McBee (4-8) at Dixie (9-2)
This seems like a good time to acknowledge the job that Johnny Kline has done at McBee. The Panthers have lost a ton of athletes the past two years, guys who brought them an unprecedented level of success on the gridiron and beyond. Aside from Lamar, they’ve played the roughest schedule in Class A and they certainly took their lumps as a result, plus Kline brought a radically different offense to town, installing a spread in a place that a few years ago attempted something like 12 passes in a season. Despite all that, here they sit in late November, still playing football. They went on the road last week, they bent but never broke and pulled the biggest upset of the playoffs so far with a win over Blackville-Hilda. I thought their offense might give the Hawks some trouble early, but I assumed they’d get worn out by the punishing running game of Blackville-Hilda and overwhelmed by the big, fast, scary monsters that comprise the Hawks defense. I think I said something ridiculous like Blackville-Hilda would grind them into a fine powder and use those remains to make hoe cakes or something. Well, I was wrong. Part of that was them making stops when it mattered most, part of it (to a lesser extent) was because of Blackville-Hilda miscues and then, given the totality of things, I think that maybe Region III wasn’t quite as strong top-to-bottom as I thought. This week they go to a Dixie team having one of the best seasons in program history. They are similar to Blackville-Hilda in that they are big up front, they just pound you with a variety of RBs that look like rocket-powered tanks and they are physical as crap on defense. The difference is that this group is more experienced, they’ve shown no indication that they beat themselves with missed opportunities and they are a lot more battle-tested. They beat Christ Church, they won at Whitmire, they absolutely clamped down on Ridge Spring-Monetta and their two losses were competitive games against dang good AA teams in Ninety-Six and Landrum. It might be close for a while, the Panthers have weapons in Jaheim and Tyrece Wright and McBee has already proven me wrong once in these playoffs, but I say De’Iveon Donald has a big game on the ground and the Hornets play for the upperstate title next week. The Pick- Dixie Wagener-Salley (10-1) at Lamar (9-1) It’s a shame this is a third round playoff game. You’ve got number two visiting number one in what figures to be one of those games that I call a tater-kicking contest. Seriously, each side will equip itself with sturdy footwear, they’ll stand a few feet apart and just kick each other where it hurts until someone doubles over and taps out. Unless somebody breaks a screen pass loose for a big gain, I doubt there will be 100 yards passing between the two. What you’ll get is some old-school, phone booth football where the two will just try to pound the rock and wear each other out. Since losing to Fox Creek early in the season, the boys from Chitlin Junction have only been tested once, that coming in a 14-point win over Ridge Spring-Monetta. This is an experienced team, they have size up front and man alive do they have some athletes. Go watch the highlights on Qunetiz Barnes and tell me how much fun it looks like to try to tackle him. Almost as much fun as it is trying to catch/tackle/compete-in-football with Jacquez Lucas and Malik Johnson from Lamar. The Silver Foxes have made a few tweaks offensively since QB Cam Galloway went down. They spread a little, but they often go with two or three back looks…so basically, they find lots of creative ways to have Lucas and Johnson trample your souls. To the extent anybody has any success of any kind against the impenetrable wall of flames and granite and bazookas that is the Lamar defense, it is through the air. I just don’t know that you can line up and out-physical the Silver Foxes. I may be wrong, but I’ll have to see that to believe it can happen. Expect a physical war and a great game, but also expect to see the Silver Foxes playing for the upperstate title next week. The Pick- Lamar Green Sea Floyds (8-3) at Baptist Hill (7-2) This has the makings of a thrilling shootout, or a one-side tail-whipping, or something in-between. It’s hard to say. Both of these teams come in on real hot streaks. Green Sea-Floyds has won six of their last seven and in the last three weeks have beaten a good C.E. Murray team 64-26, a resurgent McBee squad 68-0 and Creek Bridge 63-8. Baptist Hill, as you know by now, started 0-2 but made the bold move of taking one of the state’s best WRs in Rashad Maxwell and putting him at QB. They haven’t lost since. The first five weeks of that experiment (admittedly not against the toughest schedule) saw them score between 58 and 78 points in every game. They’ve ONLY (a very relative term) scored 28 in each of their last two. What gets overlooked as they heap up tons of pinball-like offensive stats is how good their defense is. They only gave up 17 to the The OC Semi Pros in their opener and have allowed six or less five times. They did give up 27 to St. John’s in a 28-27 win, but the Islanders had one big-play touchdown and another non-offensive score. They aren’t throwing the ball near as much as last year or as early in the season, but if you can run for 400-ish yards like they did last week, I say go ahead and do that. Green Sea isn’t much interested in throwing the ball at all. They’ll just pound you with Jaquan Dixon, Anwain Graham and QB Bubba Elliot, who I’m certain must race on dirt tracks on the weekend. They are good on defense too, but it should be noted that their last lost came by a 37-22 score to a team with an athletic QB that spreads the field (Lake View). Of course, that was two weeks after Green Sea had spent a month not playing football because of a hurricane. They’ve definitely played a tougher schedule than Baptist Hill. I’m torn and honestly think this could go either way and be close or not be close in any direction. Baptist Hill’s quick-strike ability, Maxwell’s overall excellence and that underrated defense tell me they aren’t gonna lose this…but sometimes, wisely or not, you tell your head to get bent and get crazy and impetuous and go with your gut and a red hot team to pull an upset… The Pick- Green Sea-Floyds Hemingway (6-5) at Lake View (7-3) These two teams faced off on October 25 and Lake View ran away with that one 39-21. Of course, stuff that happened a month ago means NOT NAM at this point. Lake View, since a respectable but losing effort to Lamar has won five straight. They hammered McBee, they beat Green Sea-Floyds, blew out Creek Bridge, then took big wins over Hemingway and St. John’s. So, three teams that are still playing and another very good squad. Hemingway is the pudding of confusion, in the bowl of unanswered questions, topped with the Cool Whip of consternation at the end of the buffet line at the Who Are You Country Diner. They were 1-3 and getting slaughtered against a tough schedule early, then they seemed to find their way and notched a few quality wins, then they lost two straight, now they’ve won two straight and are still standing on Nov. 23. They have as much top-drawer talent as anybody with scary bear on roller skates Darius Williams, Darius Taylor et al. But they’re young at a lot of spots and that has shown at times. They certainly CAN win this. But Lake View has excellent athletes of their own (Adarrian Dawkins being high on that list) they’ve been better on defense, they have more signature wins and if you look at their three losses you see a close one to Hannah-Pamplico (a very good AA team), Lamar and Dillon. So, two teams that regular football teams comprised of human school children never beat. The Wild Gators play for the lowerstate title next week. The Pick- Lake View.
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November 2021
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