Lewisville (7-3) at Wagener-Salley (8-2)
This is a rematch of last year’s first round, when the Lions doled out a grade-one rootin’ on the Chitlinburg War Eagles. I don’t expect 64-0 again tonight. The Lions, after losing two straight on the road to Lamar and Timmonsville, righted the ship last week with a 54-0 rout of rival Great Falls. The Lions, as I’ve noted before, have as much front-line talent as anybody in 1A. Rhett Cox has thrown for 1,700 yards and 17 touchdowns this year and has developed into an effective running threat as well. Quentin Sanders is one of the state’s top running backs, Mikial Fourney and Johnny Courtney bring HUGE play ability to the WR position (that’s bigger than big play ability, obviously) and the defense is teeming with large, physical players that opposing school children do not enjoy trying to block. The Lamar game was a physical war, but the Timmonsville game was, frankly, a giveaway. The Lion had six turnovers that night and gave up two kick returns. They lost despite holding a potent Whirlwinds offense to 180 total yards. Obviously they have to play cleaner games in the playoffs and it must be mentioned that all three of their losses came on the road. Wagener-Salley has played outstanding defense this year, allowing only 10 points a game. Chitlinville, as I understand it, has been without its quarterback the past few weeks and has gone with more of a single-wing look, sticking their excellent RB Tre Davis under center. He ran for 200 yards last week. So, they might show that look again or might be back in their familiar Wing-T look. Here’s the thing, though, as you look at their schedule you don’t really see a signature win. They play six in the box and man coverage behind that most of the time and it’s obviously been successful, but that’s been against teams that don’t throw the ball much or well. They’ve also struggled offensively, scoring just over 25 a game and that is padded by a couple of blowouts over teams with one or less wins (so no wins is what I’m saying). I think Lewisville can slow down a fairly one-dimensional offense and gets enough big plays in the passing game. The pick- Lewisville Denmark-Olar (2-8) at Timmonsville (6-4) The Vikings are a team that seems to play hard, but their wins came against winless North and Estill and they average just a hair under 10 points a game. Timmonsville has a couple of big scalps on its belt (Scott’s Branch, Lewisville) and have explosive offense weapons in QB Jamaric Morris, RB Tyquan Eaddy and WR Chris Taylor, who one coach told me is the fastest player he saw in person this year. That sounds like a recipe for a big ol’ bowl of running second-half clock. The pick- Timmonsville Hunter-Kinard-Tyler (4-6) at Whitmire (4-6) Someone asked me this week if I thought Lewisville-Chitlinvania was the game of the week and I told them no, this one is…in terms of what I think will be the most exciting contest. Recall that when these two met in the playoffs last year, it was 44-42 in overtime. HKT has an exciting, athletic quarterback in Devante Scott, speed at WR and loves to spread it out. The Wolverines do not do any of those things…quite the opposite. They line up tight and run out of that scrum, but they throw it just enough to keep you guessing. Jaylen Brown is an excellent wingback who catches it well out of the backfield. Both teams have struggled on defense some this year. Haven’t seen HKT in person, but I have Whitmire and they are just really young at some spots…but I can’t overstate how hard their kids always play. I expect a shootout and another down-to-the-wire contest. I honestly feel like these teams are about even but I’ll give a very slight edge to the Scott’s dual-threat capabilities… The pick, in a close one…HKT Blackville-Hilda (4-6) at Dixie (7-3) If you look at B-H’s schedule, you’ll find exactly one close game, that being a 22-20 loss to McCormick. Outside of that, they got rolled by good teams and viciously pummeled not-very-good ones. The thing is, if you change the McCormick score to 14-7, you’ve also pretty much described Dixie’s schedule. Isn’t that weird? And did you know Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy and Kennedy had one named Lincoln? And the…nope…not finishing that joke. Nevermind. Let’s focus on football. B-H has Dawon Joyney, a versatile 275-pound man-truck that plays DL and LB. Seriously…he’s a nimble, surly dump truck like in “Maximum Overdrive.” Offensively, they try to go the blunt force trauma route with a big 220-pound QB, who pound it between the tackles and runs a sweep occasionally. If you can’t stop pure power football, they’ll probably beat you. Dixie is a little more balanced on offense and is good up front, but they beat Ware Shoals twice, beat three non-SCHSL teams, all 13 players from Calhoun Falls Charter and Whitmire, which was actually an impressive victory. I nearly went with the upset in this one and won’t be surprised if it happens, but I’ll go with the Hornets at home in a competitive game. The pick, I guess…Dixie Scott’s Branch (5-5) at Green Sea-Floyds (5-5) To me, Scott’s Branch remains a patty of confusion, fried on the grill of questions, put on the bun of uncertainty, topped with the onions of huh and served with a side of WHAT ARE YOU? In a loss last time out, they held C.E. Murray’s explosive offense to 14 points. They SHUT OUT Bamberg-Ehrhardt, limited the Mr. T Haircuts to 12 and St. John’s to seven…but also gave up 52 to Timmonsville and 42 to Cross. Obviously, there are nights when they play defense as well as anybody in the state, the other nights when they kinda don’t. GS-G is similar, though…they lost to East Clarendon, beat Hannah-Pamplico, gave Lake View all they wanted, etc. So seriously, this is sort of a toss-up. Based on what Scott’s Branch has shown itself capable of doing, I’ll give them a slight edge, but there’s honestly no telling… The pick- Scott’s Branch East Clarendon (2-8) at Cross (5-3) Bless it… The pick…Cross, by muchly. Hannah-Pamplico (5-5) at Military Magnet (2-8) Not to go off on a rant here, Chachi, but this is why I hate pre-set brackets. Nothing against Military Magnet at all, but a 2-8 team hosting a 5-5 team makes precious little sense, but that’s what happens when you decide before the first snap of the season that the number three team from Region X will host the three from Region Y. Let’s maybe go with something merit-based, eh? I’ve heard Military Magnet has tough kids who play very hard and they can score some points, but the record and stats bear out that the defense has had a rough year. H-P has been a little up-and-down, but Eric Mayes is one of the QBs 1A seems to have a lot of this year who is just as likely to run 150 as throw for 250…or he may do both. Tonight, he might. The pick…Hannah-Pamplico Bethune-Bowman (6-4) at St. John’s (5-4) This has the potential to be an exciting game. The Mr. T Haircuts can certainly score points. They have Braxton Wedgeworthy III Esq. at QB (another of the fun, dual-threat signal-callers in 1A) and wall on roller skates of a RB in Makiah Simmons. This group was 5-1 and ranked at one point this season, but hit a swoon when region play started. Basically, when they’ve played good teams, particularly physical ones, they haven’t faired well. Cross beat them 40-0, C.E. Murray doled out a 56-20 boat-racing. St. John’s got everyone’s attention by knocking off AAA, AAAA and AAAAA competition early in the year, but also struggled a bit in terms of wins and losses down the stretch. I would submit to you, though, that all four of their losses came either to VERY good teams or teams of higher classification. Aside from the shootout with Baptist Hill, they haven’t yielded more than 8 points to any 1A team this year. Kam Smiley is a VERY underrated QB and he has weapons at his disposal…including a strong running game. The possibility for a fun back-and-forth affair is certainly present…but whether it is or not, I have a strong feeling about how it will turn out. The pick…St. John’s
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TravisI am Travis, the king 0f SC 1A Football Archives
November 2021
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