Calhoun Falls Charter (1-3) at McCormick (2-4)
The Flashes were off last week but lost badly to Trinity Byrnes their last time out and have dropped three straight since opening with a win over Ware Shoals. The Chiefs have gone in exactly the opposite direction. They lost their first four (to AAA Crescent, to a pair of good Georgia teams and in overtime to Fox Creek) before absolutely crap rolling Eau Claire and Dixie the past two weeks. They aren’t a one-man show on offense entirely, but they do lean heavily on freshman RB A’Chean Durant, who had 133 yards and four TDs last week against Dixie and 200-plus against the Shamrocks. CF Charter has some weapons with QB Avant Harris and a couple of nice receivers, but depth gets to be an issue with a roster of 17 and the Chiefs, offensively are on fire right now. Whitmire (4-3) at Dixie (0-7) The Wolverines come in having won three of their last four games, including a 32-3 thumping Ware Shoals last week. Chandler Crumley is like a pile of cinderblocks in a wagon rolling down a mountainside on fire …he’s large fullback that is difficult to tackle is my point here. The guy to really watch out for this week, though, is Jaquan Tindell-White, the speedy compliment to Crumley’s blunt-force trauma between-the-tackles. Most of the outside stuff in that scrum offense goes to him and I think that is where they will have some success. Dixie has some pretty good size and apparently has some help on the way (having beaten Whitmire in JV action by a pretty wide margin earlier this week) but they are super young and don’t have a lot of speed. If the Wolverines take care of business here, they should be able to get by CF Charter next week and play McCormick for the region title on the last night of the regular season. Timmonsville (2-4) at Green Sea Floyds (5-1) So, the Whirlwinds come in on a little bit of a roll, having won two straight after an 0-4 start. Now, honesty compels me to point out those two wins have been by a combined total of 10 points over a pair of 1A schools with a combined record of 1-12…but those four losses all came to AA and AAA schools, pretty good ones at that. Honestly, given who they are playing this week and next week (Lamar) I don’t think we’ll get a true picture of this team until the final two weeks of the year. They are young and for the most part have hung in there and played good defense. That’s great and it’s something to build on but I don’t think it’s going to help this week. GSF is kind of on a different level right now in terms of depth, talent, execution etc. They laid a verified CRANKSMACK on a pretty good Baptist Hill team last week, beating them 47-0 and holding them 100 yards of offense. Read that again…HELD BAPTIST HILL TO 100 YARDS AND NOT NAM POINTS. Better days are coming for Timmonsville and they won’t throw in the towel here, but they may also need said towel to bite down on. McBee (0-6) at Blacksburg (4-2) The grisly gauntlet of broken dreams and butt floggings that is the McBee out-of-region slate ends tonight with another doozie, against a good AA Blacksburg team. Hand it to the Panthers, man, they play a real, big-boy schedule. Lake View, Green Sea, North Central, AJ and now this’n. Now, this was a surprisingly close game last year…I don’t expect it to be this time around, but they should be more than ready for region play when it starts next week. Don’t forget, they were 0-7 against this schedule last year, won two-of-three to make the playoffs, then won two post-season games. Don’t write them off just yet. Ridge Spring-Monetta (4-2) at Blackville-Hilda (4-2) This is a really important game for both teams, for reasons beyond their annual battle for the bronzed hyphen spittoon. For B-H, a loss likely means no better than a third-place finish in Region III, which equates to only one home playoff game. RS-M has to win this one to make next week’s game at Wagener-Salley a de facto region title contest. The Trojans labored a bit last week, needing to rally for a 30-20 win over a solid Denmark-Olar team. Helping on that front was scary football ninja/maniacal QB-squashing robot Tray Dean who had FIFTEEN FREAKIN’ TACKLES and recovered a fumble from his DE spot. The amazing and awesomely-named QB Remedee Leaphart (a name that makes him sound like the unbeatable bad guy in a gladiator film or a giant stuffed panda, I can’t decide which) had 225 yards of total offense and three scores in that game. B-H bounced back from their loss to Wagener-Salley with a nice win over HKT. Adonis Davis (who competes with Remedee Leaphart for coolest QB name in the state) is obviously a huge threat to with his legs and arm behind a good O line and with a bevy of weapons at his disposal. This could actually be one of the more entertaining games in 1A this week. Estill (2-4) at Denmark-Olar (3-3) Since surprising what has turned out to be a pretty good AA Allendale-Fairfax team, Estill has beaten winless North badly and gotten blown out four times. D-O sure feels like they are just a rung or so below the top contenders. They beat Branchville and gave RS-M and Blackville-Hilda both really competitive games. Their defense should be the difference in this one. Williston-Elko (1-5) at HKT (3-3) I still can’t get used to seeing (1-5) next to Williston’s name. I guess when a program has the kind of prolonged success that they have, you start to take it for granted or feel like they are somehow impervious to the giant ebbs and flows in talent that 1A schools have to contend with. They aren’t, though, and are coming off a pretty sound rogering at the hands of Wagener-Salley. They do have a good QB in Tres Rimes (every QB in this region has an amazing name) who is on pace for about a 2,000-yard passing season. It’s hard to get your head around, but Williston really, really needs this game for playoff purposes. Region III gets five bids and I think we agree Wagener, RS-M and Blackville are locks. North and Estill are likely on the outside looking in, which leaves Williston, Denmark-Olar and HKT competing for the final two spots. None of the three has played one another yet, so it isn’t much of a stretch to say the playoffs kinda start for both of these teams tonight. Wagener-Salley (6-0) at North (0-6) The kind of game you hope ends quickly and with no injuries. Bethune-Bowman (2-4) at Scott’s Branch (1-6) If you’re Scott’s Branch, this kinda feels like the start of the playoffs for you. Region V gets four bids (out of five teams) and beating Cross or C.E. Murray in the final two weeks of the season sure doesn’t feel like a thing that’s going to happen. Honestly, though, you take away the 36-15 win over a struggling Military Magnet team and Scott’s Branch has been outscored this year 214-42. The Mr. T Haircuts have had some rough nights defensively against good teams and don’t score a ton of points. They are a bit one-trick pony-ish on offense, but dadgum that pony does a good trick. It tap dances on a high wire while juggling lit road flares and playing the oboe. Jesus Benjamin is one of the best backs in the state, he’s put up gaudy numbers this year but last week’s performance is one to really stand back and admire. In a win over Military Magnet, he ran for 376 yards and had 448 total yards of offense. He get ANYWHERE close to that this week at the Haircuts win it going away. Cross (3-3) at Branchville (6-1) This game figures to be a whole lot more competitive that the records would indicate. Branchville is 6-1, but only one win was against a team with a winning record (Whitmire). Now, they blew their doors off, but the rest of their wins are against winless Military Magnet, winless North, one-win Scott’s Branch, the winless Charleston Charter School for Etc. and So On and Colleton Prep. The loss was a shootout to a pretty good Denmark-Olar team. Doesn’t mean they aren’t legit, just means they haven’t had to prove it, really. Zack Wiles is a big, athletic QB with a good arm and a nose for the end zone. Cross took it on the chin last week to C.E. Murray and remain offensively challenged. Still, they can play some keep away on offense and are dang good on defense. This one could be interesting.
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TravisI am Travis, the king 0f SC 1A Football Archives
November 2021
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