team in the state...and they have that power drill. Scary man. Gray Collegiate (2-0) at Calhoun County (2-0) Gray Collegiate was off last week, but racked up big wins over Gilbert and Great Falls to open the 2015 season. Calhoun County is 2-0, but haven't had the toughest early slate, playing Denmark-Olar and Eau Claire. They beat the Shamrocks 34-6 last week behind Terrance Brunson's 168 yards passing and three touchdowns (two rushing). I've seen Gray and was pretty impressed. They don't have much depth at all, but their offensive line opened some big holes in the rushing game and kept quarterback Bryce Fields clean. He was pretty efficient throwing the ball. Should be a good game. Baptist Hill (0-2) at Hunter-Kinard-Tyler (2-1) Baptist Hill was off last week but was blanked in their first two games. Remember how I said last week that small schools like HKT have athlete cycles and perhaps their cycle had ended when I saw that they lost to Cross? Disregard. They routed AA Edisto 44-14 last week. Sophomore quarterback Devante Scott ran for 207 yards and three scores and threw for 106 yards and a touchdown. I'd expect HKT to be 3-1 by late Friday night. Williston-Elko (1-2) at Denmark-Olar (0-3) Williston got its first win of the year (after a couple of lopsided losses) 26-0 last week over Barnwell. Shakur Chisolm ran for 180 yards and two touchdowns in that one. I must say, I had a negative view of Williston after my first visit there because (as I've mentioned before) there was a hostage situation relatively near the stadium that night, plus they went for two up 41, if I remember right. I guess the book said to go for two there, huh? Ah well, time to let it go. Denmark-Olar is 0-3 and the losses have gotten bigger each week. Allendale-Fairfax (3-0) at Edisto (0-3) I don't have a lot of info to share on this one, other than AF beat Garrett Academy Technical School and Deer Cooler 22-14 and has looked good in going 3-0. Edisto is winless and got housed by HKT last week 44-14. To quote PeeWee Herman "connect the dots...la la la." Barnwell (1-1) at Bamberg-Ehrhardt (2-0) Barnwell managed only about 150 total yards in last week's loss to Williston-Elko. They also gave up more than 250 yards on the ground. Adding those two things up doesn't seem to equal "hey, let's go play Bamberg." The Raiders were off last week after opening with two wins. Academic Magnet (2-0) at Branchville (1-1) Academic Magnet sounds like smart kids go there. If so, they must be Stanford kinda smart kids, because they are also good at football, having beat Military Magnet 48-8 last week. I joked last week that those two playing was an attractive match-up...get it? Cuz they're magnets? Upon reflection, if they were turned a certain direction, they would actually repel one another. Dropping some magnet knowledge on you there. What does that have to do with this game? Not a thing. Not a thing in the world. Branchville lost 30-0 to Whitmire in a half last week, so, you know, this might not go well for them. Estill (1-2) at Ridgeland/Hardeeville (0-1) Estill fell to Wade Hampton 33-6 last week. Justin Solomon had a good game running the ball, but the Gators got gashed on the ground. Ridgeland/Hardeeville, from what I can gather, has only played once and they have a very slash in their name, which says "we eschew the overused hyphen" to me. Burke (0-2) at North Charleston (2-0) Burke was shut out by Scott's Branch 40-0 after losing their opener 33-0. North Charleston knocked off R.B. Stall 30-6. Darlington (2-1) at Lamar (2-1) Darlingotn rolled to a 47-20 victory over Cheraw last week behind 250 total yards from tailback Elmo Johnson. Lamar destroyed Timmonsville 50-6 and this feels like the kind of game where the Silver Foxes' very athletic skill talent might make things interesting. In fact, I think Lamar is the most likely Class A team to upset a AAA team this week. Um, I think they're the only Class A team playing a AAA team, so that actually isn't as bold a statement as it may seem. C.E. Murray (3-0) at Cross (1-1) Cross was shut out by Timberland last week 37-0. C.E. Murray stayed unbeaten with a 7-6 win over Hemingway. Lincoln (1-2) at Creek Bridge (0-3) Lincoln, the state's smallest public high school, picked up a 30-0 win over Palmetto Christian Academy last week. Chris George ran for 170 yards and a pair of scores in the victory. This feels like another winnable game for them. Creek Bridge is 0-3 and their closest contest so far was a 42-point loss to Aynor. Military Magnet (0-2) at Garrett Academy Tech (2-1) Military Magnet lost big to the slide rule jockeys (as Lenoard Postosties used to say) of Academic Magnet 48-8 last week. Garrett, after winning its first two, dropped a close one to Allendale-Fairfax last week. St. John's (1-2) at Lake View (1-1) St. John's was only able to muster 100 total yards of offense in a 35-0 loss to Whale Branch last week. Lake View was off, having lost to Dillon their last time out. Hemingway (1-1) at Hannah-Pamplico (0-3) Heningway lost a super close game to C.E. Murray 7-6 last week. Hannah-Pamplico is named like a girl is named...and also lost to Lake City 53-21, giving up over 200 yards rushing TyShawn Baines in the process. Timmonsville (0-3) at Kingstree (0-3) The Whirlwinds took one on the chin...and in the stomach and maybe to the larynx against Lamar last week 50-6. Kingstree lost to Hemingway 24-0, marking their second shutout in three contests. Andrews (2-1) at Carver's Bay (1-1) Andrews dropped a 39-28 game to Georgetown last Friday despite piling up 402 yards of total offense. Carver's Bay was a 20-6 winner over Waccamaw. Quevon Dickerson had two touchdowns for Carver's Bay in the victory. Loris (1-2) at Green Sea-Floyd's (2-1) Green Sea Fell to Aynor 36-14 despite 149 yards and two touchdowns on the ground from Muhammud Graham. Loris beat some team from North Carolina. That's why you come here...for insight and details! Latta was facing Aynor as I posted this, so look it up if you care who won. That's it. The week that will be in Class A football. If you have any insights, info or feedback leave it in the comment section or email me at [email protected] Crescent-40
Calhoun Falls Charter-18 Palmetto-42 Dixie-13 Fox Creek-45 Augusta Christian-6 Southside Christian-3 Spartanburg Christian Academy-0 Ridge Spring-Monetta-52 Wagener-Salley-14 Ninety-Six-62 Ware Shoals-14 Whitmire-30 Branchville-0 Christ Church-15 Eastside-13 Broome-41 St. Joe's-14 Keenan-26 C.A. Johnson-0 Buford-42 Great Falls-0 Chesterfield-49 Lewisville-0 McBee-84 Andrew Jackson-14 Blackville-Hilda-35 Denmark-Olar-6 Calhoun County-34 Eau Claire-6 Hunter-Kinard-Tyler-44 Edisto-14 Bethune-Bowman-32 North-16 Williston-Elko-26 Barnwell-0 Allendale-Fairfax-22 Garrett Academy Tech-14 Wade Hampton-33 Estill-6 Scott's Branch-40 Burke-Nam Lamar-50 Timmonsville-6 Timberland-37 Cross-Not nam Lincoln-30 Palmetto Christian Academy-Nern Academic Magnet-48 Military Magnet-8 Whale Branch-35 St. John's-0 C.E. Murray-7 Hemingway-6 North Central-28 East Clarendon-0 Lake City-53 Hannah-Pamplico-21 Carver's Bay-20 Waccamaw-6 Mullins-44 Creek Bridge-0 Aynor-36 Green Sea-Floyds-14 Dillon-21 Latta-0 Breakdown-We're still in the midst of pre-region football, so many Class A teams are still playing up. Last week, Class A teams posted a respectable 7-15 record against their AA and AAA counterparts. Class A winners in those games included Christ Church over AAA Eastside, McBee over AA Andrew Jackson, Calhoun County against AA Eau Claire (which I almost shouldn't even count), Hunter-Kinard-Tyler over AA Edisto, Williston-Elko over AA Barnwell, Allendale-Fairfax over AA Garrett Academy Tech State A&M and Carver's Bay over AA Waccamaw. A couple of things stuck out about Week 2 in Class A football. The first of those is that Andrew Jackson is probably blind, bow-legged and bleeding from the eyes after the 84-14 beatdown they took from McBee. I wondered momentarily if McBee had played the actual Andrew Jackson...that one guy...the dead one that used to be the president. Seriously, having seen McBee run for nearly 600 yards in a game last year, I couldn't wait to see the stats from this contest, but surprisingly, the numbers weren't as gaudy as I was expecting. McBee scored on defense a couple of times and ran the opening kick-off back for a touchdown. They also had a big, dumb, one-handed, back-handed catch for a score. The Panthers' Dashonnell Wright needs to start getting more attention. He had 114 yards and three touchdowns on 12 carries, he ran a kick-off back for a touchdown and intercepted a pair of passes. He consistently does this against everybody, which I'm pretty sure means he is good. McBee has more than picked up where they left off last year, is big and physical up front, freaky fast at the skill spots, is rightly the number one team in the state in Class A and is, I think, the favorite to win it all this year, provided the kicking-game woes that hurt them last year against Christ Church don't pop up again. My only concern is that schedule-wise, they will only be challenged maybe two times going forward in the regular season. I hate braggarts, especially ones who dislocate their own shoulders patting themselves on the back about something as trivial as correctly predicting the outcomes of games...but I don't like me, so here goes...I TOLD YOU CHRIST CHURCH-EASTSIDE WOULD BE CLOSE. First of all, any Class A team playing a AAA school faces a huge uphill climb...even if they are cherry-picking top-level athletes from around their county and outside their county. I also think the Cavs, right now, aren't as good as they've been during their run of unbeaten seasons. They took out Eastside 51-28 last year, but it was 15-13 this past week and was tied late. They are breaking in some new skill position people and there is a natural learning curve there...they'll be better by the end of the year. Judging from this weekend and the Abbeville game before, I don't know if they're as good up front. We'll see, but the thing is, they don't really play anybody that will test them for the rest of the regular season. They have winless Carolina, Ware Shoals and McCormick still to go and what appears to be a down St. Joe's squad. The best team left on their schedule is Whitmire, probably. It'll be the second round of the playoffs before, most likely, they take on someone actually capable of beating them. Speaking of Whitmire...I couldn't be happier for Whitmire, who is now 2-0 after flogging Branchville 30-0 in a game stopped at halftime because of the weather. Whitmire is among the very smallest schools in the state and it, frankly, sucked watching them go winless year-after-year. Charlie Jenkins arrived at the school last season and guided the Wolverines to a 5-6 record, a quantum leap for a team that had gone more than four years without a single victory. He's obviously doing a great job and he has a bunch of Jenkins kids on the team (I don't know if they're his, but there is an inherant greatness in the Jenkins name) but this reversal of fortunes is also a lesson in good scheduling. You play who you play in your region, you have no control over that, but you do out-of-region. I'm not saying you should schedule Miss Kate's Finishing School for Unathletic Girls every week...challenging yourself is good, but so is being reasonable. When they were mired in their losing streak, Whitmire was playing people like Great Falls, Ridge Spring-Monetta and AA schools in North Central, Indian Land and Mid-Carolina out-of-region. When you have under 140 students, it's not realistic to think you will often win those kinds of match-ups, just based on pure enrollment numbers. The team is now playing Branchville, Calhoun Falls Charter, North and other similarly-sized schools early in the season. That's been part of the story behind Whitmire's turnaround. Quick hits-When I saw that Dillon had only beaten Latta 21-0, I was set to pronounce that Latta was a darkhorse/sleeper ready to make a surprise run in the lowcountry. Then I read that the game was stopped with time left in the first quarter because of lightning. So I guess they figured "Screw it, it's 21-0 already and we ain't beating Dillon anyway." I probably would have too...So, Mike Hill is pretty good. In Lewisville's 49-32 loss to Chesterfield Friday, Hill snagged eight passes for 236 yards and three touchdowns. In three flipping games he has 22 catches for 470 yards and six touchdowns. If you project that out over the whole season, he'd end up with 1,566 yards and 20 touchdowns...Maybe I jumped the gun on predicting a bit of a dip for Hunter-Kinard-Tyler. They are now 2-1 after blowing out Edisto 44-14. Suggested Reading Did you know Whitmire is 2-0? You should have, since I mentioned it already. McBee scored a lot of points and Andrew Jackson didn't, story here. Ninety-Six scored a lot of points and Ware Shoals didn't, story here. In your face inaccurate blog person, HKT won big over AA Edisto. Green Sea-Floyds hung tough, but is no longer undefeated after falling to Aynor. Clicky here. Eastside (1-0) at Christ Church (1-1)
For the first time since 2011, Christ Church will be trying to bounce back from a loss this Friday when they play Eastside. The team's state-record 55-game win streak came to an end last week with 55-14 loss to Abbeville. The streak was going to end at some point and a lot of folks figured it would be last week. Christ Church did turn the ball over six times which probably made the score look more lopsided than the game was. The Cavs are breaking in a new quarterback and some growing pains have to be expected, but the team also coughed it up multiple times the previous week in a closer-than-folks expected game with Lee Central. It also has to be mentioned that Abbeville won the game up front and ran for more than 300 yards. That wasn't the case when Christ Church beat Abbeville last year or when they handled McBee (which is almost a carbon copy of Abbeville) in the playoffs last season. I'm not saying any of this is a reason to panic or think Christ Church won't have an excellent shot to win state again in Division I-A, but I am saying it might be an issue this week. Eastside is not what one would consider a football power, but they are riding high after a 25-0 win over Riverside last week. They didn't put up especially impressive offensive numbers, running for a little over 100 yards and throwing for 90, but the 0 in the 25-0 is the important part here. They held Riverside to less than 100 total yards of offense. They are also a AAA team and those larger numbers make a real difference when playing a Class A team. Could Christ Church be looking to recover from a losing streak next week? I'm not calling it, necessarily, but I'm also saying it isn't out of the realm of possibility. Calhoun Falls Charter (1-1) at Crescent (2-0) After an exciting opening-week win, the Flashes took it on the chin last week, losing to Whitmire 42-6. Crescent, a AA team, is off to a 2-0 start. These teams have one common opponent...Caloun Falls beat Dixie in Week 0 56-49, while Crescent beat them 38-14 last Friday. Palmetto (1-0) at Dixie (0-2) Palmetto, a AAA team, started the season with a 23-19 win over Powdersville. Dixie fell to Crescent last week 38-14. The Hornets have enjoyed some success in other sports in recent years but that has not translated to football victories as of yet. Augusta Christian (1-1) at Fox Creek (0-1) Augusta Christian lost to Laurence Manning Academy 34-6 last week...and not being studied on the intracacies of AAA SCISA athletics, I can offer nothing in the way of critique there. Um, I do have a guy for that, though. Anyway, Fox Creek lost to AAA Dreher 42-13 but it was a competitive game for a half. Early in the second quarter, the awesomely-named Predators actually held a 7-0 lead. Malik Hightower had six catches for 101 yards for the AHNALDS. Ridge Spring-Monetta (0-1) at Wagener-Salley (1-0) RSM had a rough opening week, losing to AA Saluda 42-13. I saw them in the pre-season and was pretty impressed, especially when they went went with their wishbone look on offense. Talking to some people around there, a concern was expressed about the defensive end spots, but I thought they looked good when I watched them. You'll notice a trend with RSM each year recently, being that they start slow and come on strong later in the season. We'll see if that holds to form. Wagener-Salley, in addition to being in close proximity to chittlins, blew out Bethune-Bowman 52-12 last week. Wagener-Salley was 1-9 last year, with their only victory being a narrow one over Bethune-Bowman, who also ended up 1-9. I saw them last year and there was some talent there (and a 300-pound fullback) but they were way young. They also had signs everywhere expressing their fondness for pig innards. Anyway, maybe the team has grown up a little. This one was surprisingly close (17-12) last year given how both teams came out by year's end. Ware Shoals (0-1) at Ninety-Six (1-1) Ware Shoals was off last week after opening the season with a 41-6 loss to Southside. Unfortunately the program, which has a very proud and successful history, didn't win a game last year and hasn't posted a winning season since 2010. Also, I was almost shot with a cannon there once...like on the field, not at some weird reenactment of the Battle for Tumbling Shoals or whatever. Nintey-Six wasn't able to muster much offense at all but scored twice in the kicking game to keep it close in a 23-22 loss to Emerald. Southside Christian (1-1) at Spartanburg Christian Academy (1-1) Southside Christian picked up 55-21 win over McCormick last week. Quintyn Reeder had 206 yards rushing and scored six total touchdowns in that win. Southside Christian did get gashed on the ground despite the big margin of victory. Spartanburg Christian Academy...yeah, I've got a guy for that. Broome (1-1) at St. Joseph's (1-1) Broome had a late rally come up short against Woodruff last week in falling 33-28. The Centurions had two rushers over 100 yards but they couldn't contain Woodruff's passing attack. St. Joseph's beat the Peculiar Generation Lions (I don't know what that is) 44-6. Branchville (1-0) at Whitmire (1-0) A battle of two of the state's smallest high school (both have under 200 students). Branchville notched a 28-26 win over North High School last week. Whitmire rolled over Calhoun Falls Charter 42-6. Six different players scored touchdowns in that win (two of the kids are named Jenkins...no relation that I'm aware of) including Quin "Skeet" Jeter. Hopefully he celebrated with a slawburger and some fries. Is that a dated reference? Am I old? Kentucky Headhunters anybody? Keenan (1-1) at C.A. Johnson (0-2) Keenan lost a shootout to Lower Richland 51-48 last week while C.A. Johnson lost to Eau Claire 21-20. Keenan beat Eau Claire 51-0 in Week 0, so, you know, this may not go well for Hornets. Great Falls (0-2) at Buford (0-1) Great Falls had a rough week, losing to Gray Collegiate 68-0. The team was missing four of its 27 players, then four more were injured during the game. They turned it over early, gave up a kick return and the snowmall just started rolling downhill on them. Buford lost on a last-second field goal 39-38 to Indian Land. They piled up 427 yards of offense including over 200 through the air...which just looks weird for a team that's run the wishbone since fellows named J.R. And W.B. pummelled one another on the gridiron in leather helmets while their coach smoked unfiltered Lucky's on the sidelines. Seems like that long anyway. Chesterfield (1-1) at Lewisville (0-2) The Rams kept it close with McBee until just before the half, then got dusted 47-21. The team has all its skill guys back from last year and score points in a hurry. Lewisville, missing 10 total starters, hung in their and fought hard against Blacksburg before falling 34-18. The Lions will be almost totally up to full strength this week. Lewisville has some dynamic playmakers (Mike Hill being one) and a lot of team speed despite lacking some in size. They play a brutal schedule, but wins are coming soon. Lamar (1-1) at Timmonsville (0-2) Lamar kept it interesting with AAA power Hartsville last week before getting worn down by the superior size and numbers of the Red Foxes and falling 47-12. Tre Ceasar had an 88-yard touchdown run early in that one. That wasn't a game they realistically had much of a shot to win, this week on the other hand...Timmonsville has lost badly to Wilson and North Central in the first two weeks of the season. McBee (2-0) at Andrew Jackson (0-1) With Christ Church's loss to Abbeville, McBee is the new number one ranked team in Class this week. They rolled over a good AA Chesterfield team 47-21 last week. The Volunteers lost 48-0 to AAA Lancaster last Friday and gave up almost 500 total yards in the process. Might expect something similar this week. Denmark-Olar (0-2) at Blackville-Hilda (0-1) Denmark-Olar dropped a 49-22 decision to Calhoun County Friday. Blackville-Hilda was on the wrong end of a 32-18 score against Barnwell last week. Eau Claire (1-1) at Calhoun County (1-0) Congrats to Eau Claire for breaking a years-long losing streak with last week's 21-20 victory over C.A. Johnson. The team made a late goal-line stand to earn the win. Calhoun County beat Denmark-Olar 49-22. Quarterback Terrance Brunsonthrew for 289 yards, ran for 150 and had five total touchdowns for the Saints. Hunter-Kinard-Tyler (1-1) at Edisto (0-2) Is the talent drying up a little HKT? The two-time defending Division II-A champs lost last week to Cross 44-16 and struggled the week before against Denmark-Olar. I hope that isn't the case since I love seeing small schools excel, but at a place with less than 200 students, it only takes one girl with mono to cost you half your O-line. Why did I just write that? Anyway, Edisto does compete in the AA ranks, but they've been blanked 47-0 by Bamberg-Ehrhardt and 44-0 by O-W so far, so this might be a good shot at a W for HKT. North (0-1) at Bethune-Bowman (0-2) North lost to Branchville 28-26 last week while Bethune-Bowman fell to Wagener-Salley 52-12. North won this won 26-22 last season. Lotta depth and insight on this preview boy. Barnwell (1-0) at Williston-Elko (0-2) Barnwell took out Blackville-Hilda 32-18 last week. Williston-Elko dropped a 44-29 decision to Silver Bluff. I went to a game at Williston once and there was a hostage situation at a building relatively near the school. There's nothing quite like an armed stand-off to make you want to be a repeat visitor to an area. Garrett Academy Tech (2-0) at Allendale-Fairfax (2-0) G.A.T....I'm going to call them G.A.T. because their name is too long, has won its first two games by shutout. A.F. (less words but still too many) picked up a 22-8 triumph over Wade Hampton last week. The teams have one common opponent...G.A.T. beat Baptist Hill 34-0, A.F. Took them down 52-0...as if this mean anything. Estill (1-1) at Wade Hampton (1-1) Estill knocked off AA Battery Creek 14-7 last week after forfeiting their opener to Porter-Gaud for whatever reason. Wade Hampton lost to Allendale-Fairfax 22-8. Estill won this match-up 18-14 last week but you can throw out the records when these two tangle...actually they have the same record, so you could throw them out anyway, technically. Burke (0-1) at Scott's Branch (0-2) Burke was off last week after losing in the opener to G.A.T. Scott's Branch lost to Manning 53-12. They also scored 12 points in their opening week loss, so they're consistent. That's a pretty lame stat. I need a Scott's Branch guy. Is there one? Cross (2-0) at Timberland (0-1) Cross had a big win over HKT last week 44-16. Timberland lost to Hanahan 44-19...and is a purveyor of fine work boots. Is that not the same Timberland? I've been reduced to boot humor...moving on. Lincoln (0-2) at Palmetto Christian Academy (0-1) I have very little insight to offer here. Not even feeble attempts at footwear puns. Lincoln lost to C.E. Murray 51-20 last week, while P.C.A. lost to Porter Gaud 43-8. Military Magnet (0-1) at Academic Magnet (1-0) This is a very attractive match-up...see, because both have "magnet" in their name. HAHAHAHA!!!!!! Military Magnet lost to North Charleston 52-8 last week, while Academic Magnet was off after opening the year in Week 0 with a win over Lincoln. Whale Branch (0-1) at St. John's (1-1) St. John's blew out AAA R.B. Stall 54-8 last week. Whale Branch fell to Hilton Head 49-7. Stephon Euguene actually scored an early touchdown to give Whale Branch a lead in that game. Things didn't go quite so well after that. Hemingway (1-1) at C.E. Murray (2-0) C.E. Murray beat Lincoln 51-20 last Friday night, while Hemingway was beating Kingstree 24-nern. North Central (2-0) at East Clarendon (0-1) The Knights program has been struggling for many years, but is off to a 2-0 start after last week's 42-22 victory over Timmonsville. They were 0-2 at this time last year before beating East Clarendon 28-6. East Clarendon, went down to Green Sea-Floyds 16-14. Hannah-Pamplico (0-2) at Lake City (2-0) HP was a 26-13 loser to Waccamaw last week, while Lake City beat Lakewood 49-28. Waccamaw (1-1) at Carver's Bay (0-1) Carver's Bay lost to Johnsonville (which has a funny sausage-like name) 29-19 last Friday. Waccamaw triumphed over Hannah-Pamplico 26-13. Mullins (0-2) at Creek Bridge (0-2) Both teams have gotten strapped both times out this year. Creek Bridge has lost its two games 60-6 and 48-6. Mullins has lost by scores of 69-14 and 40-8. Green Sea-Floyds (2-0) at Aynor (1-0) Aynor was a 48-6 winner over Creek Bridge last week and had five different players score touchdowns. G.S.F. Has picked up a pair of close wins to start the year. Their win last week over East Clarendon was their first home victory since 2012 and they're 2-0 for the first time since 2010. Anthony Wilson ran for 132 yards a pair of scores in the win. Latta (1-0) at Dillon (2-0) Latta beat Mullins 40-8 last week but, you know, playing at Dillon feels like a bad idea. It's like setting yourself on fire...sure you can roast weenies over your feet, but it's going to hurt really bad. Perhaps the worst analogy ever made there. Alright, that's the week that will be in Class A football. You'll notice there is still an upstate bias of sorts because of my lack of expertise where lowcountry Class A is concerned. If you have comments, observations or boot jokes, leave them in the comment section or email me at [email protected]. I especially welcome insight on games where I'm reduced to making jokes about people setting themselves on fire. Whitmire-42
Calhoun Falls Charter-6 Crescent-38 Dixie-14 Dreher-38 Fox Creek-13 Southside Christian-55 McCormick-21 Saluda-55 Ridge Spring-Monetta-13 Abbeville-55 Christ Church-14 St. Joseph's-44 Peculiar Generation Lions-6 Eau Claire-21 C.A. Johnson-20 Gray Collegiate Academy-68 Great Falls-0 Blacksburg-34 Lewisville-18 Hartsville-47 Lamar-12 McBee-47 Chesterfield-21 Barnwell-32 Blackville-Hilda-18 Calhoun County-42 Denmark-Olar-22 Cross-44 Kunter-Kinard-Tyler-16 Branchville-28 North-26 Wagener-Salley-52 Bethune-Bowman-12 Silver Bluff-44 Williston-Elko-29 Allendale-Fairfax-22 Wade Hampton (the one down yonder, not up thisa way)-8 Bamberg-Ehrhardt-47 Edisto-0 Estill-14 Battery Creek-7 Garrett Academy Tech-34 Baptist Hill-0 C.E. Murray-51 Lincoln-20 North Charleston-52 Military Magnet-8 St. John's-54 R.B. Stall-8 Green Sea-Floyds-16 East Clarendon-14 Waccamaw-26 Hannah-Pamplico-13 Manning-52 Scott's Branch-12 North Central-42 Timmonsville-22 Johnsonville-29 Carver's Bay-19 Aynor-48 Creek Bridge-6 Hemingway-24 Kingstree-Nam Dillon-49 Lakeview-6 Latta-40 Mullins-8 Breakdown As is always the case this time of year, a lot of Class A teams are playing up as a way to build playoff points, improve gate receipts with regional rivals or just fill a spot with whoever is willing to play them. Class A schools were 7-17 against higher classes this past week. Thirteen of the losses were to AA teams (I'm counting Gray Collegiate over Great Falls as a AA loss since Gray is an associate league member and currently has AA numbers) and four were to AAA schools. The seven Class A winners in those games were McBee over AA Chesterfield, Allendale-Fairfax over AA Wade Hampton, Bamberg-Ehrhardt over AA Edisto, Estill over AA Battery Creek, St. John's over AAA R.B. Stall, Hemingway over AA Kingstree and Latta over AA Mullins. Obviously, the story of the week not just in Class A but in high school football in this state was the end of Christ Church's 55-game winning streak with their 55-14 loss to Abbeville Friday. They'd won 55 straight, they gave up 55, that's kismet or someone in the great celestial football hereafter demonstrating a sense of humor...or a dumb coincidence. Probably that last thing I said. I don't think the end result was a shock as I and others predicted the state-record run would come to a halt, but I don't think anyone would have expected that the team would lose by 41 points, even to a AA Abbeville squad that is obviously back in full force after a pair of atypical losing seasons. Look, I've howled and hollered for a long time about what I and others perceive as unfair advantages that private schools enjoy over their public counterparts (no really, I have) and I may have sent a semi-celebratory tweet when the final score came in, but even their critics (people like me) have to stand back and marvel at a team that hasn't lost (or even played many close games) since early 2011. They've won four straight state titles and their run was the second-longest active streak in the country. However they might've gotten there, Christ Church not only won week-after-week for four years, they dealt with ever-increasing attention, acclaim and expectations the longer they went without a loss. Think of it this way...there is not a player on their roster who had ever lost a varsity football game before last week. I actually had a coach tell me they thought a loss might be the best thing that could happen to the Cavs. Maybe you start to take little things for granted when you never lose, maybe you feel like it's starting to come too easy and a loss re-focuses you and makes you realize that the 55 games are over and done and mean nothing going forward. It definitely takes the pressure off. I've read some speculation that Christ Church had an especially bad night and it was the perfect storm of opponent, mistakes (they had six turnovers) and the law of averages catching up with them. I don't think that's the case. Abbeville is very good, to be sure, but I think we need to wait a few weeks and watch Christ Church. How do they respond to being on the receiving end of a sound kicking for once? And, I'm going to just throw this out there...maybe they aren't quite as good as they've been in past years. I haven't studied them closely, maybe they're breaking in some new starters and will gain steam as the season goes along. It should be noted they struggled somewhat in their opener against what is traditionally not a very strong Lee County team. It was a much closer game than it was last year. Not only did Abbeville take advantage of a bunch of turnovers, they also ran for more than 300 yards. I saw Christ Church against McBee in person last year. That McBee team was built a lot like Abbeville...big up front, centered around a power running game with speed to burn in the backfield. It was a closer game that the score would make it sound (Christ Church broke it open and won it in the kicking game) but the Cavs won 35-8. They were good enough in their front seven defensively to totally bottle up an offense that had averaged over 50 points a game during the season. That wasn't the case Friday. I think it is at least possible (though maybe not likely) that Christ Church could have a streak in the absolute opposite direction. They are playing AAA Eastside this week. Certainly not a traditional football power, but Eastside will come in on a high after beating Riverside 25-0 last week. Christ Church won this contest last year, but it was a fairly competitive 51-28 game. In terms of pure numbers, there's a mighty big difference between a Class A school and a AAA team. File under "I'm just sayin'." Other things that caught my eye included that McBee win over Chesterfield. I haven't read any accounts of the game, but I know it was close for a half or so before McBee blew it open. From what I've heard, the Rams are very formidable on offense this year with Dalton Rivers back at quarterback (threw for 3,000-ish yards last year) and the top two receivers returning as well. Rivers split time at quarterback in the game (not sure if it was injury or ineffectiveness) and the Rams did manage right at 250 yards in the air. McBee picked off two passes, though, and held Chesterfield to negative 29 yards on the ground. As much attention as Fair, Wright and the rest of the Panther offensive studs receive, that defense is mighty salty too. I think Lewisville could prove to be a test, but the Panthers could conceivably not be really fully challenged until the regular season finale against Lamar. Speaking of Lamar, they gave a very good AAA Hartsville team some fits in the first half. They trailed only 13-6 just before the half, but got worn down by the Red Foxes (YOU BIG DUMMY) in the second half on the way to a 47-12 loss. Tre Ceaser, who could play for pretty much anybody, ripped off an 88-yard touchdown for the Silver Foxes. If you start looking at the early returns, Lamar would appear to be a favorite in the upperstate Division II-A race right now. Quick hits- I'm super happy for Whitmire, who routed Calhoun Falls Charter 42-6 last week to open the season. That means that after losing 40-some games in a row prior to last season, the Wolverines have won six of their past 12 and can make it seven of 13 against Branchville this Friday...The record doesn't show it yet, but Lewisville is an improved football team. With nine defensive starters out (one injured, eight suspended for coming on the field during a brief scuffle against Chester the week before) they hung right with a whopperjack-sized AA Blacksburg team. Mike Hill has scored all four of his team's offensive touchdowns this year. He's equally dangerous at receiver or running back. Their schedule is brutal, but watch these Lions, especially when highly-touted defensive lineman Josh Belk comes back from injury...Is the run starting to dry up for HKT? A coach told me once that when you dip below 200 students, you can't win state in anything. HKT disproved that the past two years by winning the little Class A football crown. It was a terrific two-year run and a great statement for small school football. It was a little surprising that they struggled with Denmark-Olar last week (winning by a touchdown) but they were thumped 44-16 by a Cross team they handled last year on Friday. I don't know a whole lot about that program, other than they have a new coach this year. Maybe it will take a while for his system to settle in, or it's possible they went through a good cycle of athletes that have graduated. I don't know the answer (would love to hear from an HKT fan or expert) but small schools have ebbs and flows in terms of talent. I remember a former coach at North High School telling me once his numbers were way down because two-thirds of his school's 210 students were girls. Total genetic crapshoot. That made it pretty easy for boys at North to find prom dates, I imagine, but made it hard for them to win football games. HKT bears some watching in the next few weeks...With their last-second 21-20 loss to Eau Claire Friday (which broke a lengthy losing streak for the Shamrocks) it is getting difficult to find potential wins for C.A. Johnson. They play a load of AA and AAA teams around the Columbia-area. I think maybe they're made to, which is super, super sucky. It would behoove them out of region to schedule Whitmire, Calhoun Falls Charter, Dixie et al. Those would be competitive games they would have a shot at winning unlike when they play Keenan and Dreher. CHRIST CHURCH LOST...have you heard? The Greenville News can tell you all about it here...or read in the Index Journal about Southside Christian beating McCormick or Saluda handling RSM. Read what you what you want. I'm not the boss of you. Lamar hung right with Hartsville for a half Friday night. Get all clickity here for details. One of those Class A over AA upsets was sprung by Hemingway...so there's that. Lewisville had a close loss on the road to Blacksburg Friday. Great Falls had a rough night at Gray. |
TravisI am Travis, the king 0f SC 1A Football Archives
November 2021
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