Crescent- 34
Calhoun Falls- 0 Dixie- 28 Ware Shoals- 21 Fox Creek- 35 McCormick- 6 Wagener-Salley- 36 Whitmire- 0 New Covenant Knights- 64 Great Falls- 13 Lamar- 41 Hannah-Pamplico- 3 Lewisville- 36 Andrew Jackson- 6 McBee- 28 Lakewood- 14 Wilson- 27 Timmonsville- 6 Scott's Branch- 6 Denmark-Olar- Nam Allendale-Fairfax- 24 Estill- 2 Fairfield Central- 42 Hunter-Kinard-Tyler- 14 Batesburg-Leesville- 36 Ridge Spring-Monetta- 7 The Fightin' Barnwell Barts- 43 Williston-Elko- 18 Baptist Hill- 50 Branchville- Considerably less than 50 First Baptist School- 47 Charleston Charter- 0 Bethune-Bowman- 32 Military Magnet- 0 James Island- 35 St. John's- 22 C.E. Murray- 33 Kingstree- 20 Cross- 46 Burke- 14 Mullins- 38 Creek Bridge- 16 Johnsonville- 23 East Clarendon- Nern Green Sea-Floyds- 38 East Columbus- 14 Lake View- 20 Latta- 14 Breakdown- The private schools are gone, the charter schools are gone, the split playoff format is gone, the points system is gone...but silly jokes about power drills and poop are back with a vengeance as the Pigskin & Pigskins blog revs it up for another season of exciting Class A football action. When last we saw Class A athletes competing in football, Lamar was busy shutting out C.E. Murray for the Division II-A crown and some private school from Greenville won the other'n...again. Of course, the entire landscape has changed since that time. For the first time, the SCHSL is going with five classifications. That means the difference between the biggest and smallest schools in each class will be less, which should make things a bit more competitive. If we're being honest, the primary benefit that move had for Class A was shoving most of the non-public schools up to AA. Those schools have a lot of built-in advantages that I've written about before, they were dominating state titles in most every sport and slightly larger, better-funded AA schools are better equipped to compete with them. We have a new playoff format (I hate it and think it sucks and said so HERE previously) so these early games, really, don't count for much of anything, other than to prepare teams for region slates, provide us with entertainment and give me material for this inane blog. One of the rites of early-season football is Class A teams "playing up" against higher classifications. Some of those are money games, some just make good geographic sense and some are scheduled because teams are desperate to find 10 games and don't have any Class A schools in their area that aren't already in their region. Desperate choices are ones you usually regret...like when it gets to be closing time at Jim Tommy's Beer Barn on Achy Breaky Ladies night and a "no way" turns into a "well, her feet ain't bad lookin'." You know what I'm saying...or you don't, because I really don't either. Anyway, Class A teams fared pretty well, going 4-9 against bigger schools this past week. One of those wins was Lewisville over Andrew Jackson, 36-6 in a game that wasn't even that close. The Lions held the Vols to an anemic 32 yards on 35 carries and piled up well over 400 yards of offense. I said last year that Lewisville's time was coming and I think it's here. They're running a an old Bears 46 defense and have used it thus far to pummel children from opposing schools. You know about D-lineman Josh Belk, who sports a bevy of big-time college offers, but Jene Thompson and Daryl Manning off the edges are just nasty, while Keilan Renegar and Chase Yoder have been picking passes left-and-right through the pre-season. They have a three-year starter at QB. probably the best receiver tandem in Class A and only start one underclassman. Between them, Lamar and McBee, Region II will be a war this year. Oh, and speaking of McBee, they brought home probably the biggest scalp this weekend, whippin' up on AAAA Lakewood. Fair, Hawkins and a bunch of other guys who helped author the turnaround for the Panthers the past two years are gone, but Dashonnel Wright is still around and had his usual, ho-hum, 100 yards and two touchdowns. Granted, Lakewood wasn't very good last year and McBee beat them in 2015 too, but a 1A beating a AAAA is a significant achievement. The other two "up" winners were defending lowerstate champ C.E. Murray beating Kingstree for the second straight year and Lake View knocking off Latta. For those new here, I have a secretive, low country informant...kind of a Pee Dee Deep Throat. He says to watch out for Lake View this year. Eighteen starters back from a 10-3 team, some monsters up front on offense and a couple of stud hosses in the backfield, including Delvon Bethea (125 yards and a touchdown on just 13 carries against Latta). There were a couple of surprises in the opening week, including Wagener-Salley going behind the brick wall, next to the public golf course (which operated on the honor system last time I played there...seriously, had like, a mason jar with a slit cut in the lid for you to slide your greens fees in) in the Pearl of the Piedmont and beating the Wolverines. I haven't read any accounts of that game yet, so I'm not exactly sure how it shook out, other than Wagener scoring lots of points and Whitmire scoring none (that's the sort of in-depth analysis you get here). Now, Wagener-Salley took a nice step forward last year under new coach Willie Fox, going a respectable 4-7, with some of their losses being fairly competitive games, after the 1-9 tire fire that was 2014. They did have a 300-pound fullback that year and the entertainment value of watching other high school children ride him like a camel at a petting zoo in a fruitless attempt to tackle him was amusing...but I digress. Whitmire, after being mired in a year-long losing streak, got to 6-5 last year. They lost 18 seniors from that team, but had terrific numbers in the program overall. Might have been a tad hasty on my part to expect that many guys to step into starting roles without some initial drop-off...or maybe the War Eagles are ready to contend this year. Whitmire has tough match-ups with Lewisville and Ridge Spring-Monetta on the horizon, so we'll see where they stand soon enough. I guess I was sort of surprised that Great Falls lost to New Covenant by such a wide margin. Great Falls has a new coach who I've been very impressed with in John Barrett, but the team is breaking in a new spread offense after 16 years in the Wing-T, is in a 4-2 after running a 4-3 defense for over a decade and is dealing with the same numbers crunch many smaller Class A teams go through. It's sort of hard to know what you're getting when you play one of these unaffiliated teams like New Covenant. Some of them are legitimately made up of home-schooled students and kids from private schools that don't have football teams. I saw one in a scrimmage a few weeks ago, though, that also has students from public schools that just don't want to play for their own school for some reason, be it playing time, not liking a coach, daddy not liking a coach, daddy deciding you're gonna be a starting dern QB and he'll create his own team if he has to make his, er your, dream a reality etc. There are others that veer into full-on sketchy territory. There's one in particular that was, for a long time, really, made up of children who went to science class in their own dining room or whatever. They had a coaching change, though, and became populated with kids who'd been, uh, informed that their services were no longer needed at the public school they attended. They also had some fifth-year seniors...and I think Michael Vick played quarterback for them, which, you know, seems like he'd be out of eligibity by now. Anyway, these teams are popping up everywhere and you'll notice a lot of them playing 1A and AA schools. Great Falls and Whitmire battle this Friday so both have a shot to bounce back this week. Quick Hits- I was unfamiliar with First Baptist School until they gave the new Charleston Charter a proper seeing to Friday. Just wondering...if the OC and DC don't get along, will one of them go start Second Baptist School? If there are covered dishes in the concessions stand, I am totally going down there for a game...Defending champ Lamar picked right up where they left off last year, doling out a "running clock in the second half" rootin' to Hannah-Pamplico. With nine starters back on defense (and good ones at that), putting points on the board against the Silver Foxes will be a chore this year. Wasn't sure how the offense would look without Durant and Ceasar, but Rashard Coleman threw the ball well (Lamar rarely aired it out last season) and Jacquez Lucas had 111 yards and a score on the ground...Congrats to Dixie on getting an opening-week win. The Hornets, who have long been good in other sports but haven't had that translate to football much, won only once last year and didn't notch that victory until mid-October...I wasn't surprised that Fox Creek downed McCormick, as the Predators had a good season last year, have some skill talent back and are now in the AA ranks, but I did not expect to see McCormick's Mataeo Durant held to 49 yards, since that was a good quarter for him last year. It's hard to know what's going on with some of these early-season games if you aren't there to see them in person. Could be breaking in new offensive linemen, Fox Creek could have sold out to stop him, but I'm willing to bet he'll be back to stepping on people's faces and piling up really gaudy numbers in short order...I have little of consequence to offer on the Mullins-Creek Bridge game other than the Auctioneers have a running back named Willie Nelson. He and the Mullins fullback comprise the feared Pancho and Lefty backfield...or they should anyway. There's a whole other direction I could go with Willie Nelson jokes, given the country legend's, uh, extracurricular pursuits. OK, I'll do one...I bet Mullins likes running a real slow draw play. HERP DIDDLY HAW HEE! Suggested reading... Dixie opened the year with a nice win over Ware Shoals. Unrelated, a dude shot a cannon at me at Ware Shoals once. True story. To hear their coach tell it, Fox Creek kinda thumped it around with a lower appendage for three quarters but did put McCormick away late. You can read capsules on C.E. Murray, Lamar, McBee and East Clarendon here, or you can go through life ignorant...your pick Bubba. My covert low country expert says Lake View will be dolin' out some whoopins this year and they sure did look good against Latta. Green Sea-Floyds was most inhospitable to its out-of-town guests Friday. Mullins has an offensive lineman that wears size 19 shoes...one of which may be stuck a foot or two up...you know what, nevermind, his team was victorious against Williston-Elko. A couple of Class A alums (Alstevis Squirewell and B.J. Goodson) are on NFL rosters and making good cases for staying there. Agree? Think I'm full of it? Know where a good taco truck parks at lunchtime? Saw a game and want to offer your take? Leave comments below or email me at [email protected].
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
TravisI am Travis, the king 0f SC 1A Football Archives
November 2021
Categories |