Division I-A
Southside Christian (12-1) vs. Allendale-Fairfax (12-1) The numbers: SSC averaged 39.1 points per game this season, allowed 13.7. A-F averaged 27.1 points per game and allowed 9. Losses: SSC's lone loss came to AAA Travelers Rest 20-14 in Week 0, A-F's lone loss came to Bamberg-Ehrhardt 27-20 in Week 7. Breakdown: I revealed earlier this week that I have two distinct personalities when it comes to football picking. There is Sir Einstein of Smartville, who went 16-0 picking first round match-ups and called the Division II finals as soon as the brackets were set. Then there's Bubba McDumbass, whose calls on the Division I semifinals were a giant bag of derp. When the playoffs began I wouldn't have picked these two teams and even last week, I figured they'd both lose. Southside Christian put together a season full of hallmark wins. They became the first Class A team stick a loss on Christ Church since 2011. It was the first time they'd beaten the Cavaliers in their 10-year history. Prior to that win, they were winning, but many of the games were reasonably close. Coach Jason Kaiser said that victory was a confidence boost for his players. They realized then that they could beat anyone. Since that time, they've just been destroying people. In the playoffs, they beat an improved Wagener-Salley team 63-14, a very good Williston-Elko team 56-32 and McBee, the odds-on favorite to win the whole thing (and inspiration for a dumb meme about power drills and goat masks) 56-26. I honestly didn't think they had the horses to control McBee's offense. The Panthers probably have more big, explosive plays than anyone in the state this year, but even if you limit those, their physical front and speedy backs can just wreck you with clusters of five and six yarders. Southside Christian trailed in the second quarter, but routed the Panthers after halftime. Not only did they shut down McBee's rushing attack, they picked apart what had been one of the best defenses in Class A. The week before, they were getting gashed by Williston-Elko's stable of runners (including Shakur Chisolm) but again, put the clamps down defensively and lit up a pretty athletic defense. Without question, the Sabres had the most balanced offense of any Class A playoff team. Junior signal-caller Clayton Coulter has over 2,200 yards passing now and running back Quintyn Reeder will likely be over 2,000 yards by the time Saturday's game concludes. I'm not going to beat a dead horse, since I've already beaten the horse, set it on fire and dragged it up-and-down Main Street on a four-wheeler, but this marks the fifth straight year we've had a private school as the upperstate champion. That obviously gives them some built-in advantages over their public school counterparts. The class of the Greenville County Upstate All-Stars has been Christ Church for four years running...they've been supplanted. Speaking of public school counterparts, Allendale-Fairfax will be the opponent for Southside Christian. I didn't realize it until I attended the Class A state championship press conference Monday, but the Tigers lost three players for the year with ACL tears before the season started. They included the reigning Class A Player of the Year, an all-state linebacker and an all-region defensive end. Obviously, Allendale-Fairfax has something that's in short supply in Class A...depth. They plugged the holes and kept on trucking, almost without missing a beat. The lone loss for the Tigers was to rival Bamberg-Ehrhardt and that came after they blew a 20-0 lead. There is nothing flashy about the Tigers. They play old school football...they aren't worried about out-scoring you, they'll get 20 or so, you won't get that many and that'll be that. They have a good running back in Kenny Smith, they run the Wishbone on offense (a real contrast to Southside Christian's four-wide spread) and just flog you defensively out of multiple fronts. They shut out a very potent Latta offense last week, they held an incredibly proficient Calhoun County offense to 20 and limited eight opponents this year to 10 or fewer points. In a year where it looked like Bamberg-Ehrhradt or Calhoun County would cruise to the lowerstate crown, the Tigers proved they were the best the low country had to offer. They should be proud of that...because I think that will be the last trophy on their mantle this year. Southside Christian pistol-whipping Williston and McBee the last two weeks demonstrated to me that no one is beating them. Good as the Tiger D is, you'll have to score more than a touchdown or two to beat the Sabres. Southside Christian has too much balance on offense and too much second-half finishing power. Like it or not... The Pick-Southside Christian Division II-A C.E. Murray (12-1) vs. Lamar (10-3) The numbers: C.E. Murray averaged 32 points per game this season, allowed 10.6. Lamar averaged 39 points per game and allowed 15.9. Losses: C.E. Murray's lone loss came to Cross 28-6 in Week 3, Lamar lost to AAA Harstville 47-12 in Week 1, AAA Darlington 43-31 in Week 3 and AA Andrew Jackson 16-14 in Week 6. Breakdown: This one is honestly almost too close to call. These are without question the best two teams in Division II-A football and both have peaked at just the right time. C.E Murray's story is a great one. The War Eagles have not had a winning season since 2004, had won two playoff games before this year (both in 1994) and have only had seven or eight winning seasons in their history. Beyond that, Greeleyville (home to C.E. Murray) was among the hardest hit areas of the state by storms and flooding in September and October. Almost every player on the team was either forced to live for a time in an emergency shelter (the school gym) or was trapped in their home by flood waters. They were out of school for almost two weeks and missed nearly a month on the field. The school, which doesn't have a lot of extras to start with, lost some football equipment in the floods. For this team to be playing for state shows a level of perseverance we should all applaud. On the field, the War Eagles keep it simple on offense...if by "simple" you mean "step on your face." They never throw the ball more than a handful of times a game (their leading receiver, tight end Detrell Rush, has eight grabs). They dominate the clock and keep the chains moving by lining up in the I and whipping you. They have a big, but athletic, offensive line and a running back in Isiah Odom that is like a crazy cross-breeding of a sledehammer and angry bees. Odom has 253 carries this year for 1,539 yards and 21 touchdowns. Almost all of those come right up the gut. For a little variety, quarterback Darius Rush averaged more than nine yards a tote and has nine touchdowns. He provides an outside speed compliment to Odom's between the tackles SMASH. Defensively, they are normally in a 4-3. They have good size up front and the players are penetrators, blowing up a lot of what opposing offenses do before they can get it going. On the back end they are very fast and they swarm to the ball. The night I saw them, they had two penalties and no turnovers, so don't count on them beating themselves. There isn't an ounce of quit in them either...they trailed a very good Lake View team late last week, but mounted a late drive and kicked a last-second field goal to win it. They already have several firsts this year (beating AAA Manning, beating Carvers Bay) and have added another with a first trip to state. Lamar, for years, has had one of the most balanced offenses in the state, but they've leaned heavily on the run this season. My undercover Lamar informant says that is a better fit actually...he thinks having guys who start both ways run routes on every offensive down wears them down late in games and particularly late in seasons. Hard to argue with him or with Coach Corey Fountain, since they are playing for state. A coach who played them said it looked like they were running the Wing-T out of they I. Fountain calls it a Flexbone...they go with three backs a lot and work in a lot of misdirection. They have a deep stable of backs, a quarterback (Decobie Durant) that can make plays with his legs (575 yards) and with his arm when needed (514 yards) and one of the state's ost explosive players in Tre Ceasar. He has 2,055 yards rushing, 28 scores on the ground, a receiving touchdown and two kick return scores. The total defensive numbers above don't fully tell you just how dominant they've been on that side of the ball. They gave up some big point totals to good AAA teams in Darlington and Hartsville. Since their sorta head scratcher loss against A.J., they've yielded 0 points to C.A. Johnson, six to Great Falls, HOLY CRAP 13 TO MCBEE, six to Blackville-Hilda, six to HKT and 14 to Ridge Spring-Monetta. Much like C.E. Murray, they have good size up front and guys behind them that fly around and make plays. I've had to think on this one all week...I think unless there are turnovers or big plays in the kicking game, this will be a very low-scoring game that goes quickly, given how they both run the ball. I kept looking for some little seperator and one finally presented itself. Ceasar left last week's game early with a hamstring injury. He may be fine, but that's an unknown. I give C.E. Murray the tiniest of edges on defense and I probably like Lamar's offense a little more since it has a little more variety in formation and plays. It's a lot different if Ceasar is limited in anyway. In a 14-10 kind of game... The Pick-C.E. Murray.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
TravisI am Travis, the king 0f SC 1A Football Archives
November 2021
Categories |