Calhoun Falls (1-3) at McCormick (0-5)
The Flashes lost to Christ Church last week 50-6 and fell to Southside Christian 58-(I'll let Heart handle Calhoun Falls' end of the score). McCormick fell to Allendale-Fairfax 34-12, but that's not a bad showing for a winless team that had scored 18 points in three games going against a pretty dang good AA squad. The points surge can be directly related to the return of running back Mataeo Durant from injury. He's not just a spark plug for McCormick's offense, he's the starter, gas tank, carberator and pine tree air freshener all rolled into one. With him at full health, the Chiefs figure to kick it into another gear and run over the Flashes...so, I've already shot my limit on car analogies. Whitmire (2-4) at Ware Shoals (2-4) Whitmire, to me, showed more in last week's 34-26 loss to a good Bethune-Bowman team than it did in its two wins. As I've mentioned before, the Wolverines lost 18 seniors from last year, a tough blow to even a AAA or AAAA school, much less the smallest public school in the state. It's impressive how many kids the Wolverines have out for football, though, and Charlie Jenkins is legitimately building a program behind the brick wall, next to the public golf course. Maybe the new starters are starting to grow into their positions and the team is improving. It sure seems like it. Ware Shoals had its two-game win streak snapped by Crescent last week. Region I may not be the toughest in the state, but I honestly think it's the most wide open, so this is a really big game. Timmonsville (1-5) at Great Falls (0-6) You hate to start marking teams off this early, but with Region II only getting three playoff bids, the loser of this one is going to have an awfully tough time making it to the post-season with games against Lamar, Lewisville and McBee still to come. Great Falls lost to North Central 46-0 last week and had a difficult time generating any offense or impeding the running game of the Knights. The Whirlwinds have lost a lot of games close, including a 14-12 game against Scott's Branch last week. Great Falls will honor the 25th anniversary of it's 1991 undefeated state title team tonight. That team beat Timmonsville for the state title, so you know what that means...it means they beat them that year. Actually no relevance to this game at all. Lewisville (6-0) at McBee (3-2) Another huge region opener The Lion pounded C.A. Johnson (do you C.A. Johnson WOO HOO!) 52-0 last week. It was a well balanced rootin', with the Lions holding the Hornets to minus four yards of total offense, Trey Keels throwing for over 270 yards and the team running for more than 200. The special teams, led by Johnny Courtney, accounted for one score and set up another. McBee, of course, is a whole different animal. They busted out of a two-game slump with a big win over Mullins last week. Those two losses should come a caveat or an asterisk or maybe a sticky note that says "hurt folks" on it. They were without five starters, including stud running back Dashonnell Wright, but appear to be back to full strength now. If Lewisville wins, it sets up a de facto region title game against unbeaten and top-ranked Lamar next week. They can't get caught peaking forward, though. Blackville-Hilda (4-1) at Hunter-Kinard-Tyler (2-3) The Hawks proved quite a lot with last week's 20-2 win over the Chitterling Crusaders (Wagener-Salley). I was impressed with the team's 3-1 start, since they've been down for a few years, but wondered if all they'd done was the school-yard equivalent of beating up Larry, the husky kid who smelled like soup and saved his boogers in a Ziplock bag. Those three opponents they'd beaten were a combined 2-14. But they came out and not only beat previously-undefeated Wagener-Salley, they shut their offense out. Quarterback Derek Faust had a good game running the ball and making plays on the rare occasions the Hawks throw it, but the defense really stole the show (you can read more about the game right here). This is a big, physical team and it is time to start taking them seriously. HKT beat a struggling Estill team by eight last week, but had lost two straight previous to that and has been dealing with some tough injuries. Estill (0-5) at North (0-5) Probably the best chance each team has to win a game this year. Bout all I got on this one, Hoss. Wagener-Salley (4-1) at Williston-Elko (3-2) The Stump-Whooped All-Stars were rolling prior to last week, coming fresh off a 60-point effort against HKT and a quality win over Bethune-Bowman. They had nearly 300 yards of offense, but turned the ball over and had a little trouble getting Blackville-Hilda off the field and were held out of the end zone all night. Things don't get easier, as they now face a resurgent Williston team and the possibility of going 1-2 in the region after that 4-0 start. The Blue Devils started 0-2 and were not putting up the hot-a-rocky, dang-a-mosey, offensive numbers we're used to seeing from them. Of course, that came against two good teams from higher classifications. They've scored 99 points the past two weeks, so the ship seems righted. Last week, in a big win over RSM, Tyshawn Allen ran for 193 yards and three touchdown for the Devils...ON 12 FLIPPIN' CARRIES! So tackling Tyshawn obviously presents issues for opposing school children. With a win tonight, Williston's October 21 game against Blackville-Hilda certainly shapes up as a battle for first place in Region III. Charleston School for Vacuum Repair (0-6) at Baptist Hill (5-1) The school from Charleston (I've created so many variations of the name I forget what they're actually called) might walk funny or have eyes that don't blink at the same time after falling behind Lake View 41-0 last week AT THE END OF THE FIRST QUARTER!!!! Baptist Hill suffered its first loss two weeks ago and didn't put up the crazy video game numbers it did early in the season in last week's 22-0 win over North Charleston, but the passing attack led by quarterback Corey Fields should probably have a good night against the struggling Riptide team. So is their mascot a reference to water currents or the short-lived 80s TV show I enjoyed as a child? I'll check on that. St. John's (3-3) at Military Magnet (0-6) St. John's beat something called Oceanside Academy, who I bet are crazy awesome at beach volleyball and competitive sand castle building, badly last week. Military Magnet lost to Stall 35-12 last week in their most competitive game of the season, so... Branchville (2-3) at Scott's Branch (3-2) Scott's Branch's three wins come against teams with a combined 4-12 record (paging Larry, put down the Ziplock bag) but their two losses against pretty good to very good teams (Manning and Bamberg-Ehrhardt) were competitive. Branchville beat Palmetto Christian Academy last week...and thus ends the relevant things I have to offer on this football contest. Cross (4-1) at C.E. Murray (2-2) Cross shut out Lake Marion 22-0 last week and scuttled Baptist Hill's unbeaten start the week before that. The team's only loss was a close one to a very good Timberland squad several weeks ago but since then, even with key injuries, they've essentially diddled the championship aspirations of their opponents. Nate Walker is a threat to score from anywhere, but they have a stable of productive backs and defense that's pitched two shutouts, held Timberland to 13 and the aforementioned high-powered Baptist Hill to 18. This is a legitimate title contender. C.E. Murray gave up a halftime lead and fell to a good Hemingway team 28-12 last week. Still, Coach Brian Smith has some excellent players in the trenches and Darius Rush, a do-everything Swiss Army knife weapon on offense who one coach told me was the most explosive athlete in Class A. Marinate on that for a second. This is a huge region game right out of the box with the winner having an inside track to the title. Creek Bridge (0-5) at Hannah-Pamplico (3-2) Hannah-Pamplico is riding a nice three-game winning streak, having kept it alive with a game-winning touchdown pass with 15 second to go last week against Waccamaw. Good for the Raiders, who have enjoyed one winning season in the past 12 years. Creek Bridge was off last week but lost to C.E. Murray 43-0 the week before that, which continued their trend of allowing many more points than they score. That's the kind of thought-provoking analysis you come to this blog to read, I know. Hemingway (4-1) at East Clarendon (0-5) The Tigers have pieced together a very nice resume so far, with three "up" wins, last week's surprise over C.E. Murray and the lone loss being a competitive game with Andrews. East Clarendon has given up at least 47 points in each of its last three losses. So, you know, this one might not go well for East Clarendon. Lake View (5-0) at Green Sea-Floyds (3-2) Green Sea is having a nice season, with three wins, a couple of very close losses and offense that produces big numbers on the ground. Lake View is ranked second in the state, scored 41 points in a quarter last week, eats live possums and craps bullets...which would seem to be all the information one would need in breaking down this match-up.
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TravisI am Travis, the king 0f SC 1A Football Archives
November 2021
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