The state championship game is basically a match-up of 11 rocket boulders against big ol’ fireworks show. Like a good one, put on a guy named “Crazy Bo Jimmy” who is missing a thumb and an ear and talks really loud.
This game between Baptist Hill and Lamr has me pretty torn, to be honest. I’ve seen both in person now and had I not seen the Bobcats, I would not have given you two cents for their chances to beat the Silver Foxes. Sure, they score a bajillion points a game, but I didn’t think some flunky, fool’s gold spread offense stood a chance against the might and power of the Silver Foxes. Then I actually sat and watched them take apart a very good and very physical C.E. Murray team last Friday. First of all, put every thought you’ve ever had about high school spread offenses aside here. They don’t throw slip screens, bubble screens, tunnel screens, screen doors...they don’t have Dinky McCheckdown at quarterback, getting the ball out of his hands quickly on short routes. They do have a few screens in the old tool belt, but this is a vertical passing attack. They attack down the field in ways I’ve seldom seen high school offenses do…and they do it with great accuracy. Corey Fields is one of the best high school quarterbacks I’ve seen in years. He has a big arm, he makes smart decisions with the ball and he puts throws exactly where they need to be. He is also incredibly elusive in the pocket. Seriously, you’ll have him dead to rights and then someone starts playing “Yakety Sax” and you’re grabbing at air and falling on your face. The thing is, he often scrambles to throw, not to run for a few yards, meaning your secondary has to hand with his receivers for a long time. Speaking of his receivers (who only play receiver, an oddity in 1A football), they are adept at route running, have excellent hands, make great plays on balls in the air and have breakaway speed once they pull the ball in. They don’t run the ball. At all. Even a little. I saw three called running plays in their game last week. Now, Fields is very athletic and he’ll scramble for 70 or so yards a game, but that’s about it. It is a true revelation where 1A football is concerned. The offensive line isn’t huge, but they did the job last week. C.E. Murray had a tough time getting pressure on Fields without blitzing…and if you blitz Fields, you may as well light firecrackers and drop them in your own pants. It will work out about as well for you. Defensively, they are very active and have some athletes. They force a lot of turnovers but aren’t especially big up front and can be run on. Lamar is a total contrast. They mostly go the blunt-force trauma route on offense, with two running backs over 1,100 yards for the season in Tyrik Herion and Jazquez Lucas. Herion is a little bigger and has excellent cut-and-go ability. He does more of the between-the-tackles stuff. Lucas may actually be descended from lightning and cheetahs. Seriously, he is a big-time blazer…just consider that his 1,150 yards rushing has come on 94 carries. The X-factor for me is Jeblonski Green, a 225-pound battering ram who plays some running back, some fullback and tight end. Now, he’s dealt with injuries this year, so he hasn’t played as much on offense as past years. He’s focused mainly on defense, but still has five touchdowns and could be a match-up nightmare for the Bobcats. Lamar’s line is dominant and QB Rashard Coleman is sneaky good. His numbers aren’t huge, but he’s good for one or two big, game-changing plays a game. He also makes very few costly errors (two picks all year). Lamar definitely gets the edge in defense. They are so good, they don’t blitz, they don’t stunt much and they don’t do anything exotic in terms of coverage. They run a 4-3, they play you man-to-man and they physically whip the crap out of you. They also force a lot of turnovers (43). It’s not an exaggeration to say that they intimidate many teams and often walk onto the field with a 14-0 point lead because of that. They are that physical…not dirty at all, they are just better than you, whoever you might happen to be, and they’ll show you so. The thing is, Fields is so dadgum good, I think he forces Lamar to make some defensive tweaks. I don’t think he’s stoppable…Lamar needs to be able to get pressure on him with three or four guys, they have to tackle well and they have to minimize the damage from deep throws, some of which Baptist Hill will hit. I can absolutely see a scenario where Fields gets in a rhythm, hits a bunch of deep balls and uses his elusiveness to extend drives and frustrate the Silver Foxes. I can also see one where Lamar imposes their will on a less physical team and wins it going away. Here is my determining factor. As great a season as they’ve had, the team’s that have given the Bobcats trouble are physical, running teams. Cross dominated the time of possession against Baptist Hill and pile du big rushing yards but hurt themselves with turnovers in an 18-14 game. St. John’s, which mixed the run and pass well this year very well lost in a 50-42 shootout to the Bobcats. Lake View scored 32 points on them without their best player on the field and Baptist Hill struggled to put away a Green Sea-Floyds team (33-24) that does almost nothing but run the ball. If you can run the ball, the numbers show that you can move it on Baptist Hill, you can extend drives and frustrate them a bit. Lamar can run the ball as well anyone. Fields will make his share of big plays and this could go back and forth, but give me Lamar’s multi-faceted running attack and ability to force turnovers. I say in a game that will be close, that will be the difference. The pick...Lamar Neither man probably knew he was doing it, but Lamar’s Corey Fountain and Baptist Hill’s Marion Brown both perfectly described their programs and summed up their seasons at Monday’s 1A state championship press conference in one sentence.
“We just try to get after it and our kids, they play with an edge,” Fountain said. “I told our team a few years ago, if we can block and we can catch, we can be successful,” Brown said. Tonight’s state title game will feature the best, most physical, most intimidating defense in the state with the Silver Foxes and one of the most high-flying, prolific offenses Class A has ever seen in the Bobcats. Playing for state titles is nothing new for Lamar. In fact, it’s nothing new for the current group of players at the school, who are making their third straight appearance in the title game, the second-such run in school history. This year’s senior class has won 34 of its past 35 games. Fountain said the amount of work his seniors have been willing to put in, which started before they set foot on campus at the school, is what has allowed them to enjoy so much success. “I think it’s their work ethic,” he said. “They started lifting weights when they were in middle school. They’ve lived in the weight room and in the summer they’ve been dedicated to coming to workouts and 7-on-7s. They’ve been good leaders for me. They know about dedication.” Lamar (13-0) did not take an easy path to Columbia or to its unbeaten record. They opened with a good Hannah-Pamplico team, then played up against AA Pageland Central, AAAA Darlington and AA Eau Claire, outscoring the three 132-6. They beat a AAAA Crestwood team that made a deep playoff run, then swept arguably the toughest Class A region in the state. Their closest playoff game was last week’s three-touchdown win over Ridge Spring-Monetta. Offensively, Lamar goes with a double wing shotgun look. Though they'll often have three backs on the field, the team throws the ball a bit more than last year. The team’s biggest weapons come in the form of senior Tyrik Herion and junior Jacquez Lucas. Herion has rushed for 1,478 yards and has 16 total touchdowns from scrimmage. Lucas has gone for 1,150 yards on the ground, with 13 scores and has 510 yards (tops on the team) and seven more trips to the end zone receiving. The two combine to average 10.7 yards-a-carry. A wildcard in the backfield is senior Jeblonski Green, who brings raw power at 225 pounds to compliment the speed of Herion and Lucas. Some nagging injuries relegated him mostly to work on defense this year, but he can play running back, fullback or tight end and has excellent hands out of the backfield. He has almost 500 total yards and five touchdowns in very limited touches this year. The team’s line is among the best in the state and senior Rashard Coleman makes it all click behind center. He doesn’t put up huge numbers but he has a knack for making big plays and hasn’t made many mistakes. The Silver Foxes only throw it 10 or so times a game, but Coleman has 1,303 yards, hits almost 59 percent of his throws, has 21 combined touchdowns and has only thrown two interceptions all season. The Silver Foxes have held eight opponents under 10 points this year. Lamar works from a 4-3 and rarely blitzes or mixes coverages. They are good enough to play most any team straight up and bring the nasty, physical nature to the field that Fountain spoke of. Will Hickson leads the team in tackles-for-loss with 10, Jordan Green in sacks with 6.5. The team thrives on turnovers, having recovered 19 fumbles and intercepted 24 passes this season. Lamar’s defense has scored eight touchdowns. The team is efficient in the kicking game too, having made 50-of-59 PAT tries. Brown said he knows exactly what his team is up against both in terms of this year and all-time. “You really don’t have to see history, you’ve just got to notice it. Lamar has a rich history. They are a great team (with) great team speed. They are the best team Baptist Hill has encountered since I’ve been at Baptist Hill,” Brown said. Lamar lost last year’s state championship game. Fountain said that provided extra motivation in the off-season, but also said that wears off at a certain point. “No one likes to end their year with a loss. It does help make players hungrier to start the next season, but once the season starts…that’s in the past and you’ve got to take care of the business at hand,” Fountain said. Offensively, Baptist Hill (11-1) is the polar opposite of Lamar. They are a shotgun, spread, often-empty set team that throws the ball regardless of down, distance or situation. Against C.E. Murray in last week’s lowerstate championship game, the team had three called running plays…and one of those was a reverse. The only real running threat comes from quarterback Corey Fields who has 800 yards on the ground this year. Fields said Brown encourages him to run if he has an opening on the corner for five or more yards. Otherwise, he wants the ball in the air. Brown says he’s is comfortable putting his offense completely in Fields’ hands. “I knew that we had something special in Corey,” he said. “Corey Fields, not to take away from any other quarterbacks, Corey Fields is one of the best quarterbacks in South Carolina we’ve seen in quite a while.” Brown’s hunch was right. Baptist Hill has only played 12 games (they lost one regular season game to a hurricane and had one team drop on them unexpectedly) and Fields missed more than half of one contest with injury (in the team’s lone loss to Oceanside Collegiate), but has thrown for 3,830 yards and has accounted for 60 total touchdowns. The Bobcats do not run a typical high school spread that relies on dozens of screen pass variations and checkdowns. They throw the ball down the field, as Fields’ 20 yards-per-completion average demonstrates. Fields believes the talent around him has allowed him to shine. “I believe we have the best skill guys in the state,” he said. Richard Bailey’s numbers say he might be the best receiver in the state period. He’s at almost 1,500 receiving yards and has 21 touchdowns catches on the year. Two other receivers have more than 40 catches, including another big-play man in Rashad Maxwell. Interestingly, Brown made the decision a few years ago to only play Fields and his wide receivers on offense, which is almost unheard of in 1A football. Brown wanted them fresh, though, and wanted to take the time to really teach them and allow them to specialize in one position. It’s a move that has obviously paid off. The Bobcats aren’t huge up front, but the line kept Fields clean for the most part against a very good C.E. Murray defense last week. Brown said his offensive front is strong for its size and in excellent shape. Of course, Fields keeps himself upright with his own mobility, which presents some unique challenges, according to Fountain. “Corey Fields is a very, very good quarterback. He throws the ball very well and he’s very mobile. He extends plays with his feet (and) can run it when he needs to run it,” Fountain said. Fountain said making plays in space and containing Fields will be big keys for his team. He called Fields probably the best quarterback Lamar will have faced in his tenure as head coach of the Silver Foxes. He said Lamar will have to alter what it does defensively to stop him. A couple of Baptist Hill defenders have some stats nearly as gaudy as Fields does on offense. Dee’ke Lang has 11 sacks among his 135 tackles. Tyler Scott has 10 interceptions. The Bobcats defense has been good on balance, giving up less than 18 points-per-game this year. They have gotten into a couple of shootouts, though, beating St. John’s 50-42, Green Sea-Floyds 33-24 and defending state champion Lake View 46-32 in the third round of the playoffs. Brown said he doesn’t foresee doing anything different this week. The schedule, the practice tempo and the Friday night game plans they’ve used all year got them this far, so he said he saw no need to change them now. Where Lamar has a lot of history, Baptist Hill and Charleston County as a whole do not, at least recently. No Charleston County public school has made it to the lowerstate title game in any class since Stall in 1992. None has played for state since Middleton (which is now defunct) in 1982. He knows the number of people rooting for his squad goes well beyond Baptist Hill students and alums because of that. “I have not seen this much excitement in Charleston County since August 10, 1987…that the day of my wedding,” Brown joked. Both coaches expect a very close game. Fountain’s team will try to get after it, while Brown’s will try to block and catch, both with the same goal of bringing home a state title. |
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November 2021
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