Last Week’s Record- 7-1
Lewisville (9-2) at McCormick (5-5) The Lions had one of the most impressive wins in Class A last week, roughing up the Creek Slung Eagles 64-0. Both teams came into that game at 8-2 and while I picked Lewisville and figured they’d win it by a few scores, I figured Wagener-Salley would keep it close with their ball-control offense and a defense that had been pretty solid all year. Instead, the Lions stuck it in them sideways, on fire and wrapped in sandpaper. When’s the last time you remember an 8-2 team in the playoffs losing so badly that the second-half clock ran? Never. The correct answer is never. Trey Keels threw for 356 yards and Lewisville DID NOT ATTEMPT A PASS in the second half. Mike Hill did freaky Mike Hill stuff, with 125 yards receiving and three touchdowns, Quentin Sanders was over 100 rushing and 100 receiving and the defense held that physical, blunt-force trauma running game of the War Eagles to 118 yards. Now, the Lions make the long bus ride to McCormick. The Chiefs come in on a five-game winning streak, but unfortunately for them the last of those wins was a month ago. Because of the two-week extension of the season, designed to let schools affected by Hurricane Matthew make up postponed games, McCormick sat idle for two weeks, then they got a first-round bye last week. So they haven’t been on a field in a month. Well, they’ve been on a field, but not against school children wearing different-colored jerseys in a competitive environment. Most people would ask if McCormick is rested or rusted, because it’s alliterative and the words are rhyme-ish. I eshew convention here, as you well know, so I’ll ask “Are they healthy or have they gotten fat and forgotten how to play football-y.” That long a layoff will definitely play a role. McCormick has a super-stud running back in Mataeo Durant. When his team was busy losing its first five games and scoring at a positively baseball-like rate, he was hurt. In their last five games, all wins, he’s rushed for about 1,100 yards. He’s also a big part of their defense, but they do everything they can to get him the ball in space on offense. It needs to be noted, though, that the Chiefs have one win over a team with a winning record. Lewisville is more battle tested (both out-of-region and against Region II competition), has more variety and explosiveness on offense and, this is a key, hasn’t been doing things other than playing competitive football for the past four weeks. McCormick had a heck of a finish and I’m excited to see Durant in person this week but… The Pick- Lewisville McBee (8-3) at Blackville-Hilda (7-3) Back in your wild, young, single days was there a girl you fancied? Not just a run-of-the-mill pretty girl, one who just got your gravy to bubbling in every way possible. The kind you couldn’t quit gawking at ,then one day she came to work or school with a weird tat on her face…like a cross-eyed ear of corn wearing chaps or something? She was still hot but the chaps-wearing corn tat just gave you pause. That’s happened to all of us, right? Well, Estill is McBee’s awful face tat. For new readers, making analogies is not a strength of mine. Also, I have no idea what getting your gravy bubbling means. Anyway, McBee is, in my opinion, one of the three best teams in the upperstate. They lost two games early when they were riddled with injuries, after that they laid waste to everyone they played, with their only other loss coming in overtime to unbeaten, top-ranked Lamar. They have Dashonnell Wright, Richardo Wright and other fleet-of-foot, tough as nails people named Wright that play for them. They weren’t in any danger of losing to 1-9 Estill last week, really, but they were only up 14-0 at halftime and didn’t really put it away until the fourth quarter. There can always be contributing factors to games like that. I didn’t find any full reports on the game, but maybe they turned it over or had trouble with penalties. I was told Alex Miller, a stud hoss fullback and linebacker, missed the game with an injury. Hopefully they’ll be all hands on deck this week. Blackville-Hilda, after struggling for several years, had a nice turnaround season and I’m glad. They are one of the classic, prestige, pereinnial contender type programs in Class A and I don’t like to see those struggle. I’m glad they’re back. They’re big, very physical and run a funky single-wing hybrid. They crush the clock, your soul, play good defense and win by something like 20-6 every week. They lost two of their last three games, though, and didn’t do as well when they went up against teams they couldn’t physically overwhelm. Good a year as they’ve had, I don’t think they can do that to McBee and having been off for three weeks doesn’t help either. The Panthers are as physical as it gets on both sides and their defense, which loads the box, sends buttloads of pressure and blows up plays in the backfield while playing man coverage often feasts on teams who can’t take advantage of one-on-one match-ups down the field. So, it turns out that was a temporary tat the girl got at the fair. The Pick- McBee Dixie (7-4) at Lamar (10-0) The only game I missed last week was Dixie’s victory over Ridge Spring-Monetta. Dixie hasn’t had a winning record since 2000, but they’re competitive in other sports, so I’ve always wondered why that didn’t translate to football. Well, now it has. They didn’t play the roughest schedule, really, but forcing five turnovers and managing to play keepaway from a pretty rugged Trojans team shows they’re legitimately good and have come a long way in a short time. Now comes the “keeping it real” portion of this entry. Lamar has the state’s longest winning streak (18 games) they are one of the most intimidating teams you’ll see (on defense especially) they’re well-coached, they have speed all over the field and they have the most impressive scalps on their belt of any Class A team this year (having beaten AA, AAA and AAAA teams). This season can be the start of good things for Dixie, but this game will be the start of, um, basketball season I guess. The Pick- Lamar Hunter-Kinard-Tyler (5-6) at Williston-Elko (8-2) HKT showed some fortitude last week, battling back from a 22-0 deficit on the road to pull out an overtime win against Whitmire. It was hard to find much on that game, but it’s safe to assume quarterback Davonte Scott had a good night, since that’s kind of his thing. Williston kinda thumped it around with a lower appendage in their last game, a messy 27-6 win over North, but a lot of that was self-inflicted. If you look at how things are playing out (see the vicious rogering 8-2 Wagener-Salley toted last week), it makes you question if some of the folks from Region III are as good as we thought. Well, I do still think Williston is. HKT is scrappy and will hang in there for a while, but these two teams played a few weeks ago and Tyran Parker, Fabian Bing, Will Nolind and other Williston skill players had a field day in a 55-20 win. Hard to see how this one ends much differently. The Pick- Williston-Elko Hemingway (8-3) at St. John’s (7-3) I’ve had a hard time getting a feel for Hemingway this year. They beat C.E. Murray, then nearly lost to East Clarendon the next week, they almost beat undefeated Lake View, then lost to Hannah-Pamplico. They seem pretty dialed in now though, having won their past two games by a combined score of 70-0. I will admit to not knowing a ton about St. John’s, since they are in a part of the state where people communicate by scrawling messages on crumpled paper, putting it in a bottle, throwing it in a creek and hoping it finds the right person. If your mama lives upstream, she’s never going to get that birthday card, Junior. That’s how it goes where I live, anyway and this draught has dried the creek up something fierce, but I digress. It also has to be noted that, like McCormick, St. John’s hasn’t played in four full weeks and that their seven wins have come to teams with a combined record of 21-41 and even that is inflated with one win over 9-2 Baptist Hill. Another home team goes down… The Pick- Hemingway Cross (8-2) at Hannah-Pamplico (7-3) Cross lost to C.E. Murray 18-12 on September 30. Since then, they’ve beaten four opponents 211-12. I checked and that is considered good. They viciously flogged East Clarendon 66-0 last week, with Nathan Walker running for 196 yards and three touchdowns and quarterback Monte Shaw accounting for three scores. They’re loaded and they’re rolling. Hannah-Pamplico is one of those feel good “you normally aren’t good but now you are” stories we get every year. And seriously, they don’t just pull rabbits out of their hat, they’re really big rabbits that wear hats they pull rabbits out of . And those rabbits can ride unicycles and do long divisions and whatnot. H-P has wins this year by totals of 1, 6, 4, 3 and 3 points. They won one game early in the year with a touchdown pass in the final seconds, then beat Hemingway 37-34 by stripping the ball away from the quarterback who just wanted to run the clock out, and returning it 70-some yards for a touchdown with 1:11 left. They lost their last game, but gave unbeaten Lake View a decent game in that one. They have something special going and if they’re in it late, they’ll find a way to win. You have to love that, especially from a team that’s struggled for a while Fun as it’s been to watch, I don’t think this one will be close late. The Pick- Cross Green Sea-Floyds (6-5) at C.E. Murray (6-2) Green Sea got its first playoff win in 13 years last week over Military Magnet. They have a potent one-two punch at running back in Graham and Gause, who were both over 100 yards last week, then several other guys that were over 50. Given all that community has gone through, being one of our state’s hardest-hit areas by Hurricane Matthew, it’s cool that the community got something to pull for and equally cool that they’ve gotten to six wins and the second round of the playoffs. C.E. Murray was off last week and has, frankly, gotten the raw end of the deal in a couple of respects. First, they lost one game when Lincoln High was closed down and they weren’t able to find anyone to plug the hole. Then, their game with the Charleston Discovery Center and Goat Breeding Outpost (or whatever that school is called) was postponed because of the hurricane and the Goat people decided they just wouldn’t make it up. When they have played, though, Darius Rush has proven himself to be one of the state’s best players, but he isn’t the only weapon the team has. Green Sea’s style of play may keep it close for a bit, since they run it so well, but I don’t think one-dimensional gets it done against the War Eagles and I don’t think a defense that gave up 23 to Military Magnet will have fun with Rush and company. The Pick- C.E. Murray Baptist Hill (9-2) at Lake View (10-0) On paper, this looks like quite a match-up. Of course we don’t play football on paper, it’s a crappy surface that doesn’t hold up well to cleats. Baptist Hill is 9-2, it’s been a great turnaround year for them and Corey Fields has put up crazy numbers at quarterback for the team. But, those nine wins have come against teams with a combined record of 21-69. They beat one team with a winning record, that being their narrow win over Bethune-Bowman, who really faded down the stretch this year. They played two really good teams this year in Cross and St. John’s and lost those by a combined score of 105-26. Lake View is a really good team so… The Pick- Lake View
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TravisI am Travis, the king 0f SC 1A Football Archives
November 2021
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