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Calhoun Falls Charter- Failed to score in this football contest Dixie- 25 Ware Shoals- 3 McCormick- 45 Whitmire- 6 C.A. Johnson- 22 Keenan- 20 Great Falls- 8 McBee- 6 Lamar- 34 Lewisville- 16 Blackville-Hilda- 12 Ridge Spring-Monetta- 6 Denmark-Olar- 40 Calhoun County- 24 Williston-Elko- 40 North/Hunter-Kinard-Tyler- 18 C.E. Murray- 52 Scott’s Branch- 6 East Clarendon- 33 Hemingway- 6 Carvers Bay- 27 Hannah-Pamplico- 20 Johnsonville- 32 Green Sea Floyds- 14 Lake View- 46 Timmonsville- 8 Bamberg-Ehrhardt- 24 Allendale-Fairfax- A bit less that Bamberg had. 24 less, actually. Estill- 22 Bethune-Bowman- 14 Baptist Hill- 30 St. Johns- 6 Whale Branch- 33 Cross- 14 Military Magnet- 26 Charleston Charter School of Taxidermy, Haberdashery and Pie- 8 Breakdown- With the season shortened because of COVID, we aren’t getting a lot of 1A teams with the chance to show their stuff in “up” games, but we had one Friday night. I’ve said that C.A. Johnson wasn’t just coasting on a cupcake wave, in Softy Ocean, just off the shore of Sucky Suck Beach. I think that meant I said they were good and weren’t just beating weaklings. Analogies and examples aren’t my strong suit. Anyway, they trailed AAA Keenan 20-2 with eight minutes left. I’ve seen Keenan in-person and I can tell you they have nice size up front, an athletic QB, a hoss of a RB and some receivers that can run. Somehow the Hornets found a way to rally for the close win. So, they trailed Lewisville in the second half and found a way to rally for a narrow victory, they roasted Great Falls (which, given how they’ve played defense since that game looks pretty impressive now), they gutted one out over a gritty McBee squad and they’ve now come-from-behind late by multiple scores to beat a AAA team. When you keep finding ways to win, it starts to get contagious and you never feel like you’re out of it. Awful easy to say “Hey, we hung with one of the big boys for a while and kept it close,” but they didn’t. Isom Harris threw a couple of picks, but he also threw three touchdown passes in the fourth quarter while hanging tough in the pocket and taking some monster shots. Now they have a somewhat improbable region championship game this Friday night against Lamar. My flash reaction is that it’s one they aren’t going to win, but then, I didn’t think they’d be playing for a region title either, so… As surprised as I’ve been by the rise of C.A. Johnson, I’ve been equally vexed by the struggles of Green Sea Floyds. The two-time defending state champions have frightening football cyborg Jaquan Dixon back for his senior year and a lot of returning talent. But something is amiss. It’s a patty of confusion, on a bun of consternation with a side order of DO WHAT fries being served up cold at the WTH Diner. They lost to Johnsonville Friday night and after leading 14-12, they just sorta got spanked. The past few years, they have put up mammoth point totals but the overlooked thing was how good their defense was. They gambled, they brought tons of pressure and they loaded up the box. They’d give up a big play here-and-there, but it worked to great effect. Now, their offense is struggling. Dixon has still put up good numbers but they managed only one offensive touchdown against the Sausages. Defensively, they couldn’t stop the run, which has been a strength. There could be lots of explanations. This is a bad year to be in your first year at a school and they do have a new coach. So, new head man Joey Price got no spring practice, no 7-on-7 work, limited practice then had to not only start the year, but start in region games that really matter. I still think losing QB Bubba Elliot (who is named like a guy driving the Leon’s Deer Cooler Mazda at a demolition derby somewhere) was a big deal. If you saw him, you realize that his presence, his play-making ability and his intelligence elevated the entire unit. I also think Johnsonville and Lake View (to whom they’ve lost) are both REALLY good. In a normal year they’d have time to work through their issues, improve, get in and then make a run. There’s only two per region this year, though, they’ve lost two and only have non-region opponents remaining. Essentially at this point, the Trojans are out of the playoffs. They finish up with a couple of county rivals and will have a shot to at least end on a good note, but not the great note they have the past two seasons… Whale Branch locked up the Region VII title Friday night with a 33-14 victory over Cross. Joseph Hicks delivered a personal and painful rootin’ to the opposition with 202 yards rushing and three touchdowns. This region was essentially decided by two plays, which shows how paper thin the margin for error is this year with the shorter season and fewer playoffs slots. Whale Branch beat Baptist Hill 21-20 on a Hail Mary as time expired in their game. Baptist Hill made one more play in triple overtime than Cross did in beating them 26-20. So, minus a mountainous dungaree soiling on the part of Whale Branch and Baptist Hill, they’ve secured the region’s two playoff spots. Cross is a really good team, they’re tougher than a Dollar Store Steak (these are things that really exist BTW) and they’re pretty much going to left out in the cold where the postseason is concerned… POLL TIME!!!! As per usual, here is the Top 10 rankings in Class A from the S.C. Prep Media Poll, followed by my ballot for said poll. 1. Lake View (11) 2. Lamar (3) 3. Southside Christian 4. Blackville-Hilda 5. Whale Branch 6. Bamberg-Ehrhardt 7. Carvers Bay 8. Wagener-Salley 9. Johnsonville 10. C.A. Johnson Others receiving votes- Green Sea Floyds, Ridge Spring-Monetta, McCormick, Williston-Elko, Branchville Lake View The Wild Gators have the best resume, have looked good every week and with Green Sea officially out of the picture are the current favorite to come out of the lowerstate. Blackville-Hilda The offense hasn’t been super productive the past two weeks, but they have an exciting quarterback, play great defense and have quality wins under their belt. Southside Christian The only reason they aren’t higher is because they haven’t played the roughest schedule, but make no mistake, this is a contender to win it all. Lamar Only loss is to a 5A team by a touchdowns. Great size, great athletes and they throw a little bit of everything at you on offense. Bamberg-Ehrhardt They just shut out a good Allendale-Fairfax team. A defense that doesn’t yield much and an offense that slowly drains your will to compete or tackle or even keep playing football. Carvers Bay Could actually be higher on the list. Excellent secondary, physical up front and has some nice wins so far. Whale Branch Put it on a good Cross team with an offense that rams a big first with giant sausage fingers down your gullet. C.A. Johnson They just keep finding a way to win every week. They vault up the rankings with a win on Friday. Johnsonville YAY SAUSAGES! McCormick One of the most exciting groups of young talent in the state. They’ve locked up second place in the region and a playoff spot already.
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So, it occurs to me occasionally that some of you like 1A football and like my awful jokes and terrible analogies but aren’t fond of, you know, words. So, in lieu of writing a BLAWG today, my buddy James McBee and I recorded a 1A podcast for your enjoyment. Now, I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t wan to absorb our special brand of humor, but if you want get right on down to the football talk, skip to about the 11-minute mark. ENJOY!
https://www.meridix.com/event/174540 Dixie- 42
Calhoun Falls Charter- 6 Southside Christian- 47 McCormick- 20 Whitmire- 16 Ware Shoals- 12 Lewisville- 14 Great Falls- Points are just, like, your opinion man… C.A. Johnson- 36 McBee- 24 Blackville-Hilda- 22 North/Hunter-Kinard-Tyler- 16 points and three punctuation marks Ridge Spring-Monetta- 50 Denmark-Olar- 26 Wagener-Salley- 50 Williston-Elko- 33 Green Sea Floyds- 38 C.E. Murray- 12 Carvers Bay- 13 East Clarendon- 7 Scott’s Branch- 21 Hemingway- 12 Hannah-Pamplico- 36 Timmonsville- 20 Lake View- 30 Johnsonville- 20 Allendale-Fairfax- 42 Edisto- Less than AF had, let’s not be jerks about it, Karen Bamberg-Ehrhardt- 42 Bethune-Bowman- 3? No. 2? Again, no, but you’re getting closer… Branchville- 35 Estill- 20 Whale Branch- 21 Baptist Hill- 20 Cross- 62 Charleston Charter School for Accounting, Tax Preparation and Inflatable Pool Repair- NOT NAM Breakdown- If you had the upcoming Lamar-C.A. Johnson game being for the Region II title, raise your hand…and then hop on your crap wagon and ride it straight on back to Liarsville. Look, Lamar is always a safe bet to compete for a state championship and a region title is usually a foregone conclusion. They’ve sure looked that part this year railing McBee and Great Falls and losing by a single touchdown TO A BLASTED AAAAA SCHOOL THIS PAST WEEK. Their offensive line, as per the usual, looks like it was spawned in an illicit, subterranean sports lab in Darlington somewhere and they’ve got ample athletes. Coach Chad Wilkes has also opened up the offense a bit. They can spread with the best of them, or get in a wishbone and forcibly cram it down your throat if the mood suits them. When Corey Fountain was there, he much preferred the “we’ll step on your face and you’ll just lay there and cry while we do” tact. Obviously, that worked out VERY WELL. I will say, though, that during the Coach Boyd era, one of the things I always liked about Lamar was the balance they showed on offense. They could shred you like a tater with a chainsaw anyway they pleased and would have added several big trophies to the case had 1A not been overrun at the time by lots of private schools. But I digress…C.A. Johnson hasn’t had a winning record in a more than a decade and usually has size and athletes but just never manages to put it all together for whatever reason. Enter Coach Walt Wilson, who had some decent teams at Battery Creek the past few years (a place that often struggles with wins and losses) and had some VERY GOOD teams at Calhoun County before that. They found a way to rally from a halftime deficit and hold on late against Lewisville, got a big win over Great Falls and forced three crucial turnovers to get past what I figure should be a pretty good McBee team this past week. QB Isom Harris threw for over 400 yards in that one. This isn’t about “well, they really haven’t played anybody” or whatever, the Hornets are legitimately good. They’ll be out-of-region this week but their game against Lamar is on Oct. 30 is one to look forward to… I haven’t been able to find a whole lot on Southside Christian’s win over McCormick on Friday night, but suffice it to say that barring something completely unforeseen (like giant asteroid type stuff, which I hate to even speak into existence in 2020), that win just about cinched the region title for the Sabres. That’s not a knock on the rest of the region, at this point I just figure those are far-and-away the two best teams in Region I. The Chiefs got their normal fantastic output from sophomore running back A’Chean Durant (125 yards) and QB Suderian Harrison ran for 76 more. So Southside Christian couldn’t do much to stop the McCormick ground game, but the Chiefs also attempted 23 passes, which probably tells you how the game went. They’d certainly rather not have to fool with that newfangledy forward pass business if they didn’t have to, but were in a big hole. The Sabres are likely going to win that region and should be considered one of the favorites to win the whole thing… I’ve puzzled and puzzled and puzzled on the (relatively) muted offensive output from Green Sea Floyds in the first few weeks of the season. It’s not like they’ve been thumping it around with a lower appendage or anything, but with Jaquan Dixon back for his senior year and other returning talent from the two-time defending state title winners, 14, 28 and 38 isn’t quite what I expected, but there’s some things to keep in mind. First of all, Bubba Elliot, in addition to being named like a dude driving the Skinny’s Chicken Shack Monte Carlo at the local dirt track, was a dang good QB and not easily replaced. If you saw him play, you know he was a whole lot more than a guy who handed Jaquan the ball and got out of the way. Also, those offensive numbers are trending in the right direction, having increased every week. Let’s also consider the 14 came in a loss to Lake View, the others in wins to Hannah-Pamplico and C.E. Murray. These are SO NOT pushovers. That’s real, quality competition to open the slate. They also have a new coach in place and I’ve talked to lots of coaches who have mentioned how difficult it would be for this to be your first year at a school. You had no spring practice, no 7-on-7 stuff in the summer, very limited work through early September of any kind and only a few weeks of real practice before teeing it up for real. It would be really difficult to make any substantive changes in scheme. They are on the right track, but I’m going to tell you something, they don’t get a soft touch AT ALL coming up here against the Sausages, and that is liable to be for the last guaranteed playoff spot from that region with Lake View playing the way it is… Sometimes when you play with fire, you get burned. Sometimes if you try to steal a hobo’s bean can and socks, he shanks you with a knife he made out of soap. Analogies are not my strength, for those that are new here. Anyway, Baptist Hill was fortunate to escape with a win over Cross the week before, rallying from a huge deficit and winning in triple overtime. Well, they were clinging to a 20-14 lead late over Whale Branch this past Friday, threw pick late that was returned to their 45, then allowed a touchdown pass as time expired to lose it. Jalen Reeves threw that late score and accounted for all three of his team’s touchdowns. I didn’t know quite what to make of the Warriors prior to that game, since they’d played two teams you figured they’d spank and they spanked them. Knocking off the Bobcats was a quality win. Now, they face Cross in what basically equates to a region championship game this week. Baptist Hill is past the difficult part of the region schedule and will be fine, with at least second place and a playoff spot assured minus a gargantuan pants crappin’ that isn’t something they usually do… Before I make note of another significant game, this is a good point to beg for stuff, I think. Not money (though I will totally take it if you wanna mail some) or anything but information. With more online news sources putting information behind a paywall, it is difficult to find information at times. So, if you’re a coach or fan and want to send stats, your input on a particular 1A game or want me to mention a player who deserves recognition, email me at [email protected] or DM me on Twitter at @CNR_Sports. Beyond paywalls, there are some 1A schools that fall into pockets of our state where folks communicate by having a champion hog-caller named Clem holler stuff from atop a hill. These places are called news deserts, and they aren’t the fun find of deserts you see in cartoons where there is a tempting oasis with a refreshing pool and scantily clad women with thin veils over their faces anxiously waiting to hand-feed you grapes. It’s much more like the desolate kind that Clarke Griswold wandered through with his draws on his head. What was I talking about now? Oh yeah, news deserts. So, I’ve looked everywhere I can think to look and can’t find one dadgum thing about Allendale-Fairfax. Despite being, I think, one of the two smallest schools in AA last year, they hung in there and competed pretty well. They are a much more natural fit in Class A and I felt like they were probably in for a good season. Well, they blew the doors off Edisto this past week, are 2-0 and have what ought to be a really good matchup with Bamberg-Ehrhardt coming up that will give one a big, fat, delicious inside track to the Region 6 championship. If you’ve seen them, please let me know how they’ve looked, what they run, couple of key players, if the concession stand boiled peanuts are of high quality or pretty much anything at all. POLL TIME OK, so I will post the S.C. Prep Media Top 10 poll that dropped yesterday, followed by ballot for said poll. Because I’m also a huge music fan on top of having an unhealthy obsession with Class A football, the explanations I give for each of my picks will contain an homage to the great Eddie Van Halen, who passed away last week. Lake View (10) 2. Lamar (4) 3. Southside Christian 4. Green Sea Floyds 5. Blackville-Hilda 6. Whale Branch 7. Bamberg-Ehrhardt 8. Wagener-Salley 9. Ridge Spring-Monetta 10. Carvers Bay Others receiving votes- Williston-Elko, C.A. Johnson, Johnsonville, Allendale-Fairfax, Branchville 1. Lake View I’m finding it difficult to rank teams right now, with some teams having played one game and nobody having more than a couple. With region games going first, it’s also hard to know just how good everyone is because you really haven’t seen them play anyone outside their region to compare them by. So, I’ll go with body of work here. The Wild Gators beat the two-time defending state champs in Green Sea Floyds, a team I KNOW is good. Blew out what I think is a OK East Clarendon squad and beat the sausage people, who are off to a very strong start. Here they are and here they’ll stay until further notice. They can lay claim to standing ON TOP OF THE WORLD. They can say “I’M THE ONE.” And etc. and so on. 2. Blackville-Hilda They’re undefeated and boy that rootin’ of Wagener-Salley sure does look like a big ol’ gold star on the report card at this point, huh. If they run the table against a pretty brutal schedule the rest of the way, I could totally see a scenario where they JUMP into first place. 3. Southside Christian Limited body of work so far but the way they handled McCormick warrants this selection. (NOTE TO SELF: This would not be an appropriate place for “RUNNIN’ WITH THE DEVIL’”) 4. Lamar I’ve seen them in person and they are legit in every respect. Not going to punish them very harshly at all for last week’s loss given who it came against. They are one a contender every year and are one RIGHT NOW. 5. Bamberg-Ehrhardt Interested to see what they do against a quality opponent this week, but they were contender in AA, they dang sure are one in 1A and they are unbeaten. I don’t know if they can LIGHT UP THE SKY, but they can certainly light up a scoreboard. 6. Carvers Bay Three solid victories including that opener against a good C.E. Murray team stand out to you. They are at 6 with DREAMS of going higher and higher, straight up they’ll flllyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!! 7. Whale Branch A 3-0 record and that nail biter win over Baptist Hill earn them a spot, but I’LL WAIT to watch the next few weeks unfold before moving them up. 8. Green Sea Floyds I feel like I have them under ranked a bit since they seem to be picking up steam and their one loss was to the team I’ve got at number one. You also have to know when you are the two-time defending champ, you get everybody’s best shot. Yep, EVERYBODY WANTS SOME! 9. C.A. Johnson Count me as a believer in the Hornets a team that’s shown real fortitude in scoring some close wins. They’ve given up some points here-and-there but they have an offense that can move it on the ground or in the air. It’s THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS. 10. Wagener-Salley They get the last slot on my ballot based on the fact that they trounced what looked to be a super-improved Williston-Elko team this past week. Lot of challenges left on the slate, though, so there is a MEAN STREET ahead. Teams I strongly considered for the top 10 (we’ll call this the SEMI GOOD-LOOKING list) include Allendale-Fairfax, Williston-Elko, Baptist Hill, McCormick and Johnsonville. AAAANNND we’re back…
McCormick (1-0) at Calhoun Falls Charter This unfortunately has “avert the eyes of small children” written all over it. Now, I’m an admirer of CF Charter and am glad they are able to continue fielding a team despite total enrollment of 100-ish students. They actually broke a long losing streak last year with a close win over Ware Shoals, then went winless the rest of the year. I talk to coaches at schools with three or four times the students they have and even they’ll talk about having a lack of “lineman bodies” or they’ll have size and no speed. It’s endlessly awesome that CF Charter has kids willing to play both ways and out of what should be their natural position for the good of the team. That just makes things really hard, however, especially against someone like McCormick. The Chiefs blew out Dixie last week 45-6. at least one in A’Chean Durant. Mataeo’s little brother blew up as a freshman last season and figures to be one of the state’s best RBs this year. He sure looked like one last week. He’s like a rocket-powered, um, rocket…on roller skates, going down a stupid big hill. He has a fellow sophomore in the backfield in QB Sudeian Harrison that I’ve heard a lot of good things about. Those two figure to make the Chiefs a formidable offensive force for the next three years and quite a bit more than the Flashes will be able to handle this week. Dixie (0-1) at Southside Christian Speaking of games that impressionable yungins ought not see. Dixie, after a couple of the best years in school history recently, went 1-10 last year and averaged less than a touchdown a game in those 10 losses. I saw them and they had some size but were very young and were out-athleted at most positions. Haven’t seen them this season but they managed just six points against McCormick. Southside Christian went 11-2 last year with the only losses being a close one to Abbeville and then to eventual AA state champ Saluda in the third round of the playoffs. They are back down in Class A now, have a lot of defensive talent back and figure to be a contender for a state title. So, you know, this one might not go well for Dixie. Great Falls (0-1) at C.A. Johnson (1-0) This is a huge game for Great Falls, who lost to Lamar in the opener 44-12. Since we are doing region games first, since the season and playoffs have been shortened and since only the top two teams in each region make the playoffs, going 0-2 out of the gate will be tough for folks to bounce back from. In a small region like Region II, it doesn’t eliminate you, but you would need help to get in. Great Falls is blessed with great size…not just but Class A standards but in general. Seriously, like some the linemen should be featured on cans of green beans. And they have A LOT of big bodies at their disposal, such that they don’t have to start them both ways if they don’t want to. They have some athletes too like Xavion Moore, he is smallish but also has a weeble-wobble type ability to never get knocked down. Can stop on a dime, cut, reveerse field and has more speed than an interstate truck stop. I saw them in a scrimmage against Whitmire and they ran at will, shut down the inside run game of the Wolverines and made tons of plays in the backfield. They didn’t do those things so much last week, but did get a second-half offensive spark when Xaviar Brown came into the game. He promptly went 62 yards for a TD on his first varsity snap and ended up with over 120 yards and a couple of scores. The Hornets won in come-from-behind fashion at Lewisville, winning 21-14. They have a new coach in Walt Wilson, who had some really good years at Calhoun County. They use a two-quarterback system, have good size and big roster by their recent standards. If they win this one, than can get either McBee orLamar they’ll all but lock up a playoff spot. Lamar (1-0) at McBee So, the Silver Foxes didn’t take to sucking in the offseason. They graduated four starters up front on the offensive line but might actually be better there this season. They have very large schoolchildren and always seem to. It’s like there is an unregulated sports lab out in Darlington County somewhere where they produce Lamar linemen in some weird pods or something. This is Chad Wilkes’ second year at the helm of the program and they have embraced the spread a bit more than last year, but still show some power sets and run the ball really well. They have an impressive-looking QB in Tyler McManus who threw some nice-looking deep balls in the win over Great Falls. In the first two years that Johnny Kline has been at McBee, the team has gotten off to very slow starts, gotten better as the season progressed, improved by late in the season then made nice playoff runs. Obviously, the whole “start slow” deal isn’t going to get it done now. Jahiem Wright is gone and I haven’t seen mention of anyone named “Wright” on the roster, marking the first time in 728 years there hasn’t been a skill player for the Panthers named “Wright.” Generally they are good at football and procreate in tremendous numbers. They have some good size (their kicker is 220 for crying out loud) and Kline has done a good job there, but boy somebody is gonna have to pack a lunch to beat Lamar. Blackville-Hilda (1-0) at Wagener-Salley (1-0) B-H rolled over Denmark-Olar last week. Adonis Davis is an absolute stud hoss of a QB, in addition to having an amazingly awesome name. He can pretty much do it all on offense and is a standout on defense too. W-S picked up a 22-6 win over North/HKT last week. They lost a ton of talent from last year’s team that made it to the upperstate title game, but they still have size and they still have Elijah Davis at DE. Freaky fast for 250-pounder, he is an absolutely disruptive force. I saw a highlight clip from last week where an opposing QB had to chase down an errant snap. About the time he gathered in the ball it looked like he got a hit by a wagon full of cinderblocks on fire rolling down a steep hill as Davis obliterated him and perhaps made him question his decision to play contact sports. Really important game here given the limited number of playoff spots and the overall competition in this region. Williston-Elko (1-0) at Ridge Spring-Monetta (1-0) Man, oh man what a pivotal matchup in the early going here. So, W-E has had a couple of down years, particularly by their recent standards. Last week, though, they might have served notice they are ready to start CRANKSMASHING people again. They took what I figured would be a pretty competitive Calhoun County team behind the woodshed, the garage, the barn, the silo and pretty much any other place where rootins take place out of sight. It was 48-6 and Javier Rudolph had a huge game with four total touchdowns and better than 270 yards of total offense. Oh, and throwing in the direction of Bryce Washington seems like not only playing with fire, but doing so naked after bathing in lighter fluid. He had two picks against the Saints. RS-M is, of course, the defending upperstate champs. They beat Pelion last week 26-12. QB Remedee Leaphart (because every QB in Region III has a completely awesome name) threw for 237 and three touchdowns in that one. I saw him last year and I’m going to tell you (and I don’t make this kind of comparison lightly), he reminds me in some ways of Corey Fields. The winner of this one obviously still has to deal with Blackville-Hilda and other in a loaded region, but they’ll also have cleared a major hurdle to nabbing a playoff spot. North/Hunter-Kinard-Tyler (0-1) v Calhoun County (0-1) How many punctuation marks can one team fit into a name? Why not just sprinkle in some umlauts and schwas while you’re at it. I don’t know a ton about NHKT accept that their initials sound like thecall letters of an illegal offshore radio station or an ‘80s boy band. It’s actually one team comprised of players from two schools, those being North and HKT. North has struggled with low enrollment and hasn’t won a game in a good many years so the high school league allowed them to combine forces with HKT. They have what is supposed to be an excellent WR/DB in Jamareon Tyler and hung in there pretty good last week (losing 22-6) to what should still be a good Wagener-Salley team. I don’t know a ton about Calhoun County at this point other than they had and extremely rough and kind of surprising re-introduction to Class A last week in a blowout loss to Williston-Elko. C.E. Murray (0-1) at Hemingway (0-1) I’s heard a lot of good things about C.E. Murray coming into the year, with players like Nyziah Alston Daniels and Nyzier Alston Daniels (gonna take a stab here and guess they are kin) on the D line, RB Roshaud Tisdale and LB/WR Sheldon Bradley. Still, they lost a tough, very hard-fought 14-8 game to Carvers Bay. Hemingway, just a few years ago, was probably the most talented team in Class A. They’ve hit a real dry spell now, though, with their last win having been in the 2018 playoffs. I know that last year, someone who’d seen them a few times told me they were about the youngest team they’d ever seen. So maybe that group will start to grow up as we go along, but running into the War Eagles right after a loss may not be the time that happens. Carvers Bay (1-0) at Scott’s Branch (1-0) Carvers Bay got one of the best wins of Week 1 in Class A, hanging on for a 14-8, old-fashioned tater-kickin’ contest against C.E. Murray. There was even a “putting on tights and a cape in a phone booth” moment in the form of backup QB Kayshaun Brockington stepping in for CB to help win it. Scott’s Branch also won a close one, edging East Clarendon 16-14. As I’ve already said several bajillion times, all these games are big because if you have only have four region contests (which both of these teams do) and you start 2-0, you’re almost in the playoffs minus a gigundous late-season pants-crappin’.That’s about all I got on this’n Hoss. Hannah-Pamplico (0-1) at Green Sea Floyds (0-1) Not going to lie, I was borderline shocked by GSF’s Monday loss to Lake View. The two-time defending state champions returned lots of talent (including Jaquan Dixon, who many coaches tell me is the best RB in the state) from last year. Dixon had both touchdowns the other night and possesses a crazy blend of speed and power. He almost always get positive yards and if he hits a crease then enjoy watching him disappear into the distance. Good pass-catcher too, so I’m not totally sure what happened against Lake View. I have had lots of coaches mention to me how hard it would be for any new coach this year. Particularly if that coach is altering schemes and philosophy. Green Sea has a new coach in Joey Price who got no spring practice with his team, no summer 7-on-7 work, limited workouts for most of the summer and much less of a pre-season that normal. I’m also going to say, though, that Lake View is legit good and had a WHOLE LOT to do with how that turned out. H-P lost to the sausages last week 34-20, but should have a potent ground game with Floyd Eaddy. Johnsonville (1-0) at Timmonsville (1-0) I’m sure you, like I, am thrilled to have Johnsonville back in Class A, both because this where they belong but also because it affords me the opportunity to make sausage jokes EVERY SINGLE WEEK. They beat what I figure should be a pretty good Hannah-Pamplico team last week. Timmonsville, back in a more natural geographic region in the lowcountry, beat Hemingway last week 15-0, forcing six big turnovers in the effort. Allendale-Fairfax at Bethune-Bowman The opener for both teams. The Mr. T Haircuts won a region title two years ago, but fell back to Earth last season and didn’t record a region win. Injuries had a lot to do with that, including to (I think) three QBs. SO at that point you’re just pointing at sturdy-looking tuba players in the band and yelling “Can you gimme some snaps under center, Jimmy?” Have to be honest, Allendale is one of those places in our state (and sadly we have many) where the primary means of communication seems to be carrier pigeon or a champion hog-caller named Clem standing on a high hill and hollering really loud. They don’t have newspaper anymore is what I’m saying here, but I’m interested to see how they compete being back in Class A. Despite being the smallest AA school in the state last year in terms of enrollment, they hung in there pretty well and were normally competitive. Bamberg-Ehrhardt (1-0) at Branchville Branchville is looking to follow up on a season that saw them set a school record for victories (8). They’ll have to do it without Zach Wiles, a 6’3, 200 pound, athletic QB that was the centerpiece of everything they did on offense. B-E would be a contender in AA, crushed Estill last week and is scary good. NOTE: I’ve seen conflicting schedules on this region, so if Branchville is playing Allendale and the Mr. T Haircuts are tangling with Bamberg, Lord I apologize. Baptist Hill (1-0) at Cross (1-0) Cross has slowly built itself back to where it was a few years ago after a giant outgoing senior class left the team very young and outmanned. They took some steps forward last year and might be ready to take another now. They blitzed Miltary Magnet (see what I did there) last week 44-0 with RB TYlik Green rushing for two scores and catching another one. So, they are back to stepping on people’s faces, playing ball control and good defense. Baptist Hill typically does sort of the opposite, just trying to score several hundred points a night with a high-octane, slapnuts, wide-open spread attack. They blew out The Charleston Finishing School and Truck Driver Training Institute last week 58-0. Whale Branch (1-0) at Military Magnet (0-1) WB slapped St. John’s last week 39-0 while MM lost badly to Cross. Wb “slapped” and MM “lost badly” will probably appear in the BLAWG next week. Charleston Charter Academy for Cement Mixing Technology and Oyster Shucking (0-1) at St. John’s (0-1) Diddy is running out of steam on this bad boy. I know St. John’s has a new head coach (Mike Howard) and both of these teams lost badly in week one. I have nothing else of relevance to offer. |
TravisI am Travis, the king 0f SC 1A Football Archives
November 2021
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