Calhoun Falls Charter (1-5) at Ware Shoals (2-6)
These two teams met in the first game of the year in a contest that did not count toward region standings. The Flashes won that one, breaking a years long losing streak, but haven’t tasted victory since. Most of their losses haven’t been especially close, either, including a 45-point loss to Whitmire last week. Ware Shoals had only a win over Oakbrook on the resume until they absolutely rolled Dixie last week. This was a 14-13 contest the first time around so, it’s likely to be close again, but if the Flashes can win either this one or next week against Dixie, they’re in the playoffs, which would be a huge step forward for a program the has struggled for so long. Ware Shoals is probably already in, but could improve their seeding with a victory. McCormick (3-5) at Whitmire (6-3) This game is for the Region I title and the sweet, delicious number one seed (and first round bye) that goes with it. The Wplverines roughed up CF Charter last week and are playing well in general, having clicked off four straight wins. Chandler Crumley (the fullback/piledriver/angry oxen) had a big game on the ground as did his speedy compliment Jaquan Tindell-White. The thing about the Wolverines is they put a ton of pressure on you by onside kicking on every kickoff, usually eschewing punting and going for it on fourth down etc. That can blow up in your face sometimes, but it usually doesn’t for them. They bank on the fact that if they apply lots of pressure and force you to have to make plays, you often won’t. And seriously, it’s such a mental crotch kick to have them run that scrum for 12 plays, 70 yards and eight minutes, then they recover an onside kick and your defense has to trudge right back out on that field. McCormick had a three-game winning streak snapped last week by St. Joe’s, but who cares? It was an out-of-region game on the road against a ranked AA squad. They hung in there and scored some points and accounted for themselves pretty well. In their previous three games, they averaged right at 40 a contest against lower-level AA opponents and in two region games. A’Chean Durant is the guy to watch, the electric freshman running back with super-awesome bloodlines (Mataeo is his brother). Should be a great one. Lamar (6-2) at Great Falls (4-3) The Silver Foxes laid down the CRANKSMACK of the week last Friday in blowing out Timmonsville 70-0. In that game, from what I understand, they actually showed some four-wide spread stuff for the first time this year and moved athletic QB Cam Galloway to WR and RB a bit. Now, with the playoffs coming up and them likely facing a trip to Wagener-Salley in the third round, I wondered if they were putting one more thing on tape for Wagener to worry about. My super secret Lamar informant said he thinks it was just a matter of letting the seniors have a little fun with the game well in hand in their final home game. Whatever, with a line and athletes like they have, they can kinda do whatever they want. Great Falls was playing its first game in three weeks, looked rusty early and got behind McBee. Rather than take a conservative approach and attempt to lose close, coach Tom Butler took some gambles to try to give his team a chance to actually win. I like that, since a loss counts as a loss whether it’s 21-14 or 49-7. They have athletes who can make plays on anybody (guys like D.J. Adams) and they have talent in the trenches, but not much depth. I’ll be at this game, so follow along at @CNR_Sports if you you’re interested. McBee (1-7) at Timmonsville (2-6) The 1-7 next to McBee’s name is deceptive. They played a big-boy, “holy crap y’all are playing who?” kind of schedule out of region. They took some lumps, but they also blew out a pretty good Great Falls team last week. Eerily similar to how things went for them last season when they started 0-7 and made it to the third round of the playoffs. Here’s a shocker, there is a person with the last name “Wright” on the McBee roster who is good at football (Jaheim). They have other weapons too and that might be plenty this week against a young Whirlwinds team coming off savage beating against Lamar. Williston-Elko (2-6) at Blackville-Hilda (6-2) I don’t know the health status of Blackville-Hilda QB Adonis Davis…and I may regret being flippant here, but I don’t think it matters. That seems odd to say when talking about W-E, but it’s been a rough year from them, with wins over North and Estill tucked among a series of one-sided tail whippings. It sure feels like this one is a foregone conclusion and that W-E will need a win over Denmark-Olar next week to even make the playoffs. Wagener-Salley (8-0) at Denmark-Olar (4-4) Another game that just feels like a formality. D-O has had their moments and is a physical, quality football team, but the boys from Chitlinville have basically won the region already and feel like they are head-and-shoulders and hips-and-knees and shins-and-toes better than anybody they’ll face until a likely matchup with Lamar in the third round of the playoffs. HKT (5-3) at North (0-8) This is a great region but there aren’t a lot of great matchups in it this week. HKT is the kind of team that might sneak up on somebody in the playoffs. North hasn’t won a game in a few years. Not much need to dig into this one very far. Baptist Hill (5-3) at Military Magnet (0-6-1) Baptist Hill scored 70 gojillion points last week (roughly)against Charleston Charter etc. et all and so on Academy and probably will this week. That’s not really proving much, since that will represent two blowouts of winless teams. Now, next week when they face St. John’s might be more interesting than anyone thinks. Charleston Finishing School for Aspiring Anglers (0-6) at St. John’s (2-6) The Islanders had a brutal schedule out-of-region that featured a private school juggernaut, the OC Semi-Pros and a road trip to the friggin’ Waxhaws (depending on how old a map you’re looking at). But they pitched a shutout last week against Military Magnet. They are very young on offense but against like-sized, reasonable competition, that defense is going to win them some games, including this one, most likely, against a Riptide team that gives up 53 a game. Bethune-Bowman (2-6) at C.E. Murray (5-2) The Mr. T Haircuts are likely going to go from winning a region crown in 2018 to not making the playoffs this season. They have a great RB in Jesus Benjamin (who should be playing in an all-star game and it’s ridiculous a kid with his numbers isn’t) but the defense has struggled and the offense often has aside from Benjamin. C.E. Murray is pretty much on a region title victory tour at this point, having destroyed Branchville last week, their only real contender. This is a team people need start paying more attention to. Trying to move the ball on their defense is like trying to cut down an oak tree with a toothbruch…like a soft-bristle one. Antonio McKnight is a two-way stud, they have a dominant running game and it sure feels like they are on a collision course with Green Sea deep in the lowerstate playoffs. Scott’s Branch (2-6) at Cross (4-4) Cross ran all over the Mr. T Haircuts last week and in doing so broke the 21-point threshold for the first time in two full years. It’s good to see them rising back to prominence after a winless campaign last year resulting from one of the youngest rosters in the state. They are apparently growing up and getting back to thumping heads on defense. They’ve been a bit offensively challenged but maybe last week was the breakthrough they’d been looking for. Scott’s Branch is hard to get a beat on. They’ve beaten to not-very good teams, lost close to one OK team (Timmonsville) and gotten routed against a couple of really good teams of higher classification. They did win their last time out (pretty impressively over the Mr. T Haircuts) and had an off week last Friday to heal up for the stretch run. Hemingway (0-8) at Green Sea Floyds (7-1) Hemingway has scored 26 points in eight games and allows nearly 40 a game. They are on the road against the defending state champions, who have one of the best and most explosive offenses in Class A paired with a bunch of crap kickers on defense. So, you know, this might not go real well for them.
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Whitmire- 56
Calhoun Falls Charter- 6 Ware Shoals- 41 Dixie- 13 St. Joe’s- 55 Ware Shoals- 20 Lamar- 70 Timmonsville- The Whirlwinds failed to score in this football contest. McBee- 56 Great Falls- 7 Blackville-Hilda- 37 Estill- 6 Hunter-Kinard-Tyler- 26 Denmark-Olar- 22 Willison-Elko- 46 North- Not as many as Williston. Let’s not pick on North. Wagener-Salley- 40 Ridge Spring-Monetta- 6 Baptist Hill- 79 Charleston Charter Academy for Snack Cake design and tadpole studies- 6 St. John’s- 31 Military Magnet- Love. Love sounds nice. Cross- 36 Bethune-Bowman- 14 C.E. Murray- 44 Branchville- 18 Green Sea Floyds- 42 Lake View- 6 Columbia- 25 Hemingway- 7 Breakdown- There has been a bit of perception this year that Class A is a three-team race between Wagener-Salley, Lamar and Green Sea Floyds. Now, those are certainly three of the big favorites to win it all, but I think some other teams merit consideration for that top tier, led by C.E. Murray. They laid it Branchville pretty good Friday, beating them 44-18 in a game that as I understand it wasn’t actually that close. Branchville was 7-1 coming in and though they only had one game I would put into the “quality win” category (a blowout of Whitmire), they have a good QB, can score a lot of points and had played alright on defense. The War Eagles rolled them, much like they did a tough Cross team their previous time out. They have a stud two-way player in Antonio McKnight, who in addition to being a North-South All-Star is a frightening manbeast who is better at football than most opposing school children. He’s far from a one-man show, though. They play real defense in Greeleyville,(have allowed 54 points all year) have proven they can run the ball on anybody and match up favorably with almost anyone physically. Their two losses came by a combined four points to Mullins (a AA team that stands 6-2) and Lee Central (also AA, 5-2). There’s almost no scenario shy of a plague of locusts descended on the lowcountry under which they aren’t going to win out against Scott’s Branch and Bethune-Bowman, claim a region title and a number one playoff seed. Now, the one from that region gets a bye, plays a home game, then probably goes to Green Sea,. That will be an absolute war… Speaking of those other three dominant teams, they all demonstrated why they belong in that category by doling out savage, awful diddlings to their outmanned prey. Wagener-Salley easily dispatched RS-M, the last team on their regular-season schedule with much of a prayer of offering even mild resistance. They are absolutely owning a deep, good region. They are physically just much better than everyone they have played. They’ll win the region, get a bye, then be home out in the playoffs, with the only bump in the road being a likely third round matchup with Lamar. Much like C.E. Murray-Green Sea, that is a semifinals-caliber matchup and one I can’t wait to see. Lamar drilled Timmonsville, which wasn’t much of a shock, though the depth and vigorous nature with which they holed out the Whirlwinds was a bit. Timmonsville had hung in their and at least kept things somewhat respectable most weeks. My understanding is that the Silver Foxes, for the first time, showed some spread looks and actually moved Cam Galloway around a bit, including at WR. Maybe they’ll start incorporating that stuff a bit more into the offense or maybe its one more thing to make Wagener-Salley look at and prepare for. They have Great Falls and McBee left. Lake View, who has put up a good fight against almost everyone (including Lamar and Dillon to an extent) just got buried by Green Sea. That game was about over before it even started, with Jaquan Dixon ripping off a 70-plus-yard TD run, followed immediately by a lost Lake View fumble that led to a quick, short-field score. The GSF offense is basically a giant with a tiger head and razor claws and a bazooka in a fortress with a snake-ridden moat and flamethrowers. Yeah, it’s exactly like that with Dixon and Bubba Walalce and Anwain Graham. So, if you start giving them freebies, you’re pretty much done. Much like C.E. Murray and Wagener-Salley, they’ve pretty well sewed everything up with their only game remaining being against winless Hemingway. They’ll claim a region crown and number one playoff seed and likely wait for a third-round showdown with C.E. Murray. Quick hits- Not many this week what with the smaller slate of games with region action ongoing, but anyone else notice that Whitmire has cracked off four straight wins? They will be playing for a region title and number one seed this week against a McCormick team that has proven more than capable against fellow Class A teams. It’ll be rocking behind the wall, next to the public course in the Pearl of the Piedmont Friday night….If we’ve established who the favorites are (and I think we have) who has the look of a dark horse? I’m going to offer HKT (who is on a nice little run at this point) and possibly McBee. The latter of those rolled over a pretty good Great Falls team last week after going 0-7 against one of the toughest schedules in Class A. Keep an eye on them… There are a couple of items away from the field that need to be discussed. First, the competitive balance committee formed by the SCHSL to study the athletic imbalance between traditional public schools and their private and charter counterparts, has sent an initial list of ideas on how to level the playing field a bit. You can read a full story on it right here, but the basic ideas are as follows… Option #1-Use a multiplier that vary from 1.35 - 2.0 for Private, Charter and Magnet Schools. This would bump the non-traditional schools into higher classifications. Option #2- Competitive Balance Factor (CBF). The CBF takes effect when a private, charter, or magnet school achieves a threshold level of points based on the team’s overall finish for the two previous seasons; if the total number of points exceeds that threshold (which could vary among sports) then that team could be bumped up one classification. The CBF has no ceiling so a team could potentially ascend one class every reclassification. Option #3-In the smaller classifications(Class AAA, AA, A) separate the private, charter and magnet schools from the traditional public school for the playoffs. This will allow everyone to compete in a region but have separate playoff brackets for State Championships. Option #4-You see no need to change what we currently have in place. I’m not going rehash my position on privates and charters (if you are so inclined you can read those here, here and also here) but basically, the current system is inherently unfair, slanted against traditional public schools and needs to be fixed. I’d love for number one to be instituted but it has ZERO chance of passing. That idea has been floated before and legislators from Greenville and Charleston (can’t imagine why they piped up on the issue) basically threatened to disband the SCHSL and put prep athletics under the State Department of Education. Also, some of the private schools reminded everyone that the children of powerful lawyers walk their hallways. Option two is interesting, but to me it doesn’t address the root of the problem. It waits for the problem to manifest itself more fully, then takes punitive action. It almost says “now, y’all better not be TOO good.” I like and have previously endorsed option three. There are enough non-traditional private schools now to have a competitive and robust playoff bracket in almost every sport. That way, they are still present to balance out region where needed and get to compete in the league, but they compete for TITLES with other folks who follow the same rules they do. It is encouraging that the committee has been formed and that this is finally be discussed, but there’s a big difference between discussing the matter and nutting up and actually taking action on it…action that might spark cage-rattling and legal threats. The other issue is the situation at Oceanside Collegiate (or the OC as I like to call them). According to multiple outlets, there is an allegation that they violated the four-quarter rule last week. You probably remember that the league did away with the eight-quarter rule a while back, which allowed kids to play both JV and varsity games in a given week. Citing player safety and the need for recovery time, the league decided a player can EITHER play JV or varsity in a given week, but not both. The complaint filed against The OC is that they had players participate in both games against Phillip Simmons. I wonder… The OC won that varsity game 70-0. They’ve won most every week by blowout, so, is this the first and only time this has happened? I don’t have an answer, but it’s an obvious question to ask. One angle I’ve heard is that they misunderstood the rule and played kids in two quarters of each game. Again, just speculating here, but it would seem doubtful, would it not, that they suddenly misconstrued the rule eight weeks into the season? I’ll withhold further judgment until the SCHSL investigates the matter. If they are guilty of this infraction, however, the League has to issue STIFF punishment, and that view has nothing to do with my stance on private and charter schools. If every measure has to be taken in terms of player safety, folks who fly in the face of that (intentional or not) have to be punished, otherwise the “WE HAVE TO PROTECT THE KIDS) stuff is all empty words and crappy PR. It would also be the school’s second infraction of the season, with the first happening in the first day or two of practice. The last time I recall a program (and if I’m forgetting one, someone please let me know) getting two infractions of this kind in a season, it was Blythewood in 2007. They were defending AAA state champs and they got themselves a playoff ban. IF The OC gets a second one, it’s hard to see how the SCHSL can justify doing anything but a postseason ban. Seems like precedent has been set… Poll Time! As per usual, the S.C. Prep Media Class A top 10, followed by my ballot… 1. Wagener-Salley (7) 2. Green Sea Floyds (4) 3. Lamar 4. (tie) Blackville-HIlda, C.E. Murray 6. Lake View 7. Branchville 8. Hunter-Kinard-Tyler 9. Whitmire 10. Ridge Spring-Monetta Others receiving votes- Baptist Hill, Cross, Denmark-Olar 1. Green Sea Floyds 2. Wagener-Salley 3. Lamar 4. C.E. Murray 5. Blackville-Hilda 6. Lake VIew 7. Branchville 8. Hunter-Kinard-Tyler 9. Ridge Spring-Monetta 10. Whitmire Whitmire (5-3) at Calhoun Falls Charter (1-4)
The Wolverines had a little bit more of a tussle with Dixie than I was expecting last week (they only led 8-7 at the half) but they pulled away for a nice 24-7 victory. Chandler Crumley, who is sort of like a cross between an angry pile of bricks and a ball peen hammer, led the way with 75 yards and a couple of scores on the ground. The Flashes lost to McCormick 41-0. Look, CF Charter has a victory this year which is a nice step forward considering the struggles they’ve had in recent seasons and the good news is they get to face the team they beat (Ware Shoals) next week. They win that and they are likely in the playoffs. Huge accomplishment for that program if they pull it off. Whitmire has won three straight, though, and likely has too many weapons for the Flashes to counter. McCormick (3-4) at St. Joe’s (6-1) With Region I having an odd number of teams, somebody is always left with a bye or an out-of-region game and this week, that is the Chiefs. They come in playing really well, having won three straight and that streak was preceded by a near upset of Fox Creek. A’Chean Durant has absolutely lived up to the hype, billing and bloodlines this season at running back. The fact that he’s only a freshman should probably induce pants poopins in defensive coordinators throughout Class A. Have fun stopping this guy for the next three years everybody. They’ve been playing really well on defense too. This is going to be a pretty heavy lift, going up against a AA St. Joe’s team that has pitched three shutouts. It has to be pointed out they’ve really only played one good team (Southside Christian) and lost to them, but they’re legitimately good and will be tough at home. The thing is, the grand scheme of things, this game really doesn’t matter a whole lot. The Chiefs will be playing Whitmire next week for a region title and number one playoff seed. Whatever they accomplish in this one is just gravy. Dixie (0-8) at Ware Shoals (1-6) Welcome to the world of pre-set playoff brackets, where this late October game between a pair of teams with one (non-SCHSL) victory between them is pretty much for a playoff spot. Region I has five teams, four of them get in, so this is an important game. I’ll give Dixie credit for a good defensive performance last week against Whitmire in a game where I expected them to get drug. They have some good size, but they are REALLY young and don’t have a whole lot of team speed. Ware Shoals won its opener over Oakbrook Prep, then lost a 14-13 heartbreaker to Calhoun Falls Charter and haven’t really been competitive since. I like do-everything, football Swiss Army knife/shape-shifting-ninja Demarius Goodman a lot and his speed could be a big difference in this one. Again, despite the records, this is someone’s big chance to punch their post-season ticket. Timmonsville (2-5) at Lamar (5-2) It’s finally nut-cutting time in Region II as they start playing the games that matter. Timmonsville might still be walking funny and talking an octave or two higher than normal after the unholy bludgeoning that Green Sea Floyds laid on them last week by a 62-8 score. The thing about the Whirlwinds is, they are on their third coach in three years, they’re really young and they have played a big-boy, no-joke schedule. Marion, Green Sea, Lee Central, East Clarendon…it’s been rough aside from their games against Scott’s Branch and Hemingway. From what I can tell, they play pretty good defense and hang in there, but are really young on offense and have struggled to scratch out points this year. A trip to Lamar in a game that really matters isn’t necessarily a recipe for getting well. It’s more a recipe for pain and suffering and losing and having your dreams set on fire. The Silver Foxes were off last week and lost the previous time out to Gray Collegiate. It is odd to see Lamar with two regukar season losses, but look at those came to. They lost a close game at Pageland and narrowly lost to Gray (a failed two-point conversion in the final few minutes was the difference) while holding a potent AA offense to its fewest passing yards of the year. As I said when it happened, if you’d have bet me Lamar would end up with more passing yards than Gray I would literally have bet my actual butt against that happening and today I would be here with no butt, trying to figure out how to sit and perform other tasks. They really didn’t throw it a lot, but Cam Galloway hit some big pass plays. I don’t suspect that will be necessary tonight. Galloway and that stable of RBs should find the sledding considerably easier this week on the ground. Great Falls (4-2) at McBee (0-7) You’d think after 7 games you’d have a decent handle on what a team has, but man I sure don’t with the Panthers. The 0-7 makes you think this will be an easy walk over game for the Red Devils, but you really have to examine that schedule a bit more. McBee, like Timmonsville, has played a frightening gauntlet of grizzly bears and knife-wielding clowns. Seriously, AJ, Chesterfield, Green Sea, Lake View, Blacksburg…being a 1A school and going 0-7 against that lineup is understandable. A lot of those weren’t close but dang if they didn’t up and almost beat Blacksburg last week, just like they did last year before winning two-of-three in the region and winning a pair of playoff games. From what I understand they are still using a spread, but not near as much as last year. They are back to the bone and like to get the ball to Jaheim Wright as much as possible. If you don’t know anything about the Wright family, just trust that they are good at football and are into mass procreation. It seems like there are four or five Wrights on McBee’s roster every year. Great Falls had two weeks off after a game with Camden Military was cancelled due to heat (something I’ve never heard of) and they had their scheduled off week last Friday. If I were them, having won three-of-four, I would not have been real keen on that long a layoff. The one upside is they should be fully healthy. Their defense is playing really well right now, making tons of negative yardage plays and forcing a lot of turnovers. I’ve discussed all the offensive weapons they bring to the table before. Tommy Seagle is throwing the ball well, they’ve developed a nice running game and D.J. Adams, Xavion Moore and others are big plays waiting to happen. This should be a really good football game. Blackville-Hilda (5-2) at Estill (2-5) Blackville-Hilda scored on of the most impressive wins of last Friday when they not only beat a hot Ridge Spring-Monetta team, they laid a savage 42-14 beatdown on them. They did that despite losing QB Adonis Davis to injury. Z’Ontre Kinard came on and played well in his stead and Daylon Dickerson had 126 yards rushing. The Hawks also scored twice on defense. I certainly hope Davis’ injury doesn’t keep him out long, but I don’t think it will matter tonight. Since their upset of Allendale-Fairfax, Estill has beaten winless North and gotten knocked around pretty badly by everyone else. Denmark-Olar (4-3) at HKT (4-3) HKT is coming off its first win over Williston-Elko in 16 years, which tells you a lot about the state of both programs. The defense came up big, with Kron Lowery and Katwan Shuler combining for five sacks. Denmark struggled a bit with Estill before taking an eight-point win. Malik Palmer went for 149 on the ground in that one and scored twice. There are bigger “name brand” games and ones with more on the line, but this is as even a contest as will probably take place tonight. Ridge Spring-Monetta (4-3) at Wagener-Salley (7-0) Boy, this seemed like a titanic clash in the making a week ago. A battle between two red hot teams peaking at the right going at it for a region crown and number one playoff seed and…now it doesn’t. At all. RS-M got worked pretty good by Blackville-Hilda last week. Collier Sullivan is a heck of a player, having run for 225 yards and two touchdowns last week, but I just think the boys from Chitlinville are on a different level than everyone else. They’re closest game this year (admittedly not against a monster schedule) was a 42-20 flogging of Fox Creek. The closest against a 1A competitor was a 37-point diddling of a good Blackville-Hilda team (the one who laid it to RS-M) last week. Until they get a deep enough in the playoffs to face Lamar, I don’t know that they’ll be challenged very much. Williston-Elko (1-6) at North (0-8) W-E is having its worst season in 15 years and will likely need to beat Denmark-Olar in the season finale to even make the playoffs. Despite those struggles, tonight will be a chance for them to get out some frustrations and at least notch a second “W” against a North team that has the state’s longest losing streak. Baptist Hill (4-3) at the Charleston Charter School for Propane and Propane Accessories (0-5) Speaking of getting some frustrations out…The Bobcats suffered one of their worst losses in recent memory last time out, getting an M-80 stuck in their tailpipe by Green Sea Floyds. They’ve had two weeks to stew on that and this week they face a Charleston Charter team that has lost its last three games by a combined score of 159-0. On the bright side, Charleston Charter has a sweet nickname (Riptide) and is right across the street from Rodney Scott’s BBQ. St. John’s (1-5) at Military Magnet (0-6) The Islanders have lost five straight against a pretty rugged slate. They are young, (like zygote or fetus young) on offense but aside from a few games when they’ve been totally outmanned, they always come to play on defense. I have a feeling their losing streak ends tonight against a Military Magnet team that is struggling on both sides of the ball right now. Branchville (7-1) at C.E. Murray (4-2) With both of these teams having already gotten by Cross, this is a de facto region title game. Huge stakes on the line here. Branchville narrowly got by Cross last week 24-22, but they are in the midst of one of the best seasons in recent memory and have a dangerous dual-threat weapon in QB Zack Wiles. He’s a big kid with a live arm that is probably their biggest rushing threat as well. The only thing I question on them is this…they did blow out a good Whitmire team and edged Cross, but the rest of their wins have come against teams with a combined record of 6-23 and four of the wins come courtesy of Colleton Prep, a non-SCHSL opponent. Their one loss was to a pretty physical Denmark-Olar team and my understanding is Cross at least matched them physically, or perhaps even won the physical battle up front. C.E. Murray is as physical as it gets. They go the blunt-force trauma, “oww, you stepped on my face” power running game route on offense and possess one of the nastiest and most physical defenses in 1A (they have allowed 36 points this season). They’ve stood toe-to-toe with ranked AA, very solid AA teams in Lee Central and Mullins and they blew out Cross two weeks ago. Branchville is a very good team but I like C.E> Murray’s chances to put the region title on ice tonight. Cross (3-4) at Bethune-Bowman (2-5) The Trojans are coming off back-to-back tough region losses. They nearly upended Branchville last week and kind of took it on the chin against C.E. Murray the week before. They aren’t going to score a lot of points on a given week (last week was the first time they scored more than 20 since late 2017) but they’re physical and play good defense. The Mr. T Haircuts have one of the state’s most underrated players in RB Jesus Benjamin, who just quietly knifes through opposing defenses for 200 yards a week. There isn’t a whole lot on hand to compliment him and their defense has struggled. Honestly, with Branchville and C.E. Murray still to come and having lost (surprisingly) to Scott’s Branch last week, this about their last chance to notch a third win and maybe get in the playoffs, but it’ll be a tall order. Columbia (0-7) at Hemingway (0-7) You hate to put it this way, but this is a chance for one or the other to not have a winless campaign. Columbia has been outscored by the opposition this year 283-94. Hemingway has lost its seven games by a combined total of 280-19. So, who knows? Green Sea Floyds (6-1) at Lake View (5-3) With both of these teams only having winless Hemingway left on the slate, this game is for the region title and a number one playoff seed. Lake View has three losses, but let’s keep in mind one came to Lamar in overtime, one came to AAA heavyweight Dillon and a very good AAA Marion team. Oddly, this was a team almost totally lacking in experience coming into the season and they’ve tweaked their offense, barely throwing the ball, but they’ve had tremendous success. Adarrian Dawkins is a super exciting player who will line up pretty much everywhere on offense. Since their lone loss (to AAA Aynor) Green Sea has obliterated McBee, Baptist Hill (who shuts out Baptist Hill, seriousl?) and Timmonsville. Offensively, they have top, top end skill talent (Bubba Elliot, Jaquan Dixon) but it’s time to start paying that defense some more serious attention. Take out the Aynor game, and they’ve allowed 51 points all year. They are tough as crap to run on, which might complicate things for Lake View. I like the Trojans here, but still, there’s a ton on the line and it could get interesting. Calhoun Falls Charter (1-3) at McCormick (2-4)
The Flashes were off last week but lost badly to Trinity Byrnes their last time out and have dropped three straight since opening with a win over Ware Shoals. The Chiefs have gone in exactly the opposite direction. They lost their first four (to AAA Crescent, to a pair of good Georgia teams and in overtime to Fox Creek) before absolutely crap rolling Eau Claire and Dixie the past two weeks. They aren’t a one-man show on offense entirely, but they do lean heavily on freshman RB A’Chean Durant, who had 133 yards and four TDs last week against Dixie and 200-plus against the Shamrocks. CF Charter has some weapons with QB Avant Harris and a couple of nice receivers, but depth gets to be an issue with a roster of 17 and the Chiefs, offensively are on fire right now. Whitmire (4-3) at Dixie (0-7) The Wolverines come in having won three of their last four games, including a 32-3 thumping Ware Shoals last week. Chandler Crumley is like a pile of cinderblocks in a wagon rolling down a mountainside on fire …he’s large fullback that is difficult to tackle is my point here. The guy to really watch out for this week, though, is Jaquan Tindell-White, the speedy compliment to Crumley’s blunt-force trauma between-the-tackles. Most of the outside stuff in that scrum offense goes to him and I think that is where they will have some success. Dixie has some pretty good size and apparently has some help on the way (having beaten Whitmire in JV action by a pretty wide margin earlier this week) but they are super young and don’t have a lot of speed. If the Wolverines take care of business here, they should be able to get by CF Charter next week and play McCormick for the region title on the last night of the regular season. Timmonsville (2-4) at Green Sea Floyds (5-1) So, the Whirlwinds come in on a little bit of a roll, having won two straight after an 0-4 start. Now, honesty compels me to point out those two wins have been by a combined total of 10 points over a pair of 1A schools with a combined record of 1-12…but those four losses all came to AA and AAA schools, pretty good ones at that. Honestly, given who they are playing this week and next week (Lamar) I don’t think we’ll get a true picture of this team until the final two weeks of the year. They are young and for the most part have hung in there and played good defense. That’s great and it’s something to build on but I don’t think it’s going to help this week. GSF is kind of on a different level right now in terms of depth, talent, execution etc. They laid a verified CRANKSMACK on a pretty good Baptist Hill team last week, beating them 47-0 and holding them 100 yards of offense. Read that again…HELD BAPTIST HILL TO 100 YARDS AND NOT NAM POINTS. Better days are coming for Timmonsville and they won’t throw in the towel here, but they may also need said towel to bite down on. McBee (0-6) at Blacksburg (4-2) The grisly gauntlet of broken dreams and butt floggings that is the McBee out-of-region slate ends tonight with another doozie, against a good AA Blacksburg team. Hand it to the Panthers, man, they play a real, big-boy schedule. Lake View, Green Sea, North Central, AJ and now this’n. Now, this was a surprisingly close game last year…I don’t expect it to be this time around, but they should be more than ready for region play when it starts next week. Don’t forget, they were 0-7 against this schedule last year, won two-of-three to make the playoffs, then won two post-season games. Don’t write them off just yet. Ridge Spring-Monetta (4-2) at Blackville-Hilda (4-2) This is a really important game for both teams, for reasons beyond their annual battle for the bronzed hyphen spittoon. For B-H, a loss likely means no better than a third-place finish in Region III, which equates to only one home playoff game. RS-M has to win this one to make next week’s game at Wagener-Salley a de facto region title contest. The Trojans labored a bit last week, needing to rally for a 30-20 win over a solid Denmark-Olar team. Helping on that front was scary football ninja/maniacal QB-squashing robot Tray Dean who had FIFTEEN FREAKIN’ TACKLES and recovered a fumble from his DE spot. The amazing and awesomely-named QB Remedee Leaphart (a name that makes him sound like the unbeatable bad guy in a gladiator film or a giant stuffed panda, I can’t decide which) had 225 yards of total offense and three scores in that game. B-H bounced back from their loss to Wagener-Salley with a nice win over HKT. Adonis Davis (who competes with Remedee Leaphart for coolest QB name in the state) is obviously a huge threat to with his legs and arm behind a good O line and with a bevy of weapons at his disposal. This could actually be one of the more entertaining games in 1A this week. Estill (2-4) at Denmark-Olar (3-3) Since surprising what has turned out to be a pretty good AA Allendale-Fairfax team, Estill has beaten winless North badly and gotten blown out four times. D-O sure feels like they are just a rung or so below the top contenders. They beat Branchville and gave RS-M and Blackville-Hilda both really competitive games. Their defense should be the difference in this one. Williston-Elko (1-5) at HKT (3-3) I still can’t get used to seeing (1-5) next to Williston’s name. I guess when a program has the kind of prolonged success that they have, you start to take it for granted or feel like they are somehow impervious to the giant ebbs and flows in talent that 1A schools have to contend with. They aren’t, though, and are coming off a pretty sound rogering at the hands of Wagener-Salley. They do have a good QB in Tres Rimes (every QB in this region has an amazing name) who is on pace for about a 2,000-yard passing season. It’s hard to get your head around, but Williston really, really needs this game for playoff purposes. Region III gets five bids and I think we agree Wagener, RS-M and Blackville are locks. North and Estill are likely on the outside looking in, which leaves Williston, Denmark-Olar and HKT competing for the final two spots. None of the three has played one another yet, so it isn’t much of a stretch to say the playoffs kinda start for both of these teams tonight. Wagener-Salley (6-0) at North (0-6) The kind of game you hope ends quickly and with no injuries. Bethune-Bowman (2-4) at Scott’s Branch (1-6) If you’re Scott’s Branch, this kinda feels like the start of the playoffs for you. Region V gets four bids (out of five teams) and beating Cross or C.E. Murray in the final two weeks of the season sure doesn’t feel like a thing that’s going to happen. Honestly, though, you take away the 36-15 win over a struggling Military Magnet team and Scott’s Branch has been outscored this year 214-42. The Mr. T Haircuts have had some rough nights defensively against good teams and don’t score a ton of points. They are a bit one-trick pony-ish on offense, but dadgum that pony does a good trick. It tap dances on a high wire while juggling lit road flares and playing the oboe. Jesus Benjamin is one of the best backs in the state, he’s put up gaudy numbers this year but last week’s performance is one to really stand back and admire. In a win over Military Magnet, he ran for 376 yards and had 448 total yards of offense. He get ANYWHERE close to that this week at the Haircuts win it going away. Cross (3-3) at Branchville (6-1) This game figures to be a whole lot more competitive that the records would indicate. Branchville is 6-1, but only one win was against a team with a winning record (Whitmire). Now, they blew their doors off, but the rest of their wins are against winless Military Magnet, winless North, one-win Scott’s Branch, the winless Charleston Charter School for Etc. and So On and Colleton Prep. The loss was a shootout to a pretty good Denmark-Olar team. Doesn’t mean they aren’t legit, just means they haven’t had to prove it, really. Zack Wiles is a big, athletic QB with a good arm and a nose for the end zone. Cross took it on the chin last week to C.E. Murray and remain offensively challenged. Still, they can play some keep away on offense and are dang good on defense. This one could be interesting. McCormick- 41
Dixie- 14 Whitmire- 32 Ware Shoals- 3 Gray- 28 Lamar- 26 Timmonsville- 10 Hemingway- 6 Blackville-Hilda- 38 HKT- 12 Ridge Spring-Monetta- 30 Denmark-Olar- 20 Estill- 57 North (An oldie but goodie) WHITE CANDY BAR!!!! Wagener-Salley- 54 Williston-Elko- 16 Green Sea Floyds- 47 Baptist Hill- Not 47. We don’t have to be jerks about it. Legion- 59 Charleston Charter School of Diplomacy and Frog-Gigging-If the spread was 60, they barely covered. Bethune-Bowman- 38 Military Magnet- 10 Calvary Day- 48 St. John’s- 12 Branchville- 33 Scott’s Branch- Scott may have a branch, but he had no points C.E. Murray- 33 Cross- 7 Lake View- 48 McBee- 3 Breakdown- With nearly everyone having started region play at this point, there was only one “up” game, that being Lamar’s narrow loss to Gray Collegiate. I figured that would be a close, down-to-the-wire affair and it was, with the difference being a failed two-point conversion attempt by the Silver Foxes with 2:13 left in the game. What I was wrong about was the means by which the game would play out. If you’d told me before the game Lamar would throw for more yards than Gray, in the game I would have bet my actual butt on that outcome…and today I’d be weird, no butt guy, walking around with no means of sitting down. Gray came in with the most prolific passing attack in the state and Lamar came in really not wanting to throw the ball much at all if they can help it. Now Gray had an efficient night tossing it around, hitting 14-of-19 passes, but they went for only 131 yards, so it was major league Dinky McCheckdown stuff. Cam Galloway made some big plays in the passing game for Lamar, though, hitting 6-of-10 for 182 yards. Another odd twist was that aside from 52 yards from Galloway, the Silver Foxes found pretty tough sledding on the ground. KZ Adams had 174 yards rushing for Gray. I know it looks odd to see Lamar with two losses in a season, but when you look at the two losses closely, you see not much of anything to worry about. They lost a close game at Pageland and were a two-point conversion play away from sending a game with a AA sports academy into overtime. They’ll be fine, probably starting this week when they open region play with Timmonsville… From a name standpoint, Green Sea Floyds v. Baptist Hill was an attractive matchup, certainly and I thought the game might at least be entertaining and it was in much the same way watching a pack of lion chase, kill and eat a three-legged deer is entertaining. The one thing I thought that Baptist Hill might be able to do was stretch the field a little, hit some big plays in the passing game. From what I’d been told, Green Sea has a bit of a downhill defense, which makes sense no more than they see the spread. It turns out that “haven’t had to defend the pass” and “can’t defend the pass” are way different things. They overwhelmed the Bobcats, got a ton of negative yardage plays, held them to negative total rushing yards and only 100 yards of offense. For the Trojans, it was the usual suspects on offense (Bubba Elliot, Jaquan Dixon). Now we just kind of sit back and wait a few weeks for them to face Lake View in a game that should be for the region title and about the only actual challenge the Trojans have left. Baptist Hill isn’t a bad team by any stretch, but they aren’t putting up the gaudy, pretend, video game offensive totals of the past few years. I wouldn’t be shocked to see them in a dog fight with St. John’s for their region at the end of the season…just a hunch… C.E. Murray-Cross was another game that going in seemed like it might be a decent contest, but turned into a one-sided tail-whipping. Cross is a bit offensively challenged just to start with. They haven’t scored 20 points in nearly two seasons, but have been successful this year eating some clock and playing really good defense. That formula just didn’t work against the War Eagles who are playing some of Class A’s best defense right now. They’ve allowed only 36 points all year and only seven in two games against 1A competition. They were also able to have a lot of success running the ball on Cross (which hasn’t happened much this year). I’m sure you stand shocked and amazed that a Brian Smith coached team is stepping on people’s faces in the run game and just kinda going “nah” on defense. They get an off week then they’ll take on a hot Branchville team in a game that will essentially be for the region title. There weren’t a lot of other big matchups or “name” showdowns last week. Now, Ridge Spring-Monetta having to rally for a comeback win against Denmark-Olar turned out to be a good one. With Williston obviously just having a down year RS-M is about the only thing between Wagener-Salley and a region crown (and the number one playoff seed that comes with it). They get a tough one at Blackville-Hilda next week, then face the boys from Chitlinville, likely with everything on the line…I also did want to mention one noteworthy individual achievement from this past week. I’ve mentioned Jesus Benjamin from Bethune Bowman on several occasions. Old-school plow-horse back who logs a ton of carries and accounts for most of what the Mr. T Haircuts do on offense. Watching highlights he may not be super big or fast, but he’s a patient, smart, tough runner than you better bring some friends to help tackle. Well, Military Magnet must not have any friends, because he had 448 total yards including 376 on the ground Friday night. An unbelievable, all-time great performance. Pol Time You know the drill by now. The first poll is the actual S.C. Prep Media Poll, followed by my ballot for said. 1. Wagener-Salley (7) 2. Green Sea Floyds (2) 3. Lamar (2) 4. Lake View 5. Blackville-Hilda 6. C.E. Murray 7. Branchville 8. Ridge Spring-Monetta 9. GREAT FALLS 10. (tie) Baptist Hill, Denmark-Olar 1. Green Sea Floyds 2. Wagener-Salley 3. Lamar 4. Lake View 5. Branchville 6. C.E. Murray 7. Blackville-Hilda 8. Ridge Spring-Monetta 9. Great Falls 10. Baptist Hill Suggested reading… You can read capsules of several games right here, including one detailing Jesus Benjamin’s big night…or you can choose not to. I ain’t the boss of you, Hoss. Green Sea Floyds is good at football. The team that plays next to the public course, behind the wall in the Pearl of the Piedmont is over .500 now and figures to lock up a winning record the next two weeks. McCormick (1-4) at Dixie (0-6)
The Chiefs are coming off a bye week but picked up a 37-0 blowout win over Eau Claire their last time out. They had been really close in a couple of previous games (against Crescent and Fox Creek) so maybe that victory was the start of something. A’Chean Durant looked very much like his older brother (Mataeo) against the Shamrocks, running for 227 yards…so it would be more accurate to say he looked like what you’d get if Tecmo Bowl Bo Jackson and a bullet could somehow have a baby. And he’s a freshman, so everyone have fun trying to tackle/catch/keep up with him for three more years. Dixie lost 18 starters from last year’s upperstate finalist team. They’ve got some size, but it inexperienced size, and they are lacking in team speed generally. They were shut out by Ninety-Six last week (thought he defense didn’t play badly at all) and have scored just 27 points on the year. Ware Shoals (1-5) at Whitmire (3-3) The region opener for both teams. Whitmire has alternated win-loss through its first six games of the year, including a nice 21-6 victory last week over the Mr. T Haircuts. Whitmire just kinda did Whitmire stuff in that one, dominating the clock and rushing for 291 yards. Jaquan Tindall-White had 15 carries for 108 yards, Matthew Prather had 72 yards and a touchdown and bull/Buick hybrid Chandler Crumley had 71 yards and two touchdowns. Ware Shoals got worked pretty good by Great Falls 40-3. They’ve lost five straight and outside their victory to start the year over Oakbrook Prep, they just haven’t done much offensively and that puts a lot of added pressure on a defense that is struggling too. Jamarius Goodman is a human highlight reel on offense, but playing a disciplined, tough, clock-squashing squad that considers a three-yard rush a successful play might be a bit heavy of a lift for the Purple Hornets right now. Gray Collegiate (2-3) at Lamar (5-1) You probably remember that this game last year is what marked the end of Lamar’s winning streak and it was the game in which Cam Galloway was injured. That changed the complexion of the Silver Fox offense and maybe played a roll in their not winning state. He’s back healthy and playing well now and he’ll be needed tonight. Gray is 2-3, but those losses have come in a shootout to a Gilbert team I expect to make some big noise in the AAA playoffs, to The OC Semi-pros and AAAAA White Knoll. They have the state’s most productive passing offense and wide open spreads aren’t a thing Class A schools encounter often. Lamar coach Chad Wilkes is a spread guy at heart, he ran that at C.E. Murray and I think that will be beneficial in this one. He knows how to defend that kind of attack. I think Lamar’s O line and running game will give Gray some trouble. This one could go either way, though, and figures to be an excellent game. Lake View (3-3) at McBee (0-5) I give the Panthers immense credit for nuttin’ up and playing a non-region gauntlet made up of scary jungle cats, dragons and monster trucks. Seriously…AJ, Chesterfield, North Central, Hannah-Pamplico, Green Sea Floyds, Blacksburg next week and the Wild Gators tonight. Aside from AJ and Green Sea, the games have actually been competitive. Given who they’ve played, it’s difficult to tell a whole lot about them. It could be like last year where they started 0-7 then ended up winning two playoff games. Lake View has lost three straight but that’s been against Dillon, Marion and Lamar (in overtime). It may be another rough one for the Panthers but I tend to think better things are coming down the line. HKT (3-2) at Blackville-Hilda (3-2) To have any shot at a region crown, both of these teams need this game, then they’ll need some help (what with both already having been unmercifully flogged by Wagener-Salley). B-H lost to them last week. They played really well for a half, but they were stopped at the goal line to end the second quarter and didn’t much sniff the end zone again. Adonis Davis didn’t have much success throwing the ball, but he did run for more than 100 yards. HKT has lost a competitive game to Edisto and a not-in-any-way competitive game to Wagener-Salley. Outside of that, though, they’ve thrown some beatings on Eau Claire, The Mr. T Haircuts and Estill, so this gave probably shouldn’t be viewed as pushover for the Hawks by any means. Denmark-Olar (3-2) at Ridge Spring-Monetta (3-2) RS-M has won three straight after an 0-2 start. Those two losses are almost toss outs, though, as they came against Saluda and Batesburg-Lessville. Against like-sized, Class A competition, they’ve actually been pretty dominant. That pasted a pretty good Whitmire team, gave North a proper seeing to and knocked around Williston-Elko last week. Collier Sullivan is a very good RB, but D-O has done a pretty nice job defensively this year for the most part. Another game where there is an obvious favorite but nothing should be taken for granted. North (0-5) at Estill (1-4) I hope North turns things around. Being mired in as long a losing streak as they are in is a morale crusher for everyone involved…and looking at what they have left on the schedule, if they’re gonna do it this year, they better get it done tonight. After beating Allendale-Fairfax to start the year (which is a head-scratcher, frankly, given what has happened with both teams since) they’ve been blown out four straight times. Williston-Elko (1-4) at Wagener-Salley (5-0) I don’t know what is going on with the Blue Devils. One week they’ll play well on offense and lose in a shutout, the next week, the defense will come to play and the offense will have a rough night for one reason or another. I do know that trying to fix any of that on the road in Chitlinburg is generally a recipe for HERPA DERPA DOO.. Wagener laid it to a good Blackville-Hilda team last week, they have a suffocating defense that can actually defend the pass (a weakness for them some years). Offensively, they can just mash you with a massive front line and a stable of backs, but they can also throw it a bit now. They are much more complete than they’ve been during any year in their recent run of success. Williston is a proud program, they have talent, are well-coached and maybe they’ll make this interesting, but given all the evidence on hand, this may not be close Green Sea Floyds (4-1) at Baptist Hill (4-2) So, here is the game of the week in Class A. Green Sea comes in fresh off a 35-7 win over McBee. The offense actually got off to a slow start, but Jaquan Dixon, QB/Dirt track tire changer Bubba Elliot and Anwain Graham all put up their customary “holy crap, Playstation” type numbers and pulled away. That offense just has so many ways to hurt you. It isn’t so much death by a thousand tiny cuts and it’s being filleted by a thousand chainsaws. The defense doesn’t get enough credit (probably because the offense is so potent) but that is a very box-stacking, downhill type defense. They haven’t played many teams that will challenge them downfield like the Bobcats are going to. It doesn’t mean they can stop the pass, they just haven’t had to. Aside from the two sound rogerings they handed out to Burke and Academic Magnet, Baptist Hill hasn’t put up the points and yards we’ve become accustomed to in recent years. After a rough go of things against The OC Semi-pros in the opener, the defense has played pretty well. They’ll have to score a lot of points to keep up with Green Sea and make some big plays in the passing game, but this might be a pretty entertaining contest. The Legion Transfer Portal (2-2) at The Charleston Charter School for Forensic Science and applied Poop Studies (0-3) Really bad matchup here. Prayers up for the Riptide. Military Magnet (0-4-1) at Bethune-Bowman (1-4) The Mr. T. Haircuts have an all-star quality back in Jesus Benjamin, but they haven’t been able to do much else offensively but ride him and their defense has been up-and-down. Benjamin alone might be enough tonight. Military Magnet hasn’t really been close in any of their contest this year. St. John’s (1-4) at Calvary Day (3-1) This will be a tough one for the Islanders…another tough one. They’ve played a fairly brutal schedule but I believe they’ll be more than ready for when region play starts next week. Scott’s Branch (1-5) at Branchville (5-1) This game is significant as it pits the two schools in our state with the word “branch” in their name against each other. That is actually in no way significant, now that I think about it. It’s more an “interesting note” or “a dumb thing I noticed.” Anyway, Scott’s Branch has given up 217 points in six games, and that number was made to look a little better by their one win (over Military Magnet). That total figures to be much higher after tonight. The Yellow Jackets are scoring a ton of points and have an athletic, strong-armed trigger man for their offense in big Zack Wiles. C.E. Murray (3-2) at Cross (3-2) This will be such an old-school, tater kickin’ type game that it will actually be played in black and white. I don’t mean pictures, I mean the field and uniforms will be devoid of color…the coaches will chew stoagies on the sidelines and order players named Clem and W.E. to more properly execute cross body blocks. I’m only mildly joking. Neither of these teams is much interested in throwing the football. They win on a power running game and great defense. Cross put up a heck of fight against Baptist Hill two weeks ago. They lost, but they also only allowed 22 points to the Bobcats. They won over Lake Marion last week, but the persistent problem for them has been consistently scoring points. They have not cracked the 20 threshold since late 2017. Against a team like C.E. Murray that allows less than 6 points a game, that is likely to be their undoing. The War Eagles are a bit more equipped to make big plays and put up points too. Still, this should be a physical war. Hemingway (0-6) at Timmonsville ( It’s been a rough year for Hemingway. They are winless, they have scored 13 points all year and have yielded 270. Timmonsville is young and they’ve taken some whoopings this year, but the kids seem to be playing hard and in games when they haven’t been totally outmanned, the defense has kept them close. They got a 26-20 win last week over Scott’s Branch (Thomas McFadden’s first as head coach) and would seem in line to get another this week. Calhoun Falls Charter- 56
Trinity-Byrnes- 19 Ninety Six- 26 Dixie- Take the name of their opponent and subtract 96 Great Falls- 40 Ware Shoals- 3 Whitmire- 21 Bethune-Bowman- 9 Lamar- 36 Lake View- 34 Green Sea Floyds- 35 McBee- 7 Timmonsville- 26 Scott’s Branch- 20 Wagener-Salley- 49 Blackville-Hilda- 12 Denmark-Olar- 31 North- 3? No. 2? Guess again. 1? You’re getting warmer HKT- 32 Estill- 6 Ridge Spring-Monetta- 42 Williston-Elko- 25 Baptist Hill- 28 North Charleston- 12 Burke- 48 The Charleston Charter Academy for Fly Fishing and Aeronautics- Branchville- 42 Military Magnet- 18 Waccamaw- 28 St. John’s 6 C.E. Murray- 39 Hemingway- Seriously, who didn’t love Jami Gertz? Cross- 19 Lake Marion- 6 Breakdown- The boys from Chitlinvania made a statement on Friday night and that statement was “we’re good at football.” Wagener-Salley rolled over Blackville-Hilda 49-12 and in doing so put themselves firmly in the driver’s seat in Region III. Wagener answered pretty much any lingering question anyone may have had about them with this dominating performance. Since Coach Willie Fox turned the program around a few years ago, they’ve managed to physically out-maul even other physical mauler teams. If you want to have an old-fashioned tater-kicking contest, they’ll take your best shot and reduce you to a whimpering pile of ouch in short order, but what has generally given them problems at some point is an athletic team that can spread the field and challenge them vertically. I’ve watched highlights of B-H QB Adonis Davis and he is a really good deep ball passer. While he did run for more than 100 yards, most of that came in the first half and he was just 3-of-18 through the air. It was a 20-6 ballgame late in the first half when Wagener came up with a goal line stand as time expired. They made a defensive tweak at the half, inserting a nose guard into the line. Frankly, that’s just what you want when playing W-S, is another large, scary person on the line of scrimmage. Doing so meant the secondary had to step up but they obviously did so. The Stump Whopped All-Stars also showed off some offensive versatility. They’ve generally been able to line up and shove it people’s face hole for several years now, but I think they realize that if they want to compete with Lamar and Green Sea for a state title, they can’t be as one-dimensional as they have been. Gaige Starnes didn’t put up huge numbers throwing it, but he went for 109 yards and two scores in the air (and caught a 25-yard scoring toss from Kevin Jackson). Jackson, who is very much like what you’d get if a lightning bolt and cheetah could somehow have a baby, also had 72 yards rushing and a score on just nine carries. Jhuatieg Davis actually led the way on the ground with 104 yards. They appear to be a complete team in a way they haven’t been in the past. With Williston-Elko struggling as they are, it appears all that stands between them, a region title and that sweet, delicious number one playoff seed is Ridge Spring-Monetta. The two meet in a just a couple of weeks… With teams starting to get into or towards region play, there were only a handful of “up” games for a 1A brothers this week and the only win in those games came courtesy of Cross who knocked off Lake Marion 19-6. It’s nice to see the Trojans bouncing back after a winless 2018 campaign. They still haven’t managed to crack the 20-point barrier since late 2017, but thus far that hasn’t mattered as they’ve started 3-2. If you go back two years, they were able to manhandle people and allow Nathan Walker to step on the faces of opposing school children as one of the state’s nastiest, most physical backs. They aren’t back up to that level, but it looks like they are able to eat clock, play a bit of keepaway and get after it on defense. We’ll get a pretty good idea of just how far they’ve come this week as they battle C.E. Murray in the region opener for both. The War Eagles have one of the best defenses in Class A this year. They shut out Kingstree, Lake Marion and Hemingway, while losing to a good AA teams Lee Central and Mullins, by scores of 14-13 and 15-12 respectively. When you’re struggling on offense anyway, playing C.E. Murray is kind of like eating a block of Velveeta when you’re already having troubles making poo. For those new to this blog, I make the world’s most ridiculous analogies and that one ranks right among the worst… Last Friday featured a game of the week truly worthy of the title as Lamar edged Lake View 36-34 in overtime. Honestly, going into this one, I felt the Wild Gators would be competitive and hang around for a while, but would end up losing by three or four scores and HOLY CRAP WAS I DUMB AND WRONG. Lake View held a 20-0 lead at halftime. Lamar had a lot of self-inflicted wounds in the form of two lost fumbles and 80 yards in penalties on the night. Give some credit to Lake View too. While they didn’t crack 200 yards of total offense, they played good defense (in the first half especially), they got a special teams score and stuck to a running game that was productive if not flashy. Lamar came storming back and did so, mostly, by sticking to their ground game. Cam Galloway ran for 92 yards, Jiaquell James had 87 and Dajour Green was the ultimate finisher. He only tallied 27 yards on seven carries but four of those went for touchdowns. Oh, and he caught two passes for 93 yards and another score. So Lamar demonstrated that they can stifle even the best offenses, that they’re never out of a game, that they don’t have to get desperate and throw it to catch up when behind and that they can overcome mistakes to get a win. They’ll get serious test this week against the open enrollers from Gray. You’ll remember that Gray ended Lamar’s long winning streak last year. That was the game when Galloway was lost for the year to injury, which may have changed the entire complexion of 1A football in 2018. Lake View has now lost three straight games but it’s hard to get too concerned over that considering those came to Dillon, Marion and Lamar, the latter of those in OT. They get McBee this week, then a bye week then get another stern test when Green Sea Floyds comes to town. Quick hits- I keep talking up Great Falls and its time for folks to realize something is brewing over there near the Catawba. Well, technically moonshine is probably brewing near the Catawba, but so is some good football. After four years of terrible struggles, the Red Devils are 4-2 after a 40-3 thumping of Ware Shoals. Now, I know the last two wins have come against teams with one win between them, but Great Falls has made long road trips and absolutely taken care of business. D.J. Adams is budding into an all-state player right before eyes, with ability to play RB, QB, WR or wherever he’s needed. They have other weapons too, but pay attention to that defense, which has allowed 10 points the last two weeks. They force a lot of turnovers and make a lot of negative yardage plays. They get Camden Military Thursday at 4 p.m. (Camden has no lights) before getting a needed week off (most of their guys go both ways and are probably a little beat up) then start the region slate…Branchville is an interesting team. They stand at 5-1 but three of those wins came against winless squads and one was against Jim Bob’s Football Finishing School or some such. Still, they’ve done what good teams do against inferior competition (which is roger them soundly) and they blew out a good and very scrappy Whitmire team. They’re pretty balanced on offense with Zach Wiles offering big-time dual-threatness (is that a word, I don’t think it’s a word). They get another struggling team this week in Scott’s Branch before getting to the meat of their schedule the following two weeks (against Cross and C.E. Murray)…Can anyone tell me what’s up with Williston-Elko? I mean, you pretty much write off the up losses to Barnwell, Silver Bluff and probably even Allendale-Fairfax, but they got waxed by RS-M this past week. They are now 1-4 on the year and 7-11 since the start of last season. This is a team that hasn’t had a losing record since 2006 and for whom an eight-win season has been down year since then. Certainly, RS-M is coming on after their own slow start, but it isn’t like things get easier with Wagener-Salley up next on the schedule. Is it just the schedule? I’m legit curious for some insight. Suggested reading Do chitlins even have taters? I’ll have to look into that. If I’d said “block of cheddar” instead of Velveeta, would that have made it better? When you think “dumb and wrong” think of me I would tell you to read capsules of lots of games here and also here and read about Branchville here but it’s not like you listen to anybody. It’s talking to a brick wall sometimes, Larry. I thought about being all cutesy pie and semi-historical by opening this column with “The Yankees are coming.” That wouldn’t rally be accurate, though. They’re already here, brother. On our walk in Horry County, it looked like the invasion was already complete. I took the occasion of our recent family vacation to the coast to knock a couple of far-flung counties off my dog-walking list. Horry is probably the county I’ve visited the most frequently and vacationed in the most often. I’ve obviously stayed at Myrtle Beach a bajillion times because I’m from South Carolina and that’s generally where you go on vacation when you live here. I’ve stayed at North Myrtle and my entire family used to make a week-long trip to Cherry Grove. For years, we rented a house there from a guy who worked for my dad. For some reason, after my dad fired that fellow, he seemed unwilling to let us stay at his place. Go figure. Because of time, location and the weather, we’d be leaving where we were staying in Georgetown, driving just over the Horry County line and staging our walk in Garden City, a place I’ve been through a lot, but never really been to much that I can recall. Ashley parked the car, let me and the dogs out, then shut door and sat in air-conditioned comfort while Tucker, Gracie and I started trudging down the road (she was dealing with allergies and stuff, so she gets a flier). It was not quite 11 a .m. as we started, but it immediately felt like I was wearing a parka and fur-lined boots in a hot shower. Typical, hot, humid beach day. What with my walking partners covered in fur and lacking sweat glands, I figured we needed to get on with walking and wrap this one up as soon as possible. Garden City, the stretch we were walking anyway, looked like most of the Horry County coastline. There were condos and beach houses and apartments and hotels with a smattering of restaurants and bars. I passed one of the latter and saw a younger blond woman reading a book and she did look up long enough to smile at the dogs. She was drinking orange juice…but was doing so from a large champagne goblet, so I suspect there was a little more than Tropicana in her glass. The bar had a fairly loud sound system that I couldn’t help but hear. As we strode past, they were playing some remake of “When you say nothing at all.” That song, originally recorded by Keith Whitley, is one of the best-written you’ll hear and his earnest rendering is fantastic. Allison Krauss remade it and that stands as one of the single prettiest things I’ve ever heard, with her soft, high voice lifting those lyrics to heights that are almost unimaginable. Well, the version I was hearing wasn’t by Keith or Allison, it was by somebody else and it sucked. It was hot trash in a taco shell. I don’t know who sang it, but my advice to that guy and anyone else attempting to wreck a classic is to not do it. If there’s already two amazing versions of a song, both so good that you can argue that either is the “definitive” version, you probably aren’t going to improve upon it. So don’t try. I have dogs to walk and that lady is reading her book and get hammered and we’d prefer to hear something else…or nothing at all. As I’ve documented before, the one trouble with walking my dogs near water is that they are drawn to it (Tucker especially). He’ll all but rip my shoulder out of its socket as I hang onto his leash for dear life as he barrels towards anything from a mud puddle to a creek. In this instance, there was a whole ocean on just the other side of some dunes. Oddly, even when we ventured up to where he could actually see the water, he wasn’t his normal enthusiastic self. I figured the temperature and humidity might have tamped down his level of energy. It is in no way surprising that when you are walking near the ocean, in South Carolina, in July it is going to be hot and humid, even in the late morning hours. That ranks somewhere on the “surprise meter” between “water is wet” and “trees are wood.” It was particularly bad on this day, though, so for the comfort and safety of Tucker and Gracie, I checked my surroundings, plotted a path and went about walking it so I could get them back to the car. I only deviated from that path once, that being when I saw a pair of booths set up near a public beach entrance. One was selling shaved ice, snowballs, slushies or whatever you wish to call that mix of ice and fruity syrup in a cup. Honestly, I like to have about half of one of those on occasion. As you get towards the bottom, the ice is melting, and it basically turns into super sweet, colored water. Given that is was 700 degrees with 500 percent humidity (roughly, I’m guessing) anything cold and wet would have really hit the spot. That wouldn’t happen both because I had no cash in my wallet and because the idea of trying to hold a cup and spoon while also holding the leashes to two active, excitable, 80-plus-pound dogs is laughable. That would be a straight up recipe for my cup of shaved ice ending up on the ground. Or with my luck, on somebody’s car or shoes. I had to pass, but the lady running that little stand had already noticed my dogs. “My goodness, they are beautiful…but how in the world do you walk both of them at once?” the lady asked. I thanked her and told her it’s like riding a wild horse. I just hang on and try not to get bucked or trampled. “Did you dock that one’s tail?” she asked, pointing at Gracie. We actually get asked about that a lot. I guess enough people whack their dog’s tails off that most people naturally assume when they see a no-tail dog, that’s what happened. To me, that would’ve been like your mom chopping off your earlobes. “You had some real droopy earlobes. It’s not like you need them. You can still hear.” I explained that Gracie was born with no tail at all. You can feel back there that there is nothing, not even a nub. A shaved ice stand in that spot makes a lot of sense. There is a lot of foot traffic, it’s hot, people want something cold etc. The second little stand was something I’d never seen. It was a “burn center” for lack of a better term, with a lady offering a variety of sunblock and related items for free. The whole thing was sponsored by a local church. That’s an interesting form of outreach and if it allows them to reach and touch folks, that’s great. I’ll tell you, though, if I was that church, I would be very tempted to just take that theme all the way. “We don’t want you to burn on the beach…or in that other place.” “If you think it’s hot on the beach…” The lady stationed in that stand waved and asked my dog’s names, then spoke to them. Mainly telling them how pretty they both were. Tucker, in particular, always likes to hear from his adoring public, but at this point he was pretty hot so it was about time to head back. We only went a little further down the road but two things caught my attention. The first was the number of golf carts I saw, particularly ones modified so as to be able to carry stuff. People were loading up their beach gear in these things, some of which I think were actually like golf cart taxis that you call for. I get that if you have a big family, there is a nice convenience to having something to tote around your chairs, floats and things and it’s great for folks who perhaps have a little trouble getting around on their own…but I promise you, I saw one family staying directly across the street from the beach (literally, a few feet from the sand) load their stuff up, drive across the road and unload it. My first impulse was to think “man, y’all are lazy” but actually, they are really poor planners. It took WAY more time to load their gear up, drive 30 feet, then unload it, than it would have to just carry it. We used to walk a good third-of-a-mile to the beach in Cherry Grove lugging every beach item imaginable with us when we did. There was no ease of travel with a golf cart. You carried chairs, bags, boogie boards and everything else and if you had to use the bathroom, dad wasn’t giving you a quick ride back to the house. You ran back there yourself or did your business in the ocean. THESE KIDS TODAY WITH THEIR GOLF CARTS!!!! The other thing that really started to stick out was the number of folks from faraway lands (like Ohio) that were staying in Garden City. South Carolina is a vacation destination, obviously, and I’ve always noted the variety of license plates and things there from outside the state. I’d never seen this many, though, nor seen them manifest themselves with so many college colors. Almost everywhere I looked there were Ohio State Buckeye flags flying from balconies, Michigan gear, Notre Dame paraphernalia. My first impulse was to take it as an affront…it’s one thing to come here, it’s quite another to literally wave the flag of the Fighting Irish in the home of Tigers and Gamecocks. Really, though, they’re visiting and they’re spending lots of their money in my home state. Plus, all of them I interacted with (which included Michigan, Ohio State and Purdue fans) were all nice. Granted, they looked at me like I was an extra from some Hee Haw sketch when I opened my mouth, but they all got goo goo eyed over my dogs. I can appreciate that while also hating your team. That Big 10 annex is about where we turned around to go back. That lady was still sitting in the open-air bar reading her book. I noticed. She didn’t look up and smile at Tucker and Gracie this time. I noticed her glass had been topped off, so she might not have been able. I like our visitors from the north but man, they can’t hold their liquor. |
TravisI am Travis, the king 0f SC 1A Football Archives
November 2021
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