Southside Christian (10-0) at Calhoun County (7-4)
A month into the season, I could not have envisioned writing a sentence that would contain “Calhoun County playing in the third round” unless “ain’t gonna be” was stuck in the there somewhere, or unless the sentence was followed by “PSYCHE!!!!” At one point, the Saints sat at 1-4, but that requires a bit of dissection. They lost a 54-50 shutout to Whale Branch (who is still 8-1 and still alive in the lowerstate bracket), lost to a great AAA Clinton team and dropped another “up” game to O-W. The win mixed in there was over AA power Barnwell, but then they dropped the region opener to then-unheralded Denmark-Olar and gave up 58 points while doing so. At that point, they seemed like the soup of confusion, in a howl of consternation, filled with the Saltines of inconsistency at the WTH Diner. Of course, that Barnwell win looks really good now and Denmark-Olar ended up averaging about 50-a-game. Granted, their region was a bit down this year, with the exception of Ridge Spring-Monetta, whom they beat. Then they blew out a scrappy McBee team last week for their sixth-straight win. They’re on a roll and you don’t have to look much farther that R.J. Brunson to know why. In that McBee game, he hit 8-of-9 passes for 281 yards and five touchdowns and piled up FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY THREE yards of total offense by his damn self. His Hudl profile notes that his 40 times is something like 4.48 which normally drawn an eye roll from me and a comment along the lines of “You run a 4.4 and I’m gonna go crap out a live turkey.” Well, Thanksgiving dinner is apparently taken care of. You watch his highlights and that speed is readily apparent. The Saints had 6 scoring plays of at least 40 yards and they hit a bunch of deep balls. For that reason, I think they at least have a puncher’s chance here. As I figured, C.A. Johnson was able to dent the scoreboard last week against Southside Christian but the game still wasn’t close at 42-14. It should be noted that before the game, the Sabres had given up 13 points to Class opponents all year. As good as they are up front on defense, I don’t just don’t see anybody being able to line up and have success running the ball against them. I mean, nobody else has all year, including Greer. To have a shot, you’ve got to have athletes, you have to be able to throw it and you have to be capable of popping big plays. Calhoun County can do all those things. What I’m not sure they can do is slow down Southside Christian’s offense. They’re balanced and they have an excellent trigger man in JaCorey Martin, a true two-way threat. As I’ve noted before, in recent years, when one of the top private schools is in Class A, they tend to win almost everything. As of right now, that’s how things are looking in terms of the football playoffs. Calhoun County will score (which is no small feat against the Sabres) and has the ability to maybe even make it interesting, but probably not more than that. The winner- Southside Christian Ridge Spring-Monetta (9-2) at Lamar (8-3) Man, what a matchup. RS-M held off a late charge from Great Falls last week and came away with a 48-32 victory. Lamar faced A’Chean Durant and a McCormick Chiefs team that had exploded offensively the week before and shut them out 14-0. The funny thing is, I kept hearing from people during the year “Ya know, Lamar is a little down this year.” Well, “down” by Lamar’s standards is obviously different than “down” by everyone else’s. And in the two games I saw them play this year, I sure didn’t see that myself. Admittedly, they aren’t nearly as deep as normal, but here they sit in the upperstate semifinals. Tyler McManus is back at QB after returning from injury but they are playing a couple of guys there. They play two distinctly different offenses…a spread and wishbone. I saw them against Lewisville and they stayed three TE, two backs for the entire game (when McManus was out). They’ve got a couple of excellent RBs in Pat Anderson and Ju’Quan Toney. To me, Toney is criminally underrated. Super explosive and an excellent pass-catcher. And obviously, they are good defensively given what they did last week. RS-M has QB Remedee Leaphart and since I’ve previously compared him to Mighty Mouse and a scary football cyborg sent to Earth dispirit other school children and crush their will to compete, I think you know I think highly of him. The really impressive thing about him is that when he runs, he maintains his poise and keeps his eyes downfield. He uses his legs as much to keep passing plays alive as he does to run the ball and consequently, they make a ton of big plays. Dantrell Weaver is an excellent back and they have plenty of capable receivers. I’m honestly torn on this one. If it turns into a shootout, I think RS-M wins it. On the other hands, they’ve had a tough time stopping good teams, which Lamar certainly is. It’ll be close, it could truly go either way but a home field and a good defense are the deciding factors for me. The winner- Lamar Whale Branch (8-1) at C.E. Murray (6-1) C.E. Murray won a bit of a shootout with Branchville last week 58-36 and Whale Branch took down a good Lake View team 27-12. I feel like C.E. Murray slid under the radar just a hair this year. They lost to The OC Semi-pros, then were off for three weeks, then beat Latta, then were off three more weeks. The schedule ended up being truncated, but now they’ve won six straight and aside from the gave with Carvers Bay (which came right after their second, three-week layoff) they’ve pretty much mashed everybody. They have a lot of contributors, but Tyree Prunes is a name everybody should know by now. Terrific at quarterback and a safety, he’s playing great and just in general, when you watch highlights of the War Eagles, they somehow look more physical than everybody they play. Whale Branch did an excellent job defensively last week against a talented Wild Gators team, with the defense yielding only one late touchdown (they scored early on an interception return). Xavier Chaplin plays on both lines, looks like his picture should be on the side of a can of green beans and is incredibly nimble for a dude his size. They’ve got talent at the skill spots with Joseph Hicks having scored twice last week (once rushing and once receiving). They only thing I questioned them on until last week was that basically, they’d played two good teams all year, barely beating Calhoun County and losing close to Baptist Hill. But that really isn’t an issue now given how they handled Lake View. Whale Branch has been talked up as a favorite to come out of the lowerstate and they certainly have the talent to do so. Heck, they might be the favorite here…but I’ve just got a feeling. The winner- C.E. Murray Bamberg-Ehrhardt (11-0) at Baptist Hill (10-0) Our only matchup of unbeatens (on the field anyway, BH did have to forfeit a couple of early season wins) this week takes place in Hollywood, right down from Peter’s Point (which is a hysterically funny name that makes me laugh because mentally, I’ve 7). And it features a real contrast in styles. In one corner, you have B-E, big ol’, tough ol’, let’s have a 48-minute tater kickin’ contest and see wins, B-E. They routed Carvers Bay last week. They lost their starting quarterback a few weeks ago and are playing a couple of young guys at that spot now. Really, though, they are going to hand the ball to Quintin Banks, Quincy Bias and Nick Folk and just try to step on your face, while playing good defense. On the other side, you have Baptist Hill, who flings it all over the yard. Last week that included having Harold Gathers hook up with Damon Smith FOURTEEN DADGUM EXPLETIVE ADJECTIVE EXPLETIVE times for 157 yards and four touchdowns. So, Smith is Tecmo Bowl Jerry Rice, basically. For most 1A programs, 14 for 157 and 4 scores is a season stat line. When you play for Marion Brown, it’s a game. As I’ve said before, if you roll out there and try to out-physical B-E, you’re going to lose and hurt and cry and not play football anymore. BUT, if you can toss it around (like Hannah-Pamplico did in the first round in a near upset) you can make some headway. Two great teams and if B-E can impose their will physically, they’ll win in, but I saw the Bobcats get this one in a shootout. The winner- Baptist Hill Playoff picking record 22-2
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November 2021
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