Crescent (1-0) at Dixie (1-0)
The Hornets got new coach Vic Lollis a win in his first game at the helm of the program and good for them. They beat Ware Shoals 28-21, with Jared Hagood running for 149 yards and Bogdan Dyakov scoring a pair of touchdowns. The sledding will get tougher this week...like, the sled is going uphill and pulling heavy rocks behind it. Maybe one of the blades is rusty or broken. They've got AAA Crescent tonight, a 34-0 winner over Calhoun Falls Charter last week. Despite my dumb sledding analogy, this game isn't unwinnable and the Hornets have already matched last year's win total, so things should be looking up a little in Due West. Lincoln County (Ga.) at McCormick (0-1) McCormick had a rough go of things in last week's opener, falling to Fox Creek 35-6, though the game was close for a half. Running back Mataeo Durant is generally difficult for other high school children to tackle and did have his team's lone touchdown last week, but was held under 50 yards. That trend isn't likely to continue. Now, I know very little about Lincoln County except they beat McCormick 41-6 last year and they're named like a former president is named. I wonder if there are any other presidentially-named schools in Georgia? Just betting Grant Comprehensive isn't a thing that exists there. Southside Christian (1-0) at Ware Shoals (0-1) Ware Shoals lost a tough game to Dixie last week, falling behind early before rallying to make it a 28-21 final. They actually attempted 15 passes, which isn't a thing you see from the wing-bone-flexy-scrummy attack the Hornets normally employ, but that could be a product of getting behind and having to try to catch up. It's been an odd couple of down years for Ware Shoals, which had been competitive for a while, where a cannon was once fired at me and where delicious BBQ nachos can be had (I guess they still can) in the concession stand. Southside Christian won the Division I Class A title last year, but won't be repeating since they aren't in Class A anymore. They beat St. Joe's last week 29-12, but had an odd coaching change in July, when Steve Kaiser stepped down to spend more time with his family and Mike Sonneborn, the former OC, became head coach. I don't think any of that will matter for a while, as their schedule sets up to have the Sabres probably make it to 8-0, then they play Abbeville and may not walk right for a while...we'll see. Whitmire (0-1) at Great Falls (0-1) Things didn't go especially well for the Wolverines or Red Devils in Week 0, with Whitmire losing to Wagener-Salley 36-0 and the Great Falls going down to New Covenant 64-13. The Woverines have had a terrific two-year run, making the playoffs in 2014 and 2015, which came on the heels of not winning a game for four years. They graduated 18 seniors which is tough for a school with 160-ish kids to recover from right away. They do return three offensive linemen and wingback Devin Vo. Great Falls has a new coach, a new offense and a new defense. On top of that, depth is not really thing you'll find here so, again, a break-in period has to be allowed for. Aaron Rice is a legit speedster at WR/RB/DB/LB and pretty much any other two-letter abbreviation you want to attach to him. He runs under 4.4 and had two touchdowns last week. Oddly, given the score, the defense didn't play that badly last week, but New Covenant ran a punt back had returned three turnovers for scores, so things just kinda snowballed. With such a limited sample size to work from from both so far, its hard to know where this one's going. Lamar (1-0) at Pageland OK, if work obligations didn't dictate I be somewhere else and I could pick any game in the state to go to, this would be the one. It's the season-opener for Pageland while Lamar whacked Hannah-Pamplico 41-3 last week. Rashard Coleman threw the ball well for the Silver Foxes and Jacquez Lucas had 111 yards and a score on the ground. Mainly, most teams aren't gonna be able to pee a drop against that nasty Lamar defense that returns nine starters from last year's state title team. The reason this game intrigues me so is the history and tradition at both schools. Lamar has had one losing record in the last 22 seasons, while Pageland has never had a losing record...ever. That's among the most impressive feats in this history of this state. The thing is, both schools have up-and-down cycles of athletes just like anybody. When you have sustained excellence for decades upon decades, it's a testament to a couple of things...mainly coaching, community support, a quality feeder system and tough kids who don't want let the guys that came before them down. At Pageland, which bills itself as the Watermelon Capital of the World, players chunk melons at one another in the summer, I've been told. An old fellow who sells produce on the roadside told me Pageland is actually more into sweet taters now than watermelons...he also told me sweet taters are good for you but lay terrible gas on his stomach. So, you know, that's a thing you needed to know. Chunking taters wouldn't really scream "tough" but the watermelons do, so does the physical, whip-your-tail style they ALWAYS play on both sides of the ball. If you've never seen the manner in which they enter the stadium, they run down a hill onto the field one at a time and knock the mess out of one another. Every member of the team has hit and been hit before their games even start. It's a pretty awesome spectacle to behold. When it comes to being tough, ditto for Lamar, a team I've never seen lay down and never seen give up. Even the years the Silver Foxes have had a more finesse spread offense, they still played with a chip on their shoulder and still looked to intimidate whoever is lined up across from them. If you didn't see this excellent story a few months ago, read it right now. If your team is off or playing a non-descript opponent, blow it off and go see this game. This will be a great battle! Blacksburg at Lewisville (1-0) The Wildcats are opening the season tonight and from what I've heard have moved away from the scrum they've run for a few years and are spreading it out. Watching teams in the infancy of instituting a spread is normally right up there with "staring at your left thumb" on the interesting scale. Seriously, lots of incompletions, lots of clock stoppages, fatties up front holding a lot. Awesome. Lewisville put it on Andrew Jackson 36-6 last week and really could have won by an even larger margin if not for a couple of turnovers and penalties. Mike Hill and Johnny Courtney, the ones I've said are the best receiving tandem in 1A...yeah, two touchdowns apiece. The defense created 14 lost-yardage plays and picked off three passes. If they get through this one against a AA team with a big size advantage up front, the Lions might not be challenged until September 30 against McBee. Chesterfield at McBee (1-0) This series has turned around in recent years. McBee, long Chesterfield's whipping boy, has won two straight and last year's game wasn't particularly close. It's kind of like when you hit a growth spurt and suddenly you can whip your older brother. Really pay him back for all those noogies and wet willies and wedgies and swirlies he gave you when you were a kid. You give him a real sound beating...maybe hogtie him and leave him pantsless in a grain silo or something. You get my point, they beat McBee badly for a long time, McBee repaid the favor blah blah. The Panthers started with another "up" win, a rare 1A over AAAA victory as they downed Lakewood for the second straight year. East Clarendon (0-1) at Timmonsville (0-1) East Clarendon lost to the sausage people 23-0 last week...that's Johnsonville, by the way, who should totally change their mascot to "The Fightin' Sausages." Have a big sausage dancing around on the sidelines. Wouldn't that be great? Anyway, they'll be at Timmonsville, who gave a pretty game effort against AAA Wilson last week in a 27-6 loss. Chris Taylor scored the lone touchdown for the Whirlwinds on a 52-yard pass from Jamaric Morris. Since both teams played up last week, it's sort of hard to get the lay of the land on this one...which is a weenie, BS way of saying "Got nothing for you, Hoss...what's next?" Bethune-Bowman (1-0) at Denmark-Olar (0-1) The Mohawks were winners in the opener, bombing Miltary Magnet 32-0. See what I did there? Bomb? Military? WOO HOO! As near as I can tell, there were exactly zero members of the press in attendance at that one, so if you saw it, I'd love to hear how the Mohawks looked (if any wise a$$ says "Like Mr. T's head" I'm not going to be pleased). Denmark-Olar lost to Scott's Branch 6-0, which sounds like an old-school throwback game. You know, ones you've seen black-and-white film of, where guys named Clem and W.K. Beat the crap out of one another, running the wedge or Straight-T, wearing helmets made of scotch tape. Water was for sissies then and so were casts or oitnment, you rubbed dirt on the itchy place or sucking wound and you went back in the game, B.D. I'm filling space here because, seriously, can't find a thing on this game either. Got info on either, leave it in the comments section please. Bout all I've got time for tonight yungins...part two of the weekly Class A preview should be coming your way tomorrow.
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TravisI am Travis, the king 0f SC 1A Football Archives
November 2021
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