McCormick (2-3) at Calhoun Falls Charter (0-5)
I think if you are realistic, 2-3 is a heck of a record for the Chiefs, given who they've played. Last week they drilled Allendale-Fairfax behind a big rushing night from Mataeo Durant, which is pretty much the only kind of nights he has on the football field. CFC's 27-8 loss to Christ Church actually led me to call a friend and ask "holy crapballs how far has Christ Church fallen off when a 1A school with 13 players is giving them that kind of game?" I was then told the lights went out that night in about the second quarter...which makes sense, what with Calhoun Falls being so close to Georgia and all. That was lame and I'm sorry and I won't do it again. Anyway, so that wasn't quite as competitive as th score makes it appear. It's in no way abstract to think that the Chiefs could run the regular season table from here on out. Ware Shoals (1-5) at Whitmire (2-4) Since beating Great Falls a few weeks back, Ware Shoals was upended by Greenwood Christian and lost last week to Crescent. Someone who has seen them told me it seems like they run a little of everything offensively trying to see what works or get a spark, but that's been a particular area of struggle. Even in their one win, they didn't manage 100 yards of offense. Whitmire offered up a very game effort last week before falling to the Mr. T Haircuts 46-30. The Wolverines are young but are well-coached, play hard and have some nice skill players, especially Jaylen Brown. If you look at their body of work so far, they lose (sometimes in competitive fashion) to goo tams and take care of business against ones that ar struggling, so... McBee (0-5) at Lewisville (5-1) This is a big game for several reasons. It's the region opener, obviously, but the loser of this one is behind the 8-ball a bit in terms of making the playoffs since both still have top-ranked Lamar and a very improved Timmonsville on the horizon. It's not a stretch that whoever totes an L tonight might not make the playoffs, something that would have seemed ridiculous to say before the year started. It's hard to know what McBee really has because of the schedule they've played, which has been chock full of AA and AAAA teams. Of course, it's the same slate of teams they played and beat last year. They had tremendous losses to graduation. Believe it or not, they Wrights are so procreative, there actually is still one on hand in Tyrece. He isn't big but is explosive. Shane Hammonds is another big play waiting to happen. The Panthers will actually get out of the bone on occasion and spread it a little, a notion that makes my face hurt. On defense they still bring the house, but maybe don't have the scary athleticism and experience on the back end they have in the past few seasons. After very lopsided losses in he first three weeks, it does appear they've played better the past few times out. Hey lost to Pageland by three and were 14-14 with Mullins in the second half last week before the bottom sort of dropped out. Lewisville rolled over C.A. Johnson last week behind a huge game from the constantly improving Rhett Cox, who went for 257 in the air and three scores. Mikial Fourney and Johnny Courtney both went over 100 yards receiving and Quentin Sanders did crazy, football-ninja Quentin Sanders stuff. That was the first game this year with the entire offensive line healthy and together…that lasted about a half before all-state guard Quay Simpson got hurt. Fourney and Josh Belk played out of their minds on defense. This is an important game and I’ll be there live tweeting (@CNR_Sports for those who’d like to follow along). Great Falls (0-4) at Timmonsville (3-3) I’ve had this vibe for a while and I’m ready to pronounce it now…Timmonsville is good. They just rogered Scott’s Branch last week after nearly upsetting Hannah-Pamplico the week before. They are throwing it a little more this year and doing so pretty effectively. QB Jamaric Morris has a 666 yards passing with 10 scores. He’s also a big-time running threat, with 382 yards and three touchdowns on the ground. His favorite target is Chris Taylor, who has 510 receiving yards and averages an eye-popping 25.5 yards-per-catch. They also run the ball very well, with Tyquan Eaddy averaging over nine yards pop. Great Falls has some good skill talent, but it is VERY young. They were without a couple of linemen last week who will hopefully be back for this one. Again, this is an important game with both having McBee, Lewisville and Lamar down the road. Hunter-Kinard-Tyler (1-4) at Blackville-Hilda (2-3) The annual battle for the old oaken hyphen should be an interesting match-up with a HUGE contrast in styles. HKT has an athletic QB in Devante Scott who makes big plays with his arm and his legs. After starting 0-4 against a rugged schedule, they tied one on Estill and made them wear it home. B-H, on the other hand, has a big line, some big backs and a big quarterbacks and will just try flog you until you tire of big people hitting you and slowly submit to their vicious will (I have no idea WTH I just said there). After losing to the Chitlinville Express last week, B-H needs this one to avoid a 1-2 region start. Denmark-Olar (1-4) at Ridge Spring-Monetta (2-3) So this would be the golden hyphen championship? So many punctuation marks in Region III, man. Denmark, after scoring 12 points in its first four games (all lopsided losses) put it to winless North last week 30-0. Good for the Vikings, who have struggled for a quite a while…and will again…I’d guess starting tonight against an RSM team that gave Williston-Elko a heck of a battle before falling 21-7 last week. This team is better than its record shows and it’s not out of the realm that they could win out, or at least go 4-1 with a loss to Chitlinburg thrown in. North (0-4) at Estill (0-5) Not being dismissive or flippant at all, but one of these teams gets to win a game tonight and that’s awesome. Williston-Elko (3-2) at Wagener-Salley (5-0) Huge game, maybe the biggest in the upstate this week. W-E is coming off a hard-fought victory over RSM last week. They haven’t really put up the kind of offensive numbers we’re used to from them this year, but in an age of whoopdy doo, slapnanny (a word I just made up), five-wide chuckfests, there is nothing wrong with running the ball (which they do well) and playing good defense. Speaking of running the ball and playing defense, I present the Chitlin Warriors. In their last three outings (against good offenses from HKT, The Mr. T Haircuts and Blackville-Hilda) W-S has allowed six points total. Tre Davis had 161 yards on the ground and three touchdowns last week against B-H and I now consider this team a legit contender. This will be a physical war, it will be like watching two mules have a “let’s kick each other in the face” contest, and with the way they both run the ball, it might take an hours to complete. Baptist Hill (4-0) at the Charleston Lowcountry Academy for Frog Gigging and Turf Management The Bobcats, in that past two weeks, have proven that they belong in the lowerstate contender conversation. Corey Fields is a scary, unstoppable football robot with amazing wheels and a bazooka for an arm. He had plenty of excellent targets and they can really play some defense. The Riptide are winless and have scored eight points since their opener so, you know, I feel like this one might not go well for them. Military Magnet (0-5) at St. John’s (3-2) Military Magnet has shown they can put some points on the board, but have struggled defensively. St. John’s is likely to be an ornery bunch after two straight losses. This will be the first Class A opponent for the Islanders and this might end up being a stat-padder kind of evening for QB Kam Smiley and company. Branchville (4-1) at Scott’s Branch (2-3) Don’t let these records fool you. Branchville, wisely, has dialed their schedule back a bit the last two years, which makes sense for a struggling program that wants to take a step forward. Those four wins have come against teams with a combined one victory. One, singular, win. Scott’s Branch has an impressive scalp on their belt in the form of shutting out Bamberg-Ehrhardt, but lost to Edisto and Timmonsville the past two weeks. This feels like a “back on track “ game for them. C.E. Murray (3-2) at Cross (2-2) This is a huge game for a number of reasons. For one (not to discount the Mr. T Haircuts or Scott’s Branch), the winner emerges as the favorite to win the region. Last week, C.E. Murray gave Hemingway the only real test they’ve had so far this season but still fell 56-35. Elijah Bey threw for 279 and four scores, Darius Rush scored because of course he did, but they’re now saddled with two losses (though none in the region). Cross bounced back from a last-second, why does the universe hate and curse us, loss to Baptist Hill with a blowout of lake Marion last week. This will be another contrast of styles match-up, with the War Eagles increasingly (and effectively) going to the air and Cross just going the physical violence rout, slamming Nate Davis and a bevy of other backs at you and daring you to stop them. This one has big implications and should be enormously entertaining. Green Sea-Floyds (3-2) at Lake View (4-1) This is an opportunity for GS-F to do as the Chitlinmen and Baptist Hill have done in recent weeks. The Trojans have rolled over three not-very-good teams and lost agonizingly close to two pretty good AA teams. They have Shaquille Johnson who recently scored five touchdowns IN A DADGUM QUARTER and an excellent rushing attack in general. They’ve allowed only 33 points in five games. The defending state champ Wild Gators have been efficient and have played well since the opening loss to Latta, but aren’t putting up the kind of stats they did last year, where you are certain a drunk person stole Joe Hughes’ phone and was just tweeting silly, made-up stuff. For either team this is a quality win, but for Green Sea, it can be the signature win they’ve been looking for for a while. Creek Bridge (0-5) at Hannah-Pamplico (3-2) H-P has been a little up-and-down this year, but this figures to be one of the “up” weeks. East Clarendon (0-5) at Hemingway (5-0) Not to be ugly, but can you start a game with a running clock?
0 Comments
Christ Church- 27
Calhoun Falls- 8 Dixie- 35 Greenwood Christian- 7 McCormick- 28 Allendale-Fairfax- 12 Crescent- 40 Ware Shoals- 7 Bethune-Bowman- 46 Whitmire- 30 North Central- 47 Great Falls- Had they recorded 24 safeties, they would have emerged victorious. Lamar- 17 Crestwood- 8 Lewisville- 42 C.A. Johnson- 14 Mullins- 49 McBee- 14 Timmonsville- 52 Scott’s Branch- 16 Wagener-Salley- 28 Blackville-Hilda- Ain’t Denmark-Olar- 30 North- Got Hunter-Kinard-Tyler- 38 Estill- Nam Williston-Elko- 21 Ridge Spring-Monetta- 7 Baptist Hill- 48 North Charleston- 18 Mrs. Garrett’s Academy- 32 Charleston Charter School for Firework Stand Management and Deer Cooler Maintenance- 8 R.B. Stall- 29 Military Magnet- 13 The O.C.- 28 St. John’s- 14 Branchville- 7 Palmetto Somebodyoranothers- 6? No. Little Lower. 3? You’re getting warmer… Hemingway- 56 C.E. Murray- 35 Cross- 38 Lake Marin- I misspelled their name on purpose…there is no “O.” Get it? HAHAHAHA!!!! Green Sea-Floyds- 53 Camden Military- Daddy is running out of creative means of conveying nothing. Hannah-Pamplico- 41 Waccamaw- 35 (OT) Breakdown- The last week of the Class A season that will feature a lot of “up” games was a good one. Class A teams posted a 6-6 record against the bigger boys last Friday. None were shockers, but the most attention-grabbing was Lamar’s victory over Crestwood. Lamar beating anybody, even a AAAA team with a winning record like Crestwood, is just kind of expected at this point. Saying the Silver Foxes are dominant is like saying “hey, here’s a tip for you, dropping lit matches in your britches burns like the dickens.” What makes it noteworthy is how Lamar won. They forced a turnover that set up one early score, blocked a punt and returned it for a touchdown, then just kinda sat on the ball and kicked Crestwood in the throat for the rest of the game, allowing just one score, which came in the second half. Not only are they good, they’re good enough to get an early lead on a AAAA team, know two scores is probably plenty and just chew clock and put not much of anything on film. Consider that since yielding 21 to Hannah-Pamplico in the opener, they’ve given up 20 points in the last five games combined and that has come against two AAAA teams, a pair of AA squads and East Clarendon. Now, the top-ranked Silver Foxes get a week off to prepare for what appears to be the only challenge they have left, that being Lewisville…I’m not a bragger, so I always hesitate to do “I told you so,” so, let’s just say that some blog that focuses on 1A football, meat and imparts wisdom like “fire inside your pants is uncomfortable” predicted McCormick had a pretty good chance to take down Allendale-Fairfax. Well they did, behind Mataeo Durant’s 151 rushing yards and two touchdowns. One of those was a 55-yarder which I found a highlight of. He didn’t necessarily get good blocking, he took a deep handoff, bounced aside and literally ran away from A-F’s defense. His speed is fairly stunning. It looked like small children chasing a bottle rocket, complete with burn marks and prolonged fits of weeping. I think if you’d told any McCormick fan they’d be 2-3 at this point of the schedule, they’d have taken that, given how tough their non-region slate was. Now you look forward and see that, aside from a final non-region contest against Columbia in a few weeks, they’ll likely be a heavy favorite in every game…Since last year I’ve portrayed Baptist Hill as an attractive female with bad breath or weird neck tats. They were great to look at, but there was a flaw, I reasoned. For all the insane, scoreboard-busting they did, they generally beat up on teams that weren’t very good and lost to teams that were. Well, now that girl has purchased some Scope and wears turtlenecks. They got the respect-demanding quality victory they’d lacked by beating Cross and last week’s victory over previously unbeaten North Charleston enhanced that resume. QB Corey Fields, at this point, deserves serious all-star game and Mr. Football consideration. He had 357 through the air, 86 on the ground and five total touchdowns Friday. In four games, he has over 1,600 total yards. I found some highlights and he is not Dinky McCheckdown, just flipping out short passes that receivers do something with. He has a big arm and they throw it down the field. You know his name, but his supporting cast demands recognition as well. Richard Bailey had 174 yards receiving and two scores and Jay Burnell ran for 120, caught 140 yards worth of passes and scored three times. The defense also had another solid week. October 6 against St. John’s at home will be for a region championship…the other “up” winners weren’t surprising. Lewisville got 254 yards passing from Rhett Cox, 136 on the ground from Quentin Sanders and what almost qualified as simple assault by Josh Belk and Mikial Fourney (11 TFLs combined) on defense…Cross very predictably blew out Lake Marion, with Nate Walker running for 179 yards and two touchdowns. He also blocked a punt and recovered it for a score, which frankly has to suck if your Lake Marion. “I can’t tackle him and now he’s chasing me make him stop!” They enter a very tough stretch now that will see them play C.E. Murray, The Mr. T Haircuts and Scott’s Branch in the next four weeks…Hannah-Pamplico beat Waccamaw but remains a conundrum, shrouded in intrigue, marinated in questions, cooked on the grill of uncertainty and served up at the “Do What?” bar and grill. They enjoyed a 35-7 second half lead, then gave up 28 unanswered points to the winless Warriors and nearly gave up the whole game, needing a late goal line stand to even force overtime. In week one, H-P looked like a contender, giving Lamar a heck of a game, but have since struggled with Timmonsville, were beaten by the Sausages and now nearly blew a 28-point lead in just over a quarter…The biggest game of the week was Hemingway vs. C.E. Murray and it appeared to live up to the billing, ending with the Tigers taking a 56-35 lead. I haven’t seen any accounts of this one (if you were there I’d love some details) but I do know that Elijah Bey threw for 279 yards a four touchdowns for the War Eagles and that Darius Rush scored a touchdown, which is the least surprising development in ever. Hemingway, though, got 300 total yards and five scores from QB Troy Singletary. To do that to a defense of C.E. Murray’s quality says quite a lot. They’ve only played two moderately competitive games (both against very good teams) and their lowest point output has been 46 points. Even though they’d decimated several AA teams, some of them weren’t very good, so I wanted to see them against someone I know is talented and playing well like the War Eagles before I rendered a final judgment. Now that they not only won that game but won it by three touchdowns, they have established themselves as the team to beat in the lowcountry, though other tests lie ahead...I was also withholding the “contender” tag from Wagener-Salley, but I’m now awarding it to the boys from Chitlinland. Blackville-Hilda is in no way flashy, but they are big up front and play the same brand of “cram it down your throat” football that guys named Clem and W.E. played while wearing leather helmets and smoking in the huddle. To not only stand toe-to-toe with them physically, but to beat them at their own game is impressive. That came on the heels of shutting down two athletic, dynamic quarterbacks the previous two weeks against HKT and the Mr. T Haircuts. Tre Davis ran for 161 yards and three touchdowns in the win. W-S has a winning formula, which is to run the ball, bleed the clock dry and not let you score. Playing them is like watching someone get put in the sleeper hold. Sure, you’d rather see someone knocked out by a flying burrito or Russian sickle or a slingshot suplex, but they’re going to be just as unconscious and beaten when it’s over. Other than the opening rout of Whitmire, they’ve scored between 22 and 30 points a game and they’ve allowed 25 points total. Now 5-0, the Stump Whooped All-Stars have a huge game against Williston-Elko this week. With W-E having won a tough 21-7 game against Ridge Spring-Monetta this past week, that game could be a de facto region championship showdown…I was a little surprised to see The OC take down St. John’s Friday, but there are a couple of things to keep in mind on that one. For one, The OC is a larger school than St. John’s, so it’s basically like playing up. For another, the Islanders have played perhaps the toughest schedule of anyone in the lowcounrty and The OC has a transfer QB who will be playing Division I football next year. They finally get a 1A opponent this week in Military Magnet. Poll Time! After last week’s very timely jokes about the Facts of Life and Benson, let’s skip the show pony aspect of things and just show you my votes for the 1A top 10, followed by the S.C. Prep Media Poll… 1. Lamar 2. Hemingway 3. Lewisville 4. Lake View 5. Wagener-Salley 6. Baptist Hill 7. C.E. Murray 8. Williston-Elko 9. Cross 10. St. John’s 1. Lamar (12) 2. Hemingway 3. Lewisville (1) 4. Lake View 5. Wagener-Salley 6. Williston-Elko 7. Baptist Hill 8. C.E. Murray 9. St. Johns 10. Bethune-Bowman Suggested Reading… That girl’s flossed and bought Tic Tacs and the whole nine, y’all. You can read about HKT getting a big win and see other game capsules here, or can keep being a big fat loser who doesn’t listen to anybody else. What do I care? Bottle rockets are no longer legal in our state. I mean, I can probably still go find M-80s if I really want them, but what’s basically a snap-pop on a stick is a no-no. Explain that to me, somebody! You can read about Lewisville here, but always take this guy’s crap with a GIANT grain of salt. If the documentary ends up being called “The OC” I totally want credit. Thoughts, suggestions, invitations to take a flying leap…leave them in the comment section, tweet me at @CNR_Sports or email me at [email protected]. Christ Church (2-3) at Calhoun Falls Charter (0-4)
The Cavs have found the sledding a little tough in AA and they’ve played a fairly brutal out-of-region slate. They did notch a win over Riverside last week and they can put up points (50 a game in their two wins), but they’ve allowed 64, 55 and 55 in three losses. The Flashes lost to Southside Christian 48-8 last week and lost Spartanburg Christian a few weeks before that, so, you know, this probably isn’t going to go well for them. Dixie (3-2) at Greenwood Christian (3-1) Dixie bounced back from the snot-wringing (I just made that up) they endured the week before against Southside Christian with a 28-6 win over Spartanburg Christian Academy. The thing is, that was a one-score game well into the third quarter and SCA dressed 14 kids for that game. You figure Dixie, even with injuries in the secondary, has enough to outlast Greenwood Christian here…but keep in mind the Hawks did knock off Ware Shoals last week, so this IS NOT a gimmie. Allendale-Fairfax (1-3) at McCormick (1-3) Going into the season, you would’ve considered this a game where McCormick was trying to toughen itself up and get ready for region play. A game where they anticipated going in that they’d get their noses bloodied. Maybe end up with a black eye…karate chopped in the uvula…you get my point. I’m going to say, though, this is not an unwinnable game. The Tigers opened with a win over Estill (though not a blowout) but have dropped three straight since then. That hasn’t been against a creampuff schedule, but still, they’ve given up more than 40 points twice. Not something you’re used to seeing. They got torched for 340 passing yards last week by North Charleston’s Yancey Washington, but gave up some big gainers on the ground too. So McCormick, with a dynamic athlete like Mataeo Durant, has at least a puncher’s chance. Ware Shoals (1-4) at Crescent (2-2) The good news for Ware Shoals was that they scored more touchdowns last week (three) than they had in their first four games combined (two). The bad news was they still lost to Greenwood Christian, so traveling to the greater Starr and Iva communities to play a AAA team is likely to be a less-than-successful venture. Whitmire (2-3) at Bethune-Bowman (4-1) I’m not an “I told you so” type of guy, so I’ll again just mention that SOME blog that focuses on 1A football and meat and makes up terms like “snot-wringing” told you Whitmire was going to take out previously-unbeaten Branchville last week. Jaylen Brown, who is an excellent athlete, scored three touchdowns in that one, while Trey Lyles scored twice for the Wolverines. The task this week is considerably tougher. The Mr. T Haircuts, aside from in their loss to Wagener-Salley, have put up bonkers offensive stats every week. QB Braxton Wedgeworth III, Esq., didn’t have his normal gaudy numbers last week against C.A. Johnson (though he did hit 6-of-6 passes) but he didn’t have to. Makiah Simmons had 22 carries for 203 yards and three touchdowns. I’ve seen some of his highlights and he looks like a wheelbarrow full of bricks rolling down a hill…maybe one with a gun turret and a bumper made of broken glass. I tend to lean to the Mr. T Haircuts, given Whitmire’s youth, but never underestimate these Wolverines and their will to fight to the final whistle…and make things interesting with onside kicks. North Central (1-3) at Great Falls (0-3) I keep thinking the Red Devils are on the verge of breaking out of their losing streak that now dates back almost two full years. I think that again this week. Great Falls has some seriously athletic playmakers on this team, but they are very young. Kelton Talford is, I’m sure, 11 feet tall by now (he looks like he’s grown every time I see him). He’s got three touchdowns catches in three games. One of the big problems has been turnovers, but they were off last Friday, so I’m sure they’ve spent two weeks focusing on ball security. North Central opened with a close win over Eau Claire, but have gotten hammered the last three times out. They are coached by former NFL DB Tyrone Drakeford. Last week, his team had negative 22 yards rushing on 28 attempts. That wasn’t skewed by a big loss on a fumble or bad snap, either. AJ stuffed them at or behind the line on 20 of their carries. They have what looks like an athletic QB with a live arm in Bubba Williamson (whose name makes him sound like a professional bass fisherman) but he was out last week with a concussion, so no telling if he’ll play this week. I expect a pretty good game here (I’ll be at this contest and live-tweeting at @CNR_Sports for those he may want to follow along). Lamar (5-0) at Crestwood (3-2) Hand it to Lamar, they don’t line up a bunch of tomato cans they can easily knock over out of region. The top-ranked Silver Foxes face their second AAAA team of the year in Crestwood tonight (they rogered Darlington 57-6 in their last such game). I don’t know a whole lot about Crestwood, other than their two losses came to good teams in Manning and Sumter and they beat an explosive Lower Richland team. My super-confidential undercover Lamar informant tells me Jacquez Lucas either didn’t play last week of played very little. If Lamar is without him, this one is going to be tough. They threw it well last week, played the same crap-kicking defense they always do and rode Jeblonski Green to an easy win…but Lucas is the dynamic, breakaway compliment to Green’s SMASH I RUN ANGRY, style. I will say, though, no one seems to come swinging harder in these “up” games than Lamar. Lewisville (4-1) at C.A. Johnson (1-3) The Lions are finally getting healthy on the offensive line and it is showing. QB Rhett Cox threw for nearly 150 yards last week and also ran for more than 100. As he’s getting more comfortable as the starter and the protection in front of him continues to get better, the Lions are getting more creative offensively with more read option and with a down-the-field passing attack. C.A. Johnson is a little bit improved, from what I understand, but they’ve scored 34 points in four games, 28 of which came against North, the team with the state’s longest losing streak, so… Timmonsville (2-3) at Scott’s Branch (2-2) The Whirlwinds are a significantly improved team this year. They gave Hannah-Pamplico all they wanted last week before falling 20-16. Haven’t found a whole lot of info on them, so I’d love to hear from anyone who has seen them play. Scott’s Branch got everyone’s attention a few weeks back by shutting out Bamberg-Ehrhardt, then nearly knocked off Edisto last week. Thus ends the relevant and true statements I can make about this football contest. Blackville-Hilda (2-2) at Wagener-Salley (4-0) The Hawks, so far this year, have followed the same pattern they did last year. They’re big up front and basically have a truck lined up under center who runs lots of sweeps and power plays. If they can physically outman you, they are going to grind you into fine powder and sweep your dusty remnants into the parking lot…WTH did I just say? What was that? Your dusty remnants? Anyway, if they can’t physically overwhelm you, then you’ve got a good shot against them. The War Eagles are entering an important two-game stretch (that will include Williston-Elko next week) that could decide the Region III title. The boys from Chitlintown, much like the Hawks, don’t do anything fancy, they run the ball and play great defense. Holding HKT and the Mr. T Haircuts to 6 total points in their last two games speaks volumes. If they win tonight, especially convincingly, it will be time to start viewing them as a real contender. North (0-4) at Denmark-Olar (0-4) Not to be flippant, but hey, somebody gets to win a game tonight. Both programs are struggling, North has the state’s longest losing streak actually, and the two have combined for 28 points this year. I’m glad one or the other will get to celebrate tonight. Estill (0-3) at HKT (0-4) Not all winless records are created equal. Estill has lost three games by a combined score of 106-0. HKT has played a big, beefy schedule, almost beat Calhoun County and gave Wagener-Salley a pretty tough game last week. This feels like an opportunity for Trojans QB Devante Scott to have a big night and help his team notch a region victory. Ridge Spring-Monetta (2-2) at Williston-Elko (2-2) Both teams played some “up” heavyweights early and took tough losses, but both have also obliterated Class A competition in the past two weeks. I’ll actually, graciously, pass the baton for the preview on this one to the good folks at The Aiken Standard. North Charleston (3-0) Baptist Hill (3-0) The Bobcats got the signature win last week (over Cross) they’ve lacked since they started scoring points and winning some games last year. Most impressive to me is that they won a close game with some good defense and a clutch late drive. QB Corey Fields has almost 1,200 total yards in three games and he and that defense will need to have another good night to win this one. North Charleston is a AA school that gave Allendale-Fairfax a goo-ood rootin’ last week behind Yancey Washington’s 410 total yards of offense. This may end up looking like a basketball score tonight. And I don’t mean no shot clock, four corners crap. I’m talking full-on, slapnuts, up-and-down, Loyola of the late 80s basketball. Garrett Academy Tech A&M Charleston Campus (0-3) at The Charleston Charter School for Fish Scaling and Frog Gigging (0-4) Took up so much space with the names, I have no room for a preview. Garrett probably wins it. Moving on… R.B. Stall (1-2) at Military Magnet (0-4) Military Magnet lost to Green Sea-Floyds 61-3 last week. So traveling to play a AAA school, um, just read what I said above about Ware Shoals. Oceanside Collegiate (3-2) at St. John’s (3-1) The O.C. (which is what I’m calling the Oceanside school from now on) has a transfer quarterback in Sam Hartman who is committed to Wake Forest. They’ve put up a lot of points this year and aren’t to be taken lightly. St. John’s lost to Hanahan last week, but that came after wins over AAA Bishop England, AAAA Stall and AAAAA James Island. That’s a brutal schedule. The Islanders have a versatile QB in Kam Smiley and some other nice weapons…but let’s focus on TE in K.J. Robinson. I watched some highlights of him and he’s an authentic, real, actual tight end. He isn’t an extra lineman or the biggest, slow wide receiver on the team lining up next to the tackle sometime. He can play in-line, or get flexed out, has good speed, the hands and ups to go up and get the ball and he weighs 225…which leads to lots of ole’ tackle attempts when he’s loose in the secondary. The Islanders obviously don’t have a cakewalk tonight in “The Marsh” but if they take care of business they are still in the conversation where lowerstate dominance is concerned. Branchville (3-1) at Palmetto Christian Academy (0-4) Branchville’s figures to bounce back from it’s loss to Whitmire last week against a school I previously did not know existed. Hemingway (4-0) at C.E. Murray (4-1) This is the game of the night in Class A. Hemingway has gotten a lot of attention (rightfully so) after playing four AA schools and destroying them by a combined score of 221-51. Poor old Waccamaw might still be walking funny after the 61-point whipping they toted last week. The thing is, aside from Andrews, none of the teams they’ve beaten are very good. Tonight will be the biggest test the Tigers have had yet. C.E. Murray is fresh off 50-0 win over Creek Bridge and, aside from their one loss to Bamberg-Ehrhardt, they’ve allowed 27 points in four games. They have one of the most physical defenses in the state. Coach Chad Wilkes mentioned to me before the season he loved the power-running attack he was inheriting but wanted to tweak the offense just a bit and employ some spread comments. Safe to say that has worked out well, with Elijah Bey hitting 59-of-88 passes for 858 yards and 15 dadgum touchdowns. He’s also run for 211 yards. Darius Rush is his top target (duh) with 26 catches for 400 yards and nine scores. He’s a threat to go the distance whenever the ball is in his hands. This has the makings of a great one! Cross (1-2) at Lake Marion (0-5) After losing a tight one to Baptist Hill last week Cross is mad, Lake Marion is bad, (that rhymed) and uh, what rhymes with “butt whipping?” Camden Military (0-3) at Green Sea-Floyds (2-2) See Cross at Lake Marion, only without the rhyme-ness. It’s time for me to unveil my weekly 1A top 10 rankings, which are included in the S.C. Prep Media Poll each week. As regular readers know (not that anyone who reads this and enjoys it is “regular”) I find it terribly boring to just say “well galdern, ol’ Jim Jack’s playin’ quarterback real good for Denmark-Olar. He can chunk it now” and rank them ninth. I like to cross-polinate my poll (which is a dirty-sounding phrase that actually isn’t) with my former life as a DJ who often had to sit and play countdown shows. The thing is, I’ve already done a Casey’s Top 40 version, an American Country Countdown version and a Countdown Countdown R&B version and didn’t really have any ideas on how to dress up my presentation. I thought you were destined to read drivel like “and ol’ Estill’s got some linebackers now. Them boys’ll hit ya.” Then, my friend Jed Blackwell texted me with some list he’d found online ranking the “very special episodes” of various 80s TV shows. For you younger folks, once upon a time, you didn’t watch programs at your leisure on your phone…you actually had to be in front of a TV set at a particular time. They also didn’t delve into heavy issues much back then, particularly on sitcoms…so in the event that Mike Seaver and his pals Stinky and Boner were going to steal a case of Zima and get hammered on “Growing Pains” or that Tootie was going to engage in some, um, Prom Olympics on “The Facts of Life” they felt the need to warn you in advance by telling you that you were about to watch “a very special” episode and maybe mom and dad should watch with you so they could explain why Joey looked all heavy-eyed and was eating so many corn chips on “Blossom.” So, let’s combine a 1A football poll with “very special episodes” and see what happens. I think it will go well…
10. Cross- I almost dropped them off this week, but to me, the two consecutive losses say a lot more about their competition than it does Cross. They have a power running game that chews up yards and clock and a defense that did hold Corey Fields to a less than 50 percent completion percentage and 18 points. The other loss was a competitive contest against a good AAA Timberland team. They’ll prove they deserve to be ranked in the next few weeks, I think. Also, Uncle Joey’s carpal tunnel syndrome acts up during his signature “cut…it…out” hand gesture and he accidentally flips off baby Michelle, who teaches the move to all her pre-school pals on a very special episode of “Full House.” 9. Williston-Elko- The Blue Devils are 2-2 with wins over Silver Bluff and Estill and losses to Woodland and Barnwell. The competitive loss to the War Horses, AA’s second-ranked team, might be the most impressive item on the team’s resume at this point, but they’ll have a chance at quality wins the next two weeks against Ridge Spring-Monetta and Wagener-Salley. This week on “The Cosby Show” Dr. Cliff Huxtable cooks a very special bacon burger dog for guest star Jackee and…you know what, this one’s too easy. Let’s move along, shall we? 8. Baptist Hill- After back-to-back losing seasons, the Hollywood Bobcats started turning things around last year. Obviously they were improved, but they weren’t actually beating anybody. Even through their 2-0 start that featured silly, Playstation stats, I still didn’t have them ranked because slapping around Burke and Garrett didn’t prove anything to me. With last week’s 18-14 win over Cross, however, they finally got the impressive win that makes them impossible to ignore. The biggest takeaway from that game is that they can win a game with defense if they have to (since Corey Fields ONLY had 376 total yards). North Charleston this week won’t be easy, but aside from that they’ve got St. John’s and a bunch stat padders left. Speaking of pads, Dr. Harry Weston and Charlie have a frank discussion about prostate health after a hearty laugh leaves the good doctor in a puddle. The Nest may be Empty but the toilet is slam full on this week’s very special episode. 7. Wagener-Salley- This is a team that has a chance to shoot up the rankings in the next couple of weeks with match-ups against Blackville-Hilda and Williston-Elko. The formula for the Chitlinburg Eagles has been “run, play defense, repeat” so far this year. It’s worked to the tune of allowing 25 points in four games, including six points combined in their last two outings against the normally potent offenses at HKT and the Bethune-Bowman Mr. T. Haircuts. As long as we’re on the subject of Mr. T, we learn that not all weird, black panel vans are driven by heavily-armed prison escapees…some of them are driven by bad people with balloon animals and Slurpee machines. Learn to tell friend from foe on a very special episode of “The A Team.” 6. C.E. Murray- Since losing to AA Bamberg-Ehrhardt, the War Eagles are 3-0 and have outscored the opposition 120-19. They are still doing it with an incredibly physical brand of play on both sides of the ball, but they’ve also added a complimentary passing attack…if you can call Elijah Bey’s six touchdown pass performance complimentary. Also, Darius Rush remains good at football, having scored seven touchdowns in the past two weeks. They play Hemingway this Friday in Class A’s biggest game. There were always big adventures to be had at Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. This week, Pee Wee, invites Miss Yvonne, Cowboy Curtis and the gang over for movie night but when the King of Cartoons doesn’t show up, Pee Wee pops in something from his personal video collection. I’m not going to finish the joke, I’ll leave it to you to CONNECT THE DOTS, LA LA LA!!!! 5. Lake View- They lost a competitive game to a ranked AA Latta team, they’ve notched close, but quality wins over Mullins and The Johnsonville Sausages and a blowout of South Robeson. The defending state champs figure to get a W this week over the Charleston Charter School for Moped Repair, but mark down 9-29, when the Wild Gators face a Green Sea-Floyds team that looks ready to be a tough out. Another tough situation is the one Mallory and Nick find themselves in on a very special episode of Family Ties. Having dated for a while, the two decide to get a bit more serious. Over the objection of Mr. and Mrs. Keaton the two sneak off and engage in a thrilling, but dangerous act together, one that requires protection…that’s right, they ride Nick’s motorcycle together. What did you think I meant? It’s an episode about defensive driving and wearing motorcycle helmets. 4. St. John’s- I just don’t see dropping the Islanders too far for one, tight, down-to-the-wire loss to a AAA team in Hanahan. You have to weight that against the wins they’d already notched against AAA, AAAA and AAAAA competition. They force turnovers on defense, the offense has impressive balance with Kam Smiley’s ability to run and throw, a solid running back in Jalen Hammond and one of my favorite weapons in football, a pass-catching tight end. They’ll face the potent offense of Oceanside Collegiate this week, then get some interesting match-ups with Scott’s Branch and Baptist Hill in a few weeks. I don’t remember if Deacon Frye was Baptist or not but the mess it’s the fan when on a very special episode of “Amen” when Rev. Gregory finds out that Pearl from “227” is his long lost parent, having given him up for adoption as an infant. Aghast at the news, all he can say is ‘THAT’S MY MAMA!” Then things get weird when Pearl and Rolly strike up a red-hot romance. NOTE: Clifton Davis, who played Rev. Gregory, was also on “That’s my mama.” And 227 came on back-to-back with Amen and shows used to have characters roaming from one show to the next willy nilly. Also, an explanation this long probably indicates I’m getting too obscure for my own good here. 3. Lewisville- The Lions have just been big-playing people to pieces. They have five touchdowns over at least 80 yards on the season. The passing game has really come together the past few weeks and QB Rhett Cox is proving to be a threat with his legs, going for over 100 yards last week. Quentin Sanders has been over 100 yards every week…like, way over. The defense has a lot of top-drawer talent and it’s starting to play up to that level. It could be an upperstate title preview when the Lions face Lamar in a few weeks. If you like Lions, you’ll love this week’s episode of “Beauty and the Beast” when Linda Hamilton enters rehab to cure her crippling Sharpie-huffing addiction. Turns out there is actually no such thing as suave, poetry-writing half lion/half men that live in the New York sewers…she was hallucinating. Sharpies are for drawing, kids. 2. Hemingway- The Tigers have just crank-smacked (I felt the need to make up a word to explain how badly they were beating people) everybody on their schedule. They can hurt you so many ways, scoring points in clusters on offense, defense and special teams. It does sound impressive to beat four AA teams, but aside from Andrews, they’ve beaten one 2-3 team and two winless ones, though they’ve done so impressively. I think we’ll get a very clear picture of the lower country pecking order after they and C.E. Murray do battle Friday. Some parts of the low counrty aren’t too far from Georgia, home of the Duke Boys. They take a backseat, though, in a very special episode of “The Dukes of Hazzard” as we learn why a seemingly humble mechanic in rural Georgia REALLY got the name “Crazy Cooter.” 1. Lamar- I am running out of steam on this project and we’re thankfully to the end of it. Until proven otherwise, the team that since the start of the 2015 season is 29-4 with two state title game appearances and lots of big school scalps on its belt is number one. They have multiple weapons on offense including Jacquez Lucas and Jeblonski Green, one of whom can run past you and the other of whom will step on your face en route the end zone. They can also throw it more effectively this year than last and still have the nastiest, most intimidating defense around. You know what else is nasty? That case of scabies that Screech got on “Saved by the Bell.” The end. Southside Christian- 48
Calhoun Falls Charter- 8 Dixie- 28 Spartanburg Christian Academy- 6 Greenwood Christian- 33 Ware Shoals- 20 Whitmire- 36 Branchville- 16 Lamar- 43 East Clarendon- 6 Lewisville- 40 Eau Claire- 16 Hannah-Pamplico- 20 Timmonsville- 16 Blackville-Hilda- 44 Denmark-Olar- 6 Williston-Elko- 57 Estill- They were but eight touchdowns and one field goal from claiming victory! Wagener-Salley- 28 Hunter-Kinard-Tyler- 6 Ridge Spring-Monetta- 46 North- Ladies and Gentlemen…Clint Black! Baptist Hill- 18 Cross- 14 Green Sea-Floyds- 61 Military Magnet- 3 Hanahan- 20 St. John’s 14 Bethune-Bowman- 44 C.A. Johnson- 20 C.E. Murray- 50 Creek Bridge- Don’t say they had no score BECAUSE ZERO IS A SCORE! Edisto- 20 Scott’s Branch- 18 Hemingway- 67 Waccamaw- 6 Breakdown- As we are getting deeper into the season and more teams begin region play, we’re having fewer “up” games, though Class A schools did go 3-3 in contests against schools of higher classification this week. It was a rare case this week where the losses were actually more surprising that the wins. After what Hemingway did to Waccamaw, the Warriors may be walking funny and speaking in a voice that’s an octave or two higher than it was on Thursday. Waccamaw came in winless, however, and Hemingway has just been crank-smacking (a term I just made up that means “whoopin’ real bad”) everyone they’ve played. Maybe it’s just me, but when a 1A team is 4-0, has only played AA teams and has beaten them by a combined score of 223-51, I don’t think there is a term in our language that properly describes that level of dominance; hence crank-smacking. They figure to get a much stiffer test in their final non-region game this Friday at C.E. Murray. The two have split in the past two years in very competitive games…Lewisville’s win over Eau Claire was in no way surprising either. For one, Eau Claire (who as I understand is getting better in tiny, incremental, itty-bitty, barely discernable baby steps) hasn’t had a winning record in 31 years. Also, Lewisville is loaded up on front-line talent and they are starting to get healthy. They got one injured offensive lineman back this past week (2016 all-state pick Quay Simpson), have some other guys who have played through injuries but are getting well and it’s made a difference. The passing offense struggled a little early on, but is now operating efficiently and creating big plays. Also, Quentin Sanders didn’t decide to start sucking at football in the past few weeks and still averaging right at 200 total yards a game. The defense is getting major contributions from Josh Belk (who had an ankle injury early), Jaylen McFadden (who looks and plays very much like a tank in cleats) and Mikial Fourney among others. The Lions have one more pre-region tune-up against C.A. Johnson before starting region play against McBee…Speaking of C.A. Johnson, they were on the receiving end of a fairly vigorous prodding from Bethune-Bowman in Class A’s last “up” win of the week. The Mr. T Haircuts ran for gigantic yardage with Makiah Simmons (who is cut from that same tank with cleats and rocket boosters cloth and McFadden) running for touchdowns of 70, seven and four yards. Braxton Wedgeworth III (I don’t know if he’s the III or not, but it just seems to fit so I’m going with it) had scoring run of 69 and seven yards and blocked a punt that was returned for a touchdown. I’m willing to bet that “starting QB” and “blocked a punt” rarely appear in the same sentence outside of Class A unless accompanied by “ain’t no way in hell our.” So, the Mr. T Haircuts bounced back nicely from their shutout loss to Wagener-Salley last week. They get Whitmire this week, then an off week before enduring a BRUTAL three-week stretch that features C.E. Murray, Cross and Scott’s Branch…In another brilliant segueway SPEAKING OF SCOTT’S BRANCH they lost Friday. Now, they lost to AAA Edisto, who has a 3-1 record, so that’s not a giant black mark on their record like I would get in school on algebra exams when I would write “yo mama” as the answer to every problem. It’s a smaller mark, perhaps drawn in pencil. I guess since they’d beaten Bamberg-Ehrhardt the week before, fairly convincingly, I had expectations they’d knock off another big boy. Still, it sounded like a great game. They led 12-6, fell behind late 20-12, then scored with under three minutes to play, went for two and didn’t get it. They don’t have a soft touch this week at all, facing Timmonsville…St. John’s was knocked from the ranks of the unbeaten this past week, dropping a 20-14 decision to Hanahan. I inadvertently left their game off last week’s preview because I saw on a popular website (no need to embarrass anyone, we’ll say it was something called LaxKreps.org) that they were off. Well obviously they weren’t. Their coach was kind enough to send some stats to me and those pretty well spelled out why the team had already been able to drub AAA, AAAA and AAAAA competition. They throw the ball efficiently with Kam Smiley, but they also make explosive plays in the passing game, averaging almost 20 yards per completion. They throw to the tight end a lot (K.J. Robinson), which in the era of slapnuts, five-wide, hoo ha spreads is a lost art, but man, I love seeing teams chunk it to a big guy and letting him do his thing. Smiley is obviously an athlete (was averaging over 100 yards a game on the ground going into this week) but unlike some wacky doo toot toot, empty set, horse hockey we now see every week, they don’t JUST rely on their QB to run it, also getting more than 100 a game out of Jalen Hammond. They also force turnovers and play salty defense in general. I’d like to tell you what happened Friday, but as I went to read about the game I was informed I’d shot my limit on free articles for the month. I did manage to see that Smiley had a good game with 244 yards through the air right before getting locked out. As with Scott’s Branch, the anticipation was high given that they’d won three big “up” games already, but a closely played, hard-fought loss to a AAA team shouldn’t make you question anything. I, as of now, have about four teams in my mind that I think have a shot at winning it all in the lowerstate and St. John’s is still on the list…Over the past year, I have compared Baptist Hill to everything from fireworks (particularly those blacksnakes that just made it look like the ground was a’poopin’) to an attractive woman with stank-nasty breath. I did that for two reason, one being that I make terrible analogies and the other that while they’ve put up huge numbers and have looked impressive, I didn’t know how much substance was really there because since they started winning again last year, they had beaten exactly one team with a winning record (Bethune-Bowman, who finished 6-5 last year). Well, now that they have beaten Cross, that girl’s breath smells like mint leaves and rainbows. They now have a signature, quality win. Corey Fields didn’t have a super-efficient day throwing the ball, connecting on less that half his passes, but he still had 301 yards through the air and ran for 73. So, he had 375 of is team’s 401 yards, giving him nearly 1,200 total yards in three flippin’ games. Even more impressive to me, is that they really won the game on defense, limiting a potent Cross rushing attack and allowing only 14 points. They also demonstrated a clutch element, rallying from a late fourth quarter deficit, then making a tackle at the two-yard-line going in as Cross almost pulled off some Stanford-Cal, multiple laterals shenanigans in a late untimed down. Cross will be fine and should bounce back against Lake Marion this week. Baptist Hill will, for the first time, get a vote in my top 10 poll. They have a test this week in North Charleston, but the only game remaining on the slate after that where they won’t be a considerable favorite in Oct. 6 against St. John’s. Also, their school is conveniently located right near Peters Point Road, which makes me laugh because despite all the physical evidence to the contrary, I am 5… Quick Hits- I’m not a braggy, “I told you so” type. I’ll just point out that some BLAWG, not necessarily this one, one dedicated to smoke meat and 1A football, totally called Whitmire to end Branchville’s unbeaten start…Hey, so Shaquille Johnson from Green Sea-Floyds did OK Friday, scoring five touchdowns. You’re all like, WHAAAA, FIVE TOUCHDOWNS IS CRA CRA. Now comes the part when I tell you he had five touchdowns in the second flippin’, expletive, dadgum, holy crap quarter. Then you’re all like WHA WHA WHA?!?!?!?! And I’m feeling you on that. Green Sea got to 2-2 with that win after a couple of very close losses to Aynor and Loris. Now that get Camden Military which should make them 3-2 headed into their match-up with Lake View. Remember, they gave Lake View their toughest regular-season battle last season…I talked to new C.E. Murray Coach Chad Wilkes before the season started and he told me he was tweaking the offensive attack of the War Eagles a little bit. He wanted to keep that hard-nosed rushing attack, but did want to supplement it with some spread concepts and a complimentary passing game. Well, he appears to have succeeded since Elijah Bey threw six touchdowns Friday against Creek Bridge. Three of those went to super stud, excels at literally every position athletic freak Darius Rush, while Sean Swaringer caught two. They’ve got a big one this week (Hemingway), one where some offensive versatility could sure come in handy…Hey, not to scare anybody or anything, but Rashard Coleman threw four touchdowns to four different receivers as Lamar roundly rogered East Clarendon. So, no no, go ahead and load the box to stop that crazy productive running game…This has nothing to do with 1A at all, but a friend of mine finds it delightfully amusing that I refer to Johnsonville as “The Sausages.” He wanted me to point out to everyone that Mullins handled the Sausages Friday and I’m moving on…I’ll just close by pointing out that Ridge Spring-Monetta is now playing 1A schools after starting with a couple of AA heavy hitters and have outscored their like-sized opponents 85-0. Suggested Reading… Seriously, all we lacked to recreate Cal-Stanford was some bassoon player eating one in the end zone. A BLAWG that talks about the ground making BMs and invented the term “crank-smacking” said Whitmire would beat Branchville but I’m not saying which BLAWG so it’s not bragging. You can read about the Mr. T Haircuts winning, Scott’s Branch losing and check some other game capsules here, or you know what, you can just pretend you did and keep trying to live that lie, Bob, but we all know the truth. You’re still like OH NO HE DIDN’T. And this story is like OH YES HE DID! This doesn’t pertain to 1A really, it’s just an excellent, well-written story about concussions (not one of those "sky is falling, let's all live in a plastic bubble ones) and one young lady’s struggle to return to athletics by my pal Jed Blackwell. Everything can’t be ground poop and slapnuts y’all. Complaints, suggestions, helpful hints, invitations to take a flying leap…leave them in the comments, tweet me @CNR_Sports or email at [email protected] Before I commence with the regular breakdown of games and silliness that accompanies it, I want to offer a word of thanks. I started this BLAWG in 2014 for a couple of reasons. The first and most important is that I love 1A football. No offense to 5A schools who have luxury boxes, field turf, Jumbotrons, flat screens on the sidelines and a well-dressed gentleman in the bathroom who’ll give you a squirt Polo and a breath mint for a small tip, but there’s a lot more character to be found in Wagener-Salley where the kudzu grows so thick on one fence it actually blocks the stadium lights. Give me the uphill slope in Whitmire’s end zone, the analogue clock (that means it has hands) in Ware Shoals and the lack of field house at Lewisville (the team stands in the end zone at halftime) over fancy pants instant replays on the scoreboard anytime. In a lot of small towns, Friday night football games serve as a source of entertainment, a community meeting place and a primary source of civic pride. In terms of the actual game, there’s more variety in terms of offensive attack (which is a polite way of saying everyone doesn’t run the spread) and you are far more apt to see players who don’t come off the field…ever. There aren’t many classifications where a guy doubles as a running back and a defensive end and is a crap-kicker at both (looking at you, Lamar).
So when I first started, inspired by the quirks and eccentricities of things like kudzu-induced darkness, signs advertising chitlins and being told once to move from where I was standing because “we’re fixin’ to shoot the cannon” I had no clue if anyone else shared my zest for 1A or if anyone would actually read what I was writing. I also write about meat on occasion, so if you’re a vegan Wando supporter, you have no use for me or this blog whatsoever. Also, I’m serious when it’s called for but for the most part I talk about squads doling out goo-oood rootins and make juvenile poo jokes and compare teams to a weird horror villain hiding in a closet with a powerdrill. That may not be everyone’s cup of tea. Basically, this is a long-winded way of pointing out that since football practice started on July 31, this BLAWG has gotten well over 10,000 views and I’ve been surprised to find out that many coaches are among that number. So hey, ‘preciate it Biggun. Now, on with the show… Calhoun Falls Charter (0-3) at Southside Christian (4-0) That the Flashes are showing up every week and giving a good effort is impressive considering they have 13 players. That’s not hyperbole or one of my WACKY DO TOOT TOOT flights of fancy. 13. Southside Christian, led by quarterback J.W. Hertzberg (whose name seriously sounds like you should call him if you’ve been injured on the job…JUST DIAL ALL 6’s!) has been averaging 50 points a game this year in its unbeaten start. So, you know, this may not go well for Calhoun Falls Charter. Dixie (2-2) at Spartanburg Christian Academy (2-2) The Hornets were basically instructed to go pick their own switch by Southside Christian last week, losing 49-0. To be fair, they won two games and gave Crescent a competitive contest, then lost two starters in the secondary and had to go play a good passing team. It was a predictable bad outcome…sort of like when you go outside on a chilly day without a jacket. You’re going to catch a cold…actually chilly air and getting sick have almost nothing to do with one another. What your grandma should have warned you against was licking doorknobs at free clinics and public bathrooms, which actually, probably will make you sick (one day my examples and analogies will get better, just gotta keep working on them). SCA won’t be anywhere near the challenge Southside Christian was, but they aren’t a pushover either. They run a wing-bone hybrid that has produced a 500-yard rushing game, but also has a pretty athletic, adept passer in Jonathan Gaminde. This is part of a three-week schedule stretch (including another small, private non-SCHSL team and Calhoun Falls Charter) where Dixie need to make some hay. Greenwood Christian (2-1) at Ware Shoals (1-3) The Purple Hornets managed to get in the win column last week, beating Great Falls 20-6. Still scoring two touchdowns in four games is not what we consider robust. I literally know nothing about Greenwood Christian other than it’s probably in Greenwood. Hope that helps! Branchville (3-0) at Whitmire (1-3) Whitmire was on the wrong end of a 62-6 game last week at Lewisville. The Lions just kind of overwhelmed the young Wolverines with talent and big plays…though as always, Whitmire played hard right up until the final whistle. As for Branchville, boy that 3-0 record sure does look nice and shiny, but so does a toilet right after you clean it (see, see…that was better). Not belittling their start, because for a team that has struggled for so long, that is outstanding. But the three teams they’ve beaten have combined record of 0-9. I bet this ends up being entertaining and I wouldn’t be shocked at all to see Whitmire come out of this with a win. Lamar (4-0) at East Clarendon (0-4) I bet East Clarendon’s band sounds great and, um, their campus is probably really clean. Trying to find some positives here… Eau Claire (0-4) at Lewisville (3-1) The Lions bounced back from the loss to Buford with a huge win last week over Whitmire. They are getting healthy (one of the two offensive lineman they’ve been without makes his return tonight) and the passing game really took some major strides last week. They have full arsenal of weapons, including Quentin Sanders, who has gone from being an athletic, versatile player to an unstoppable, football-playing robot ninja. He went for 238 and five touchdowns last week. He’s gotten a lot stronger and it shows in his ability to break tackles. Eau Claire, which hasn’t had a winning record since 1986, has apparently taken some itsy bitsy baby steps forward. They’ve been more competitive and their numbers are up, from what I’ve heard. This game was surprisingly close last year, for what it’s worth. Hannah-Pamplico (1-2) at Timmonsville (2-2) I have no clue what to expect here. Hannah-Pamplico opened the season by giving top-ranked Lamar a real run for their money, then gave Marion a good nanner kickin’ (I have no idea what that means) then turned around and lost to Johnsonville last week, giving up the game-winning TD pass as time expired. That had to smart because H-P, last year, beat Johnsonville and were the kings of the late, close comeback, winning six games by a total of 22 points. Timmonsville got dusted in the opener by Wilson, then destroyed East Clarendon, then got drug by Lee Central, then whipped North Central. So, no outcome tonight will surprise me. Denmark-Olar (0-3) at Blackville-Hilda (1-2) Denmark, unfortunately, aspires to have a two-touchdown scoring Ware Shoals-style offensive robustness, having scored six points in three games. B-H is coming off a close loss to McCormick. The trend since the Hawks began their resurgence last year is running a blunt-force trauma offense with a big line and a quarterback who is basically an anvil with legs and a helmet. It’s a modified single-wing, as it has been described to me, and when they can physically overwhelm you, they win. That being the case, they probably get back on track tonight. Worth noting that Region III is already into region play and HOLY CRAP HOW ARE WE THERE ALREADY! Williston-Elko (1-2) at Estill (0-3) Not going to lie, I was a little surprised to see W-E fall last week to Woodland. After losing to a very good Barnwell team to start the year (in a competitive game) I honestly didn’t expect to see them lose again during the regular season. Estill losses have come while playing “up” the first few weeks, so their record is a tad deceiving, but I still figure W-E start region play with a win. They’ll be tested more the next few weeks with Ridge Spring-Monetta and Wagener-Salley. Wagener-Salley (3-0) at Hunter-Kinard-Tyler (0-3) OK, this is one where the records don’t really indicate the quality of match-up you might end up seeing. HKT plays a beastly, manned-up schedule that has included Fairfield Central, Edisto and Calhoun County. They dang near beat the Saints last week, but fell 42-36 and had a potential game-winning touchdown dropped on the contest’s final play. Devante Scott threw for 240 yards and ran for a touchdown. Wagener-Salley notched an impressive 22-0 win over previously unbeaten Bethune-Bowman. That was a day’s work for the Chitlinville defense, since the Mr. T Haircuts came in averaging more than 42 points a game. Like HKT, Bethune-Bowman featured and athletic, playmaking quarterback so the Stump Whooped All-Stars should be ready for what they’re going to see in what I think will be a surprisingly competitive game, at least for a while. Ridge Spring-Monetta (1-2) at North (0-3) RS-M, after playing up the first two weeks, played Whitmire two weeks ago and came up with an impressive shutout victory. This is a defense that only yielded 22 points to Saluda a few weeks back, so it’s mighty hard to see how North, which has one touchdown in three games and the state’s longest losing streak, will find much success offensively. Cross (1-1) at Baptist Hill (2-0) This, to me, is the most intriguing match-up of the night. Ever since Baptist Hill started setting scoreboard on fire last year, I’ve kept harping on the fact that they weren’t really beating anybody. It’s like playing dodgeball and always aiming for the big, slow kid who has to wear special shoes because of a weird toe disorder. Low-hanging fruit. Ridiculous an image as that is, it’s accurate. They played three really good teams last year and those are the three games they lost…badly. That included Cross 51-18. Now, they are 2-0 (haven’t played in a few weeks because of the hurricane, unfortunately) are averaging over 50 a game and Corey Fields has 802 yards of total offense…against Burke and Garrett. They get another chance tonight to prove they can do more than roll up giant stats against bad teams. Cross has also been for a few weeks, but they also roasted Burke then lost a very hard-fought, close game to AAA Timberland. Total contrast in styles. Baptist Hill is going throw it early and often, while Cross is going to go all NATE SMASH!!!! And just hand it to Nate Walker and the rest of their backs and play very good defense. This is an opportunity game…can’t wait to see how it comes out. Charleston Charter Academy for Leadership and Long-Haul Trucking (0-3) at Lake View (3-1) Sometimes bad things happen to nice people. Military Magnet (0-3) at Green Sea-Floyds (1-2) Unlike most of 1A’s winless teams, the Eagles (Military Magnet should totally be the Blackhawks or, you know, maybe the Tanks or, ooh, ooh, the Stealth Bombers. How awesome would that be? You can’t beat us if you can’t see us!) have been scoring points, they’ve just been giving up a lot. That’s come against a fairly MEH schedule so far, though. Green Sea, somehow, has lost two games while giving up only 20 points all year (in “up” games against Loris and Aynor). I figure they get to .500 tonight with more of that defense and a heavy dose of an up-your-bucket power running game. Bethune-Bowman (3-1) at C.A. Johnson (1-2) I wasn’t shocked that the Mr. T Haircuts lost to The Chitlin Slingers last week, but I was really surprised that they got shut out given the skill talent they have and the numbers they’ve been putting up. I’m thinking a trip to play C.A. Johnson might be just the salve B-B needs to sooth their shutout rash. The Hornets beat North last week, but it wasn’t a runaway by any means, so a peeved and ready to prove a point Braxton Wedgeworth might have a field day. Creek Bridge (0-4) at C.E. Murray (3-1) It’s come against a rugged schedule, but Creek Bridge is in the “we’ve scored one touchdown” club, which is the crappiest club ever, unless there is some “let’s drink rancid milk and throw darts at each other’s faces” club I’m not familiar with. C.E. Murray actually got in a 19-0 hole early last week, then just smacked Oceanside Atlantic A&M (or whatever their name is), outscoring them 36 to not nam the rest of the way. Darius Rush had four touchdowns. I’d expect something along those lines again tonight. Scott’s Branch (2-1) at Edisto (2-1) Scott’s Branch pulled the shocker of the week last Friday in knocking off Bamberg-Ehrhardt last week, who had risen to number two in the AA polls. They get a shot for another nice “up” win at Edisto, which feels very doable. Bout all I got for you on this’n, Bogator. Hemingway (3-0) at Waccamaw (0-3) Losing builds character, I’ve heard, so hey, there’s a positive for ya Waccamaw! As is tradition (if tradition is a thing you’ve done four whole times) I am posting my weekly Class A poll, which is included in the S.C. Prep Media Poll. Sometimes I just don’t feel like it’s enough to say “1. Lamar, duh y’all, they whoopin’ everybody.” Sometimes a man wants to drink out of a chalice and not a Dixie cup, if you know what I mean. I’m not sure I do actually…anyway, rather than just list 10 teams with some blurb about their “wicked awesome pass defense” I’ve decided to dress things up a little the best way I know how. You see, in my long, sordid, nomadic media career, I’ve done a lot of things, including man the position I refer to as “button-punching monkey.” I was radio DJ for a long time and part of my job sometimes entailed just sitting there listening to countdown shows. Every 10 minutes or so, there’d be a local break, so I’d push a button to play some PSA about how if your poop is weird you show go to the doctor about it (I’m not making this up), then I’d push another button to make the next exciting segment of the countdown play. I joked that a monkey, with proper training, could have done that part of my job. They didn’t turn to monkeys as it turns out, going the whole computer automation route instead. Anyway, I’ve always liked countdown-type shows for some reason. Sure, some caterwauling ditty by Celine Dion has been number one for three weeks, but that song about ice cream vans by the KLF and Tammy Wynette (I’m also not making this up) is zooming up the charts and may unseat her. The drama would build, you’d sit through a request and dedication some 8-year-old named Jim Bob in Nebraska sent in about his ailing pet aardvark and Casey Kasem would play a song that totally didn’t match the sentiment of the child’s letter (“Jim Bob, here’s a song for your sick pet…it’s Oochie Coochie by MC Brains”). I’ve done a Casey countdown/top 10 before and a country version and while I’ll milk the good idea cow until the udder is dry, I do like to mix things up…especially on the ones and twos. You see, along with American Top 40 and American Country Countdown, I also sat and mashed buttons during an R&B/Rap show called “Countdown Countdown” during the early 90s and will draw on that experience to help in crafting this list.
10. Scott’s Branch- This is a new entry for me and one I totally did not see coming. They’d beaten a not-very-good Denmark-Olar team and gotten bleep-housed by an undefeated AAA Manning squad, so they were off my radar a bit. Then, they went ahead and shut out the second-ranked team in AA in Bamberg-Ehrhardt. Looking forward, they could very easily be 6-1 going into their match-up with unbeaten, third-ranked St. John’s in a few weeks. If they win that one, look out, but even if they lose, it’s not necessarily The End of the Road. Here’s the Motownphilly sound of Boys II Men at number 10 on COUNTDOWN COUNTDOWN! 9. Williston-Elko- This is a team that was young last year, got hot at the end of the season and came into this season with high expectations. They did beat Silver Bluff and you can’t really hold the loss to a loaded, ranked Barnwell team too much against them, as it was competitive. The Woodland loss was a head-scratcher for me, though. I feel like asking them, are you guys ever gonna get on the run I’m expecting, and they answer “I’m about to.” Are you gonna Warm it Up, and they say “I’m about to.” I stand by everything I’m saying here. So all of ya'll with them Doctor Suess riddles, you can get the finger…the middle 8. Wagener-Salley- I expected the team from Chitlinberg to engage in one of the best match-ups of the early season this past week in a showdown against Bethune-Bowman. Boy was I wrong, but I was wrong because W-S made it uninteresting. They run the ball well, they play good defense (as evidenced by the goose egg they hung on the Mr. T Haircuts)…they were able to Flex their muscles and win it on physicality, just like Mad Cobra, who is at number eight this week on COUNTDOWN COUNTDOWN! 7. Cross (or should I call them Kris Kross?)- It’s hard to know a whole lot about this team yet, since they’ve only played two games. In those two games they doled out a rootin’ to Burke and lost a close, competitive game to a good AAA Timberland team. We’ll know more about them soon, but based on early returns and what they had back from last year (including RB Nathan Walker, a Wofford commit), they belong here. They just need a little more Offensive production than they had last time out and need to cut down on the Penalties. So the O is for offense, the P for penalties (scratch your temple), the last P, well, that’s not that simple… 6. C.E. Murray- Things looked a bit hairy for the War Eagles this past week as they fell in a 19-0 hole to Oceanside Collegiate. Then Darius Rush happened. He scored four touchdowns, the defense flogged the Landsharks unmercifully and it turned into a runaway. Aside from an early loss to Bamberg-Ehrhardt (who they lost to last year on the way to the third round of the playoffs) this team has been fairly dominant. They have athletes and they are physical as all get out. They seem to relish roughing up opponents…why, you could say they have no problem with a little Bump and Grind, just like R. Kelly, who is up two spots this week to number five! 5. Lake View- I think we all knew with having such huge losses to graduation, the defending state champs wouldn’t be stomping on the collective heads of every opponent the way they did last year, at least not initially. They opened with a close loss to a very good AA Latta squad, then got a couple of “up” wins against The Sausages and Mullins…they also viciously throttled South Robeson, with whose work I am not familiar. De’Ante Bridgett is having a nice year throwing the ball and the thing is, aside from match-ups with Green Sea-Floyds and Hannah-Pamplico, which could be challenging, they won’t face a ranked team until the season finale against Hemingway, so plenty of time to work the kinks out. I think by season’s end they could be a contender again…so it’s the Same Old Song. Here’s come’s Digital Underground! 4. Lewisville. So now we’re down to the top one, two, three and to the four. Some folks were surprised when the Lions lost to Buford two weeks ago, but there are mitigating factors to take into consideration. For one, while Lewisville has as much top-end talent as anyone, they aren’t terribly deep. So when they lost two starting offensive linemen and two starting defensive linemen, plugging the holes isn’t easy. Also, I think Buford is a highly underrated team with an excellent quarterback. Still, the Lions are 3-1, they beat a pair of AA teams (Blacksburg and Andrew Jackson) and rolled over Whitmire. Quentin Sanders is one of the best and most versatile players in the state, Josh Belk is healthy and playing well, Jaylen McFadden is criminally underrated at LB, Mikial Fourney is a fantastic safety/receiver and they have lots of offensive weapons. If you don’t get that this team represents probably the only viable threat to Lamar’s upperstate supremacy, then you’re Never Gonna Get It…or so say the very lovely ladies of En Vogue, down one this week to number four! 3. Hemingway- Along with the two teams I have ranked ahead of them, no one can match the early-season resume of the Tigers. They’ve played up in all three of their games (against Kingstree, the Sausages and Andrews) and they just pummeled all three of them. Against a good Andrews team, they away with it in the second quarter, scoring three times in a five-minute span to turn a game that was at least competitive into another curb stomping. They scored twice on defense, once on special teams and QB Troy Singletary visited the end zone four times in the game. They can beat you so many ways. “Beat” is an overused term…what’s another way to convey the same idea? Could I say they can SLAM you in so many ways? I can and so can Onyx! 2. St. John’s- It’s impressive enough that they knocked off AAA Bishop England and AAAA R.B. Stall, but who in the world would have foreseen them knocking of AAAAA James Island? Nobody. Who would have picked them to be a favorite to come out of the low country? Nobody. Who sings “Nobody?” Mr. Keith Sweat, that’s who…hanging in at number two. 1. Lamar- They got a pretty decent challenge from Hannah-Pamplico in the opener, but since that time, they’ve outscored three teams of higher classification 132-6 (which included a vicious rogering of Darlington). They throw it pretty well, more than good enough to keep you honest, but they pick up yardage in chunks on the ground with Tyrik Herion and Jazquez Lucas…oh, and now Jeblonski Green is healthy enough to play on both sides, so have fun tackling a 225-pound chunk of holy crap, everybody. He’s also nearly unblockable on defense and they have athletes that fly around and just beat you into submission. They are number one and deserve to stay there until someone takes it from them. They are kicking a lot of butts...big ones. Big butts…Mix-A-Lot still on top of the charts! We’ll see if he can keep kickin’ them nasty thoughts at number one again next week on COUNTDOWN COUNTDOWN! Here was what the actual poll looked like and I’m totally not doing 10 more songs… 1. Lamar 2. Hemingway 3. St. John's 4. Lewisville 5, Lake View 6. Williston-Elko 7. C.E. Murray 8. Cross 9. Wagener-Salley 10. Hannah-Pamplico Receiving votes: Bethune-Bowman, Baptist Hill, Branchville, Dixie. Southside Christian- 49
Dixie- You’ve heard of the loneliest number? Subtract one from that. McCormick- 22 Blackville-Hilda- 20 Ware Shoals- 20 Great Falls- 6 Lewisville- 62 Whitmire- 6 Lamar- 47 Eau Claire- Not many. Not many at all. None, actually. Pageland Central- 21 McBee- 18 Timmonsville- 50 North Central- 21 Calhoun County- 42 Hunter-Kinard-Tyler- 36 Wagener-Salley- 22 Bethune-Bowman- C.A. Johnson- 28 North- 8 Woodland- 27 Williston-Elko- 26 C.E. Murray- 36 Oceanside Collegiate Academy- 19 Scotts Branch- 12 Holy crap Bamberg-Ehrhardt didn’t score. Aynor- 46 Creek Bridge- Ladies and gentlemen…BILLY PRESTON!!!! Latta- 50 East Clarendon- 21 Loris- 14 Green Sea-Floyds- 6 (OT) Johnsonville- 14 Hannah-Pamplico- 8 Hemingway- 54 Andrews- 31 Lake View- 29 Mullins- 22 Breakdown- It was another week fraught with non-region, “up” games and Class A schools posted a 5-9 record in such contests. One of those wins fell in the “no bleepity bleepin’ bleep Sherlock” category as Lamar laid the wood to Eau Claire. A couple were more note-worthy, including Hemingway firmly establishing itself as one of Class A’s top three teams with a rout of a good AA Andrew squad. The way Tigers went about dismantling Andrews shows how well-rounded they are and how many different ways they can go about crushing your soul and making you question your participation in team sports. They scored twice on defense (on a fumble return by Micah Bryant and an interception return by Darius Taylor) and had another forced turnover that set up an easy score (another pick and run by Taylor). Kason Soloman ran by a kickoff for a score and QB Troy Singletary accounted for four touchdowns. They clicked off three touchdowns in under five minutes at the end of the first half to basically put this one on ice. So, Hemingway has now soundly thrashed three schools of higher classification to begin the campaign (scoring 52 points a game while doing so) and will likely make it four sound higher classification thrashings this week against Waccamaw then face a stiff test with a game at C.E. Murray…Probably the biggest surprise among Class A’s five “up” wins was Scotts Branch shutting out the second ranked team in AA (Bamberg-Ehrhardt). That brought about a “someone is drunk and tweeting from the game” vibe for a while, but the 12-0 score I saw was in fact legitimate. Marquise Williams ran for both of the Eagles’ touchdowns and Scotts Branch forced four turnovers. Now, B-E hasn’t scored a ton of points this year, they’ve run the ball well and played outstanding defense, but to hold them to the type of score I make fun of on the scoreboard that opens my week in review is incredibly impressive. I wasn’t sure what to make of Scotts Branch through their first two games when the handily beat a struggling Denmark-Olar team and lost badly to a pretty fair AAA Manning squad. Now, they have three winnable games coming up that could get them to 5-1 before they end the year with a murderer’s row of Bethune-Bowman, St. John’s, C.E. Murray and Cross. That stretch will tell the tale, I think…Haven’t been able to find a ton info on the other two up wins, but Lake View over Mullins wasn’t a stunner. De’Ante Bridgett threw for 216 yards and two touchdowns for the Wild Gators, who have clicked off three straight nice wins since dropping the opener to Latta. They’ve got the Charleston County Charter Academy for Smoked Porcine Consumption (the school is across the street from Scott’s, so that would certainly be my major if I went there) this week, then a scrappy Green Sea-Floyds team. Don’t want to get too far ahead of myself, but the team’s next real challenge after that probably won’t come until the season finale against Hemingway, which will most likely decide a region title, playoff seeding and other such relevant things...The other “up” victory was Timmonsville sticking a nanner up North Central’s tailpipe in a 50-21 whipping. Haven’t been able to find much on the Whirlwinds this year, but thus far they’ve gone blowout loss (Wilson), blowout win (East Clarendon), blowout loss (Lee Central), blowout win. They’ve got what could be challenging games against Hannah-Pamplico and Scotts Branch on deck. Just remember the date October 6 for Timmonsville. That’s when they play McBee in what looks like an increasingly winnable game that could send the Whirlwinds to the playoffs. Thiiiiiiiis close- We had three games come down to the final play last week. One of those was a bit of a head-scratcher for me, that being Hannah-Pamplico’s 14-8 loss to Johnsonville. Granted, the Sausages (which is what I’ve decided I’ll be calling Johnsonville from now on) are a AA team, but they’d already gotten smoked (pun fully intended) by a couple of Class A schools in Lake View and Hemingway. H-P got a first-quarter touchdown pass from Cameron Profit and a safety and led 8-0 going into the fourth, but gave up a pair of late touchdowns, including one as time expired. That has to sting for a team that grew accustomed last year to being on the giving end of heart-breaking, last-second losses. After they gave Lamar a very competitive game in the opener and trucked Marion, I thought H-P had a shot to be a contender in the lowerstate. Now, the Raiders are a conundrum, wrapped in a mystery, deep fried in question marks and served on a bed of second-guesses at the WTH Diner…Green Sea-Floyds, for the second straight week, was on the verge a quality victory, but fell in overtime to Loris 14-6. A lot of their wounds were self-inflicted in the form of 12 penalties and multiple turnovers, including one in OT that ended things. Still, they’ve played really tough defensively in all three games and they got a touchdown run from Bubba Elliot, who sounds for all the world like he ought to be running a heat race at a dirt track in the Willie’s Wings and Deer Cooler Chevy. They’ll do battle in the next two weeks against Military Magnet and Camden Military (see what I did there, I’m pretty sure you do) before tangling with Lake View…HKT had what sounded like an incredibly entertaining game with Calhoun County before falling 42-36. They had a shot to win it on the last play but a Devante Scott Hail Mary pass that would have tied it with a shot to win was dropped in the end zone. WAMP WAMP. Still, great effort by the Trojans in general and Scott in particular. He threw for 240 yards and two touchdowns and ran for a score. Brian Youmans had a long interception return. HKT is 0-3, but it’s an ambitious 0-3 against a schedule full of bigger schools. Their match-up with Wagener-Salley this week will be interesting…Speaking of the folks from Chiltinburg, the War Eagles moved to 3-0 with an impressive 22-0 win over the Mr. T haircuts from Bethune-Bowman. Have not found an account of that game anywhere, but to blank what had been a very potent and high-scoring offense at B-B was a good day’s work. If anybody saw that one in person, I’d love to hear how it went down. Quick hits…C.E. Murray did not allow a single yard rushing to Oceanside Collegiate. Was unaware until I was researching this game that Oceanside’s mascot is the Landsharks. Unsavory lot from what I hear, they hang out in local bars and they feed right after dark (UPDATE) Was sent a write-up on this game last night. The Landsharks were circlin' around the War Eagles early, building up a 19-0 first quarter lead. They weren't able to keep their dreams afloat, though, with C.E. Murray completely blanking them from that point on and hanging 36 on the board. Darius Rush scored four of those touchdowns, which is to say he did normal Darius Rush stuff…I took in Lewisville’s big win over Whitmire. If you haven’t already, familiarize yourself with the work of Quentin Sanders, a scary, do-everything football cyborg who plays for the Lions. He went for 238 total yards and five touchdowns without touching the ball in the fourth quarter, he’s averaging well over 200 total yards per game, has 12 touchdowns in four contests and if you watch his Whitmire highlights and know where to look, you’ll find your intrepid blogging buddy taking notes and shooting video on the sidelines…Congrats to McCormick on getting its first victory, a 22-20 triumph over Blackville-Hilda. Mataeo Durant, who belongs squarely in the scary gridiron cyborg category with Quentin Sanders had 123 yards and two touchdowns on only 14 carries AND led his team tackles. They’ve played as brutal a schedule as almost anyone and continue that trend with a game against Allendale-Fairfax before diving into region play, where they will be a big favorite in every game they play. Suggested reading… I think if a coach goes out of his way to note twice in one story that his team got “knocked in the mouth” things didn’t go well for him that evening. You can read capsules on Wagener-Salley, North and HKT here, or you can be ignorant for the rest of your life. Don’t make me no nevermind either way, Jimbo. Hemingway has thus far proven itself to be superior to its opposition, vanquishing yet another challenger with extreme prejudice. Did McBee show some improvement Friday or is Pageland really down? Or is it both? Or neither? Or was their game an elaborate farce, acted out according to a script in an airport hangar in Mexico? The truth is out there. I’m not a coach, but Mataeo Durant would get 14 carries a quarter instead of per game if I was, which is perhaps one of the reasons I’m not… Lewisville beat Whitmire Friday and you can get an idea of what happened here, but take anything this hack says with a MAJOR grain of salt. Feedback, ideas, love letters and invitations to pound sand can be left in the comment section, tweeted to @CNR_Sports or emailed to [email protected] Southside Christian (3-0) at Dixie (2-1)
This is kind of a “prove it” game for Dixie. They’ve been on the upswing since the start of last years after years of DERPY DERP DERP, but for the most part they’ve beaten teams that aren’t very good and lost to ones that hit really hit back. Just this year they’ve doled out rogerings to Ware Shoals and Camden Military (both of whom are winless) but lost to Crescent, albeit in a competitive game. Southside Christian is familiar with rogerings also, having destroyed St. Joe’s Ware Shoals and McCormick behind QB J.W. Hertzberg (whose name sounds for all the world like a personal injury attorney whose phone number features all 4s). This would be a great opportunity for the Hornets to get a signature win, though that effort will be made different by the loss of two starters in the seconday…and also the firm of J.W. Hertzberg and Associates. Great Falls (0-2) at Ware Shoals (0-3) One of these teams will get a much-needed win this week. Great Falls lost 46-14 to Blackville-Hilda last week, but the game really was closer than that would make it sound. It was 14-14 early in the fourth quarter when the Hawks busted a couple of long ones. They scored two touchdowns late of Red Devils interceptions as Great Falls tried to throw to get back in it. They are a better team this year and they’ve got some excellent skill talent in Kelton Talford (who is a tall person with three touchdown grabs already) and Tommy Belk among others. Ware Shoals…man, how has it been eight years without a winning record for the Purple Hornets? It doesn’t seem like that long ago they were running the Jet Turner scrum with athletes everywhere and making deep playoff runs. Now, they apparently run a little of everything on offense trying to get something to click. So far, that has equated to eight points in three games. This should be a good match-up. Whitmire (1-2) at Lewisville (2-1) I’ll be taking in this game in person. Whitmire has a win over Great Falls sandwiched in-between two blowout losses (to good teams in Wagener-Salley and Ridge Spring-Monetta). I’ve seen them in person…they’re very young, having lost 13 starters from last year, which is a giant hit for any team, let alone a small Class A one. They run the scrum but throw out of it pretty effectively. They suck you in with fullback dives, and QB sneaks and between-the-tackles stuff, then sneak Jaylen Brown (a heck of a player) into the flat for a big gain. It’s kind of like one of those bug zappers…yeah, junebug, go toward the shiny light, go toward the shiny light, it won’t hurt you. Go on SURPRISE! OOOHHHH IT FRIED YOU JUNEBUG!!!!! (Reminder for new readers, I make horrible analogies). Anyway, Lewisville is coming off a loss to what I think is a very good AA Buford team. Part of the issue was injuries, as two offensive linemen were still out (and will be tonight) as was one starter up front on defense. They’re still banged up, but look crazy pigskin Swiss Army Knife Quentin Sanders to have a big game. He runs, he catches, he returns, he makes the occasional throw, he has that weird plastic toothpick you can pull out of him. Seriously, what was more out of place in a Swiss Army Knife than that toothpick? Did anybody use it? If they did, did they ever wash it, or did meat particulates just rot and ferment on it forever? I’m getting off track here. He’s averaging 200 total yards a contest and has at least one play of 80 yards in all three games. I expect a game effort from Whitmire, but a Lions win in this one. Eau Claire (0-3) at Lamar (3-0) The Shamrocks have shown some improvement this year despite being winless. That being said, fresh off a 51-dusting of a AAAA team, if this is closer than 6 touchdowns, it’s because Lamar loves people and is thinking of the children. McBee (0-3) at Pageland Central (0-2) If I’d told you this match-up would be between two winless teams, you’d likely have laughed and pointed at me…and annoyed me. Don’t have me come fix that dadgum pointing finger for you, Slappy. Anyway, I think most everyone was expecting a drop-off at McBee, with the loss of so many crazy talented athletes (all of whom were named Wright). But not only are they 0-3, they have lost by an average score of 48-13. Pageland lost to Forest Hills last week and was shut out by Lamar the week before. Coach Trent Usher is looking for his first win. Pageland has the distinction of NEVER having had a losing record. Honesty compels me to tell you as I look at their schedule that that record of sustained excellence is in danger…but probably not tonight. North Central (1-1) at Timmonsville (0-2) North Central’s coach (Tyrone Drakeford) played in the NFL. Bout all I got for you on this’n, Broheam. HKT (0-2) at Calhoun County (0-2) A big bravo to HKT for having the taters to play one of the manliest schedules around. They’ve already played was up against Fairfield Central and Edisto and now face a Saints team that is off to a surprising 0-2 start. HKT hung in there in a 21-6 loss to Edisto, but had some special teams miscues, a costly bad snap and gave up a safety. Now, Devante Scott is still a big weapon and he showed it off with a 49-yard touchdown run for HKT’s only score. He could have a big night against a Saints defense that yielded 47 to Gray Collegiate and 33 to a long-struggling Pelion squad. C.A. Johnson (0-2) at North (0-2) Don’t have a lot for you here other than this one could end 3-2 or something. C.A. Johnson has been outscored in its two games 93-6. North has lost by a tally of 78-8 and has the state’s current longest losing streak at 27 games. Bethune-Bowman (3-0) at Wagener-Salley (2-0) I am fascinated by this game. I think both of these schools, who started to turn their fortunes around last year, fall in the same boat as Dixie. Both have won games you expect them to win and lost ones to good teams. Now, each is presented with the chance to notch a big and impressive “W.” The Mr. T Haircuts have outscored the opposition 122-27 in three victories, but that has come against teams with a combined record of NOT NAM-HOWEVER MANY THEY’VE PLAYED. They’ve done it impressively, though. The defense has pitched consecutive shutouts and the mostly ground-based offense has chewed up yardage in chunks behind RB Makiah Simmons (who looks like a fire truck with knee pads) and QB Braxton Wedgeworth (who should become a partner in J.W. Hertzberg’s law firm). Wedgeworth doesn’t throw it a lot, but throws it efficiently and can wreck you with his legs. Wagener-Salley was off last week, but before that won handily over Pelion and Whitmire. The Chitlin Warriors, like B-B, won’t throw it much at all, but they have a bevy of talented backs (including Kevin Johnson) and show a couple of different looks offensively. They’ll go I, some wing etc. and have some nice athletes on the other side of the ball. This should be a good one and the game of the night! Unfortunately, because of the threat posed by Hurricane Irma, a lot of low country games were either played early or postponed, so that’s about all I’ve got for you right now. Get out, support your favorite team and enjoy tonight’s games. ..Augusta Christian- 35
Calhoun Falls Charter- 10 Dixie- 34 Camden Military- 6 Southside Christian- 65 McCormick- 28 St. Joe’s- 33 Ware Shoals- 8 Ridge Spring-Monetta- 39 Whitmire- Hard to beat old Tom, now Blackville-Hilda- 46 Great Falls- 12 Lamar- 57 Darlington- 6 Buford- 38 Lewisville- 20 Lee Central- 41 Timmonsville- 14 Branchville- 6 Denmark-Olar- 3? No, little lower. Didn't have a safety, either. That should help... Bethune-Bowman- 52 North- Baptist Hill- 56 Burke- 6 C.E. Murray- 34 The Charleston Charter School for wheel alignment and brake repair failed to score in this football contest. Academic Magnet- 28 Military Magnet- 12 St. John’s- 14 Charleston County All-Stars- 13 Timberland- 20 Cross- 6 Marion- 24 Creek Bridge- Nah man Chesterfield- 43 East Clarendon- Gosh golly the kids played hard and the band sounded great Aynor- 16 Green Sea-Floyds- 6 Hemingway- 46 Johnsonville- Is named like sausage is named and had not nam points Lake View- 50 South Robeson- 6 Breakdown- As is always the case this time of year, many Class A schools played up last week. It was a bit of rough week on that front (especially coming off the success of the previous week) with Class A schools posting a 3-9 record in such games. Your winners were St. John’s, Hemingway and Lamar. Let’s take that Lamar game first. In my opinion, the Silver Foxes demonstrated without a shadow of a doubt that they are the top team in the classification until someone proves otherwise. They didn’t just beat AAAA Darlington, they probably left marks and rug burn in a 57-6 dragging. Lamar was dominant in every phase of the game against a school four times its size. The mauling was the result of a spectacular air show, either, they lined up and stuck right up the old A gap, mainly with that full-house backfield look they’ve favored in recent years. Do you think they give plays names like “Mary Kate” or “Uncle Jesse?” Probably not. Dated reference and I’ll move on now. Tyrik Herion had 210 yards rushing and a pair of touchdowns. Jacquez Lucas went for 168 and three scores on the ground and caught a 32-yard scoring toss. Watching some highlights, he legitimately looked like a squirrel being chase by obese three-legged dogs. Just sidestepping tacklers, bouncing outside, running away from them, stopping to eat a pecan just to mess with old fat Rover and let him think he has a chance before darting out of reach. The amazingly-named Jeblonski Green hasn’t played a whole lot of running back so far this year (my clandestine Lamar informant said he’s had a bit of a hamstring issue and has only been playing defense) but he got a few carries. When he did, he would just sort of disappear underneath a pile of purple-clad tacklers but the pile just kept on moving. Defensively he scored a touchdown, recovered a fumble, picked off a pass and generally pummeled the school children charged with blocking him. Cam Galloway added two picks. Lamar likely won’t be challenged the next few weeks against Eau Claire and East Clarendon, which will get them to 5-0. After a hard-fought win in the opener against Hannah-Pamplico, Lamar seems to have really hit its stride and improved the past two week, which is a scary proposition for everybody…Speaking of scary, St. John’s continued it’s season-opening, Doling out some Rootins ’17 Tour with a tight 14-13 win over Bishop England. So, in the opening three weeks, the Islanders have now beaten a AAA, a AAAA and AAAAA team, which has rightfully rocketed them up the Class A polls (more on that shortly). As they beat the Bishops, quarterback Kameron Smiley ran for 117 yards and passed for 124. I watched a little tape on that one, St. John’s spreads it out some and throws a lot of short stuff, but they also roll Smiley out and take some shots downfield. Run some option too. Tyrus Richardson added 116 yards (on six dadgum carries) in the win, but the real story is the team’s defense. They held Bishop England to 13 points, the same team that dropped 64 on Christ Church and 27 on West Ashley. That came after they gave up only 28 in the opener (to the aforementioned AAAAA James Island), and six to Stall. Hemingway is seen as the team to beat in the low country but if the Islanders keep going on their current track, they’ll have something to say about that…Speaking of Hemingway they beat Johnsonville 46-0 with Troy Singletary scoring four touchdowns. It was an “up” win but not a surprise by any stretch. I’m really only mentioning it here because it affords me the opportunity to make a sausage joke at Johnsonville’s expense. Losing 46-nam isn’t cause for a celebration, or a party. nd what kind of party would they have in a place that shares a name with a purveyor of sausage. I’ll move on now…If you ever played the old versions of Madden, you’d discover that there were quirks and bugs you could exploit. If you got to third-and-short, the computer would always load eight in the box and play man, so you’d just line up in the I, audible to all streak routes and throw a touchdown every time. You’d end games with 400 yards passing on 12 completions. Now the fun days of humiliating your computer opponent are over because it the game has a devil in it that reads your mind and cruelly counters your every move and toys with your game-playing emotions. All you can do is curse and fling the controller across the room because, come on, I’m playing with the Patriots and going against the Browns. Even in computer devil land that outcome should not be in doubt, stupid cheating computer. Anyway, the stats Corey Fields of Baptist Hill put up Friday night very much like those old Madden numbers. He was 11 of 15 for 330 yards and six touchdowns. Didn’t have big rushing numbers (two for 22 yards) but Baptist Hill also only ran 26 offensive plays. They were playing Burke, I know, but still, really stop for a second and think about what the Bobcats did offensively. Fields averaged 30 yards per completion and had six scores on 11 complete passes. He has 802 yards of total offense and 11 touchdowns in two games. As a team, they scored 8 touchdowns in 26 snaps against Burke. HOLY. BLEEPIN’. WOW. That level of execution is amazing, regardless of the opponent, but I still want to see them beat a good team. After what should be a win over Academic Magnet this Friday, they’ll get that opportunity at Cross next week…I know some people were surprised to see Lewisville fall last week against Buford. The score surprised me a little but not the end result, necessarily. Lewisville is blessed with A LOT of talent, but doesn’t possess great depth. They’ve got people hurt up front on both sides of the ball and that makes a huge difference. I also think Buford is an under-the-radar good team. Ryan Moore is a heck of quarterback and they’ve got some very nice skill people. They also picked off a pass and ran it back 109 yards for a touchdown on the last play of the first half and when that kind of stuff starts happening, it’s probably just your night…Bethune-Bowman laid a thumping on North, which taken as a standalone thing isn’t that big a deal. North has the state’s longest losing streak, but the Mr. T Haircuts did what you are supposed to do when playing a lesser team, which is to soundly thrash them. Braxton Wedgeworth (whose named sounds like the snotty, preppy antagonist of a John Hughes movie) didn’t put up huge rushing yards this week, but he did have an efficient 141 yards and three touchdowns through the air. Makiah Simmons had 137 yards and two touchdowns on just 10 carries. I can’t find his weight, but he’s listed at 5’8. In terms of his running style he looks like what you’d get if a cannonball, a dump truck and a cheetah could somehow have a baby. Seriously, it’s comical seeing how many would-be tacklers end up on their backs, but he appears to have some breakaway ability too. Defense has obviously played well, with back-to-back shutouts, but you have to take into account that the team’s 3-0 record has come against teams with a combined record of 0-8. Like with Baptist Hill, I need to see it against a quality team. As luck would have it, they’ll play one this week in Wagener-Salley, who was off last week but is 2-0. POLL TIME! As I do each week, I will now present to you the Class A Prep Media Poll, followed the top 10 that I personally submitted for said poll. 1. Lamar 2. Hemingway 3. St. John's 4. Lewisville 5, Lake View 6. Williston-Elko 7. C.E. Murray 8. Cross 9. Wagener-Salley 10. Hannah-Pamplico Receiving votes: Bethune-Bowman, Baptist Hill, Branchville, Dixie. 1. Lamar- Big fat duh on this one. The team to beat right now. 2. St. John’s- Nobody has as impressive a resume as the Islanders to this point. 3. Hemingway- If they beat Andrews this week, the hype will have been totally justified. 4. Lewisville- Not going to drop the Lions too far for a loss to a good AA team, especially when injuries played a part. 5. Lake View- Will be hard to know what the Wild Gators have really got until October games against Hemingway and H-P. 6. C.E. Murray- Run the ball, play defense, beat people, repeat. 7. Cross- Not dropping the Trojans too far off a close loss to a good AAA team. 8. Williston-Elko- Look at their schedule and find a definite loss…you can’t. 9. Hannah-Pamplico- The more Lamar lays down whoopins to bigger schools, the better that opening, competitive loss to the Silver Foxes looks. 10. Wagener-Salley- The Chitlin’ Slingers are off to a good start and can prove a lot this week against the Mr. T Haircuts. Realignment rantings- As you probably already know, Dixie did win its appeal to the appellate panel to stay in Class A, citing travel hardship and the fact that they lost enrollment from the last 135-day numbers and have been in the same region and class for nearly 40 years. Allendale-Fairfax and Hannah-Pamplico, for whatever reason, chose not to appeal, but probably should have. H-P has exactly the same enrollment number as Dixie (354) and A-F’s is actually lower (340). Hard to see how they’d approve one and not the other. Lewisville’s appeal was unanimously rejected. As I’ve written about before, Lewisville argued based on a Title IX issues and on competitive balance. I thought were fairly compelling, particularly the competitive balance issue. By moving multiple teams out of Class A and not moving anyone down to replace them, at least half of sanctioned sports will not have enough competing teams to field their own playoff bracket. So, in basically everything besides football, boys and girls basketball, softball and baseball, Class A teams will be competing in the AA playoffs. So Calhoun Falls Charter and its 94 students, or Whitmire, North and HKT (all under 200 students) will be competing against schools with nearly 700 students AND a buttload of private schools. He also asked why no accomodations were made on the high end in AAAAA for schools with outlier enrollment, but it apparently was for outlier schools on the low end in Class A. Predictably, no one chose to address that point. The minute Lewisville AD Rusty Pemberton ended his presentation, I knew what direction things were going to go. The appellate panel (which is made up of state legislators) was, to be blunt, dismissive and unnecessarily antagonistic. They asked only how the move would affect Lewisville’s female athletes, not those statewide (which was the basis of Lewisville’s argument). In response to Pemberton talking about how challenging it can be to schedule for some sports in Class A (because there aren’t many Class A schools near Lewisville and there are some sports, like girls soccer, many Class A schools don’t field) one panel member said “well, if Class A is so awful, seems like you’d want to move to AA.” Right, that’s exactly what Rusty said. Noting scheduling difficulties is clearly identical to calling the whole classification a burning poop bag. The only comment offered on his competitive balance issue was the same panel member saying when he was at Andrew Jackson, why Lewisville and Great Falls just whooped up on them all the time. So the whole argument is invalid based on his acectdotal evidence. Now, I like AJ, always have, but a lot of schools in many classifications across a wide array of sports have beaten them over the years. That doesn’t indicate in any way that Denmark-Olar is kick Abbeville or Christ Church in the face in the playoffs. At one point, Rusty made reference to the informational packet he had provided and asked if the panel had read it, then quickly followed with “I’m sure you have.” I don’t have to be polite, they probably didn’t. The nature of their questions and comments demonstrated that and not one of them made reference to anything in the packet during the short, anecdotal snarkfest that passed as a Q&A. If they didn’t feel Lewisville met the bar for demonstrating personal hardship and ill effects of a move to AA, that’s fine. I knew with a 135-day enrollment number of 380 (though the actual enrollment now is 367) they had a bit of a tough sell, but those proceedings were a huge waste of everyone’s time. Lewisville, by the way, had to pay $200 for that hearing and then had to pay travel costs for all the appellate members, which I’m not at all a fan of. If a school feels slighted or wronged by the SCHSL (which they pay membership dues to) in the realignment process, why in the world should they then have to pay for an appeal? Why do legislators who all but insisted they get a seat at the table a few years back, also get all expenses paid by the schools who lose appeals? Seems like that might dissuade people from making a fuss and appealing… I hate what this realignment plan has done to Class A and also hate that no one has yet explained why the league felt it necessary to make the classification so much smaller. It sure seems like they decided, for whatever reason, that 339 was the cutoff (since McBee at 339 is in Class A and A-F at 340 is in AA). I was told by the league that the rationale was to reduce, as much as possible, the difference between the biggest and smallest schools in each class. That’s fine, but it also really doesn’t answer why schools with enrollment between 340 and 365 were placed in Class A with the last realignment but are now being moved up. You can also carry that line of thinking to a ridiculous degree. Why stop with A-F at 340? McBee has been on a roll in multiple sports for a few years, why not move them up? Lamar is a powerhouse in football and baseball, why not shuffle them on up and really give the smallest of the small a chance? Of course moving anybody up means you’re INCREASING the gap between the biggest and smallest in AA. AAAAA has three outsized behemoths in Wando (4,300-plus students), Dorman (3,300-plus students) and Summerville (3,000-plus students) with the fourth biggest school in the state (Carolina Forest) having 2,400 students. There’s enormous gap between the top three and number four and an epic chasm between those top three and the 40-some schools in AAAAA, but that class wasn’t made smaller? Why not? What’s the difference? Yes, Lewisville, as the biggest school in Class A, had a very good athletic year in 2016- ’17, but it wasn’t unbeatably dominant in all sports. They won a state title in baseball, played for one in boys basketball and made nice runs in some other sports, but that’s it. The results did not bear out the need to move them or H-P up or to keep A-F up. Maybe the league thinks the really small schools, the ones with 170 or fewer students just can’t compete with someone that big. In some sports they can, but you CAN NOT make a classification small enough for a school with under 100 students to be competitive in everything. You certainly shouldn’t build your entire realignment in a way that tries to cater to those few tiny outliers. What we’re left with is a smaller Class A in general and a much smaller Class A in terms of teams that play football (only in the high 20s). You and I can both look at who is left and pretty much announce what the state title match-ups will be in some sports. Many Class A schools did not support Lewisville, Dixie, H-P or A-F being in Class A, as it clears the way for them to compete for state titles in some sports. That’s a narrow view, though. Yes, the chances of winning it all in baseball and softball and basketball are higher now…but the odds of winning it in the majority of sports will be non-existent playing against AA competition. If they haven’t realized that yet, they will next year. Suggested reading… Cross and Timberland basically took turns stomping on one another’s faces in a physical, defensive battle. Nobody has a better resume at this point than St. John’s, with the possible exception of George O’Leary. Hey so I’m not the only person who doesn’t care for the new realignment plan. Also, my blog is being assy and not letting me put links where I want them, so just copy and paste this link I guess... http://www.goupstate.com/sports/20170905/district-4-seeking-answers-on-union-countys-move-to-class-3a Seriously, Braxton Wedgeworth would have his sweater sleeves tied around his neck as he gets ready to work on his backhand at the tennis club and would totally be dating the head cheerleader on whom the band nerd had a huge crush in an 80s film. Again with the cut and paste crap... thetandd.com/sports/t-d-region-sports-bethune-bowman-shuts-out-north/article_c58a205e-c29a-5ed7-9ce7-4ee8fe730ed8.html |
TravisI am Travis, the king 0f SC 1A Football Archives
November 2021
Categories |