Trinity-Byrnes (4-2) at Calhoun Falls Charter (1-2)
The Flashes had last week off and probably needed that time to rub salve on the raw, gaulded spots left by the 62-0 whipping they toted from the Legion Transfer Portals two weeks ago. Things seem to have genuinely improved overall for the Flashes, with their opening win over Ware Shoals rousing interest and drawing some more players out for the team, lifting their roster to almost 20. That doesn’t sound like much, but you also have to remember that is essentially half the male student body. I have not nam to share with you on Trinity-Byrnes other than they have won four straight and are named like that school in Duncan is named. Ninety-Six (1-2) at Dixie (0-5) I got to see the Hornets in person last week in their 26-7 loss to Great Falls. Obviously, they are fairly young and inexperienced, having graduated 18 starters from last year’s upperstate finalist team. They actually have some good size up front (young as it may be) but what they don’t have is a lot of speed, something Great Falls was able to exploit. Ofensively, the Red Devils got a bunch of chunk plays and with not much of an outside threat from Dixie, they were able to bottle stuff up in the middle and hold them to about 40 total yards after their opening touchdown drive. You remember that story about the tortoise and the hare, where you learned that slow and steady wins the race? It’s a load. You were fed a giant stew pot full of lies, kids. The rabbit lost because he was lazy or on the dope or something. Anywho…once they get some more experience Dixie will have a shot to be back to a grind-it-out type team that can win games off its physical play. That probably won’t happen this week, though. Ninety-Six has been a bit offensively challenged this year, but they’ll come into this one with the upper hand based on speed alone. Great Falls (3-2) at Ware Shoals (1-4) The Red Devils notched the aforementioned 26-7 win over Dixie last week. They gave up a score on the first drive on a long pass (a forward pass is almost a trick play for a wing/bone team like Dixie) but absolutely shut them down after that. Made a ton of plays in the backfield. Offensively, they were without QB Tommy Seagle, but D.J. Adams moved over from his RB/WR role and had a huge game running the ball. They also brought Kaleb Funderburk in to play under center some and he threw the ball well (including to Adams). They have other weapons too, they play hard for 48 minutes and feel like an ascending team right now. They have this game and Camden Military next week, which should give them a shot to be 5-2 going into region play. I was a really surprised to Ware Shoals’ score last week (that being a 56-12 carpet-bombing) by Camden Military. My understanding is CMA has fairly stout little RB who ate them up. They have a tremendous chess piece in Jamarius Goodman…a scary chess piece with sticky hands and quick feet. Beats the crap out of a bishop. They’ll do a lot of different things with him, but they’ll obviously have to have a better night defensively than last week to hold up against the Red Devils. Whitmire (2-3) at Bethune-Bowman (1-3) The Wolverines took one on the chin (if Wolverines have chins, I’ll have to check on that) at the hands of Branchville 52-16 last week. Whitmire, unfortunately, turned the ball over four times, which proved to be more than they could overcome against a good team. I’ve seen the Wolverines, and it’s a typical Whitmire squad. They play hard, they run that scrum perfectly and put a lot of pressure on you in terms of going for it on fourth down and onside kicking on every kickoff. Branchville was able to put up big numbers through the air last week and Great Falls did too in the game I saw. They are a bit undersized on the back end which may contribute to that. Even in the loss, Chandler Crumley ran for 107 yards. Tackling him is like standing in the path of a hay wagon full of car batteries rolling down a mountainside.The Mr. T Haircuts were off last week, but lost badly to HKT their last time out. This is another team (like Dixie) that had one of its better seasons in recent memory last year, but suffered big graduation losses. It appears that offensively, they are a bit of a one-trick pony. Now, said pony (Jesus Benjamin) does a heck of a trick. He plays the bassoon riding a bicycle backwards through a flaming hoop…a strange way of saying he’s a very good RB. They’ve been a little up-and-down on defense too. Lamar (5-1) at Lake View (3-2) Don’t let Lake View’s record fool you, this is a heck of a good matchup. The Wild Gators come in losers of two straight, but it has to be noted that those losses came to perennial AAA tail-kicker Dillon and another unbeaten AAA team in Marion. Out of the gate this year, they gave Hannah-Pamplico a good rootin’, flogged the Sausages and beat West Columbus about to death. They’re a good team with some exciting, big-play athletes like Adarrian Dawkins. Lamar, since its tough road loss to Pageland, has basically ground up their opposition into a fine powder and used them to line their field. They beat AAAA Darlington 48-0, AA North Central 64-12 and a good AAA Cheraw team 52-27 last week. You know how good that offensive line is, a point accentuated by the gaudy rushing stats they had against a good Cheraw defense (375 rushing yards, two backs over 150 yards), but the defense chipped in by picking off two passes and scoring a touchdown. The Silver Foxes have a lot more experience on the roster than the Wild Gators (who replaced something like 17 starters from last year), but this could still be a terrific football game. Green Sea Floyds (3-1) at McBee (0-4) Thee Trojans saw their 10-game winning streak broken last week, but some perspective is required here. They lost a competitive game to a very good, unbeaten AAA Aynor squad. Depth seemed to play a role late, but they blew up-and-down the field offensively, with Jaquan Dixon and Bubba Elliot both putting up huge rushing numbers. McBee lost to Hannah-Pamplico last week 16-14. I tip my hat to the Panthers for playing a supremely big-boy schedule (Lake View and Blacksburg are still to come out-of-region) and it might pay off down the line (like it did last year), but facing an annoyed bunch of Trojans tonight is probably not going to be fun. Scott’s Branch (1-4) at Timmonsville (0-4) The Whirlwinds were off last week, but against a fairly brutal schedule this year, they’ve been outscored 151-26. They are just young and, especially on offense, they are adapting to a new system and to life without frightening football ninja/QB Demaric Morris. They’ll get there. Scott’s Branch has struggled terribly on defense and with turnovers on offense. They did notch a close win over Military Magnet last week, though. Blackville-Hilda (3-1) at Wagener-Salley (4-0) This is more than a battle for the old oaken hyphen trophy, it may well be for a region title. Now, this is the second region game for both and Williston and RS-M will certainly have their say, but the winner of this one certainly has the inside track here. The Hawks pasted a pretty good Denmark-Olar team last week 37-14. The highlights I’ve seen of them this year indicate that new coach Brandon Isaac has brought a little more spread to the party. They have a stable of good running back, but Adonis Davis, on top of having an awesome name, is an athletic QB who throws it really well, particularly the deep ball. They also have a guy with backdoor pharmacy level speed in WR/KR Z’ontre Kinard. Those things will give them a chance here. Against a lot of people, they could likely line up, get physical, run the ball and win comfortably. For them or anybody not named Lamar or Green Sea, that is a recipe for pain and failure. The gentlemen from Chitlinburg are too big up front on both sides, too physical and too efficient for that to work. Since they’ve gotten good over the last four or so years, the teams that have given them trouble are athletic teams that spread the field this year, that may not even be enough. Will be interesting to see how this one goes. If it’s W-S wins in a rout, you can all but crown them region champs in my opinion. North (0-3) at Denmark-Olar (2-2) I continue to hope that North can turn their fortunes around. Kids and coaches work entirely too hard to never get to taste a win (which they haven’t done in over two seasons). I doubt that reversal of fortune starts against a physical D-O team whose two losses came to Silver Bluff and Blackville-Hilda, the latter of which was semi-competitive. Estill (1-3) at HKT (2-2) The Gators have lost three straight since opening with a win over Allendale-Fairfax, a win that actually looks pretty good now given how well A-F is playing. HKT has pretty much beaten the teams they should have (Eau Claire and the Mr. T Haircuts) and lost to the ones you figure they would (Wagener-Salley and Edisto). This is really their first game against a median-level opponent. Ridge Spring-Monetta (2-2) at Williston-Elko (1-3) This will be a telling game for Williston. When they lost to Barnwell and Silver Bluff to open the season, I wrote those losses off, since they were to good AA teams. Then they fell to Allendale-Fairfax and I wondered what was up. Last week, though, Allendale-Fairfax turned around and beat Silver Bluff, so I’m now not counting that as a bad loss either. They finally got a win over Estill last week. Javier Rudolph had 124 rushing yards in that one. RS-M has now won two straight after two “up” losses to start the year themselves. Tray Dean specializes in menacing quarterbacks Collier Sullivan is a dang good RB. The loser here, frankly, will have a tough time making any kind of run at a region title, what with Blackville-Hilda and Wagener-Salley still to come for both. North Charleston (1-2) at Baptist Hill (2-2) You keep waiting for the Bobcats to have that inevitable 90 point mega bomb whoopdown of somebody, but that hasn’t happened as of yet. They were able to grind out a nice 22-14 win over a scrappy Cross team last week. Darrell McKinley had a couple of passing TDs in that one. I ain’t got much for you on North Charleston Hoss, other than they are probably walking funny after a 48-point loss to Waccamaw last week. Military Magnet (0-4) at Branchville (4-1) Branchville is coming off an impressive win over Whitmire last week. Zach Wiles had a huge game, hitting 11-of-16 passes for 196 yards and 2 TD while also running for 77 yards and three more scores. Ronnie Nester blistered the Wolverines for 152 yards on eight catches. Military Magnet lost 36-15 to previously-winless Scott’s Branch last week and just haven’t scored a lot in general. So, you know, this may not go well for them tonight. St. John’s (1-3) at Waccamaw (3-1) The returns have not been good the past few weeks for the Islanders, but that has come against three AA schools with a combined record of 11-1. They are young on offense and that offense sometimes puts their talented defense in some tough spots…but trust your 1A loving hillbilly blogger on this one…this team is going to improve as that offense gets some experience and starts to find itself. Waccamaw, a 3-1 AAA team whose only loss is to Aynor, is another tough draw, though. Hemingway (0-5) at C.E. Murray (2-2) When you’ve scored 13 points in five games like Hemingway has, C.E. Murray (owner of a super-nasty offense) is not the place you go to get well. It’s actually where you go to contract malaria or rubella or some such. Lake Marion (1-4) at Cross (2-2) The Trojans gave Baptist Hill all they wanted last week before falling 22-14. Cross is back to being a physical team that plays tremendous defense, but what they aren’t really back to doing just yet is scoring points. They still have not score more than 16 points in a game since 2017. Even one of their two touchdowns last week was on defense. Lake Marion certainly has a number advantage, being a AAA team and all, but they also got smoked like Pall Mall last week by C.E. Murray, so you have to feel like this one Cross has a shot to win.
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TravisI am Travis, the king 0f SC 1A Football Archives
November 2021
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