Neither rain, nor snow, nor dark of night nor a crazy-a$& kamikaze deer running into my car will prevent me from offering my playoff picks this week. The latter of those things did prevent me from authoring a look back at last week, for which I’m sorry…but you’d really need to take that up with the deer. I’ll have some thoughts next week on some action and inaction on realignment and competitive balance at the League level, but right now, on with our third-round Class A playoff picks!
Ridge Spring-Monetta (8-4) at Blackville-Hilda (9-2) The Trojans went on the road last week and picked up a very hard-fought win over a game Whitmire team 38-30. Blackville-Hilda. Blackville-Hilda, after a bye week, thumped McBee 36-12. That was a telephone-pole sized mental hurdle for them, since they lost to those same Panthers in the second round of the playoffs last year. These two teams, being region mates, have already played one another this year, with B-H taking a convincing 42-14 victory. I don’t expect this game to be that kind of a blowout, but I do expect the same outcome. Both teams have very good, very athletic QBs (Remedee Leaphart at RS-M, Adonis Davis at B-H) both of whom have unbelievably awesome names. RS-M throws it a bit more, but I’d rank them pretty close to even on that side of the ball. However, RS-M lost a ton of starters on defense last year. They aren’t bad by any stretch but when they’ve played good teams, they have given up points. That includes 30 to Whitmire last week, 40 to Wagener-Salley…they gave up 25 to Williston-Elko and 20 to Denmark who don’t necessarily fall into the “good teams” category. On the strength of a defensive that has been a bit more stingy this year, give me the Hawks… The Pick- Blackville-Hilda Lamar (9-2) at Wagener-Salley (11-0) The boys from Chitlinville completely shut down the young, but very formidable offense of McCormick last week in a 44-0 junk-kicking. If a 44-point margin is a “junk-kicking” then I’m not sure how you’d characterize Lamar’s 64-0 win over Ware Shoals. Like really vigorous, repeated junk kickings in ski boots or something? I’ll have to work on that. So now we get the matchup we’ve all pretty much anticipated since the first week of the season. These are the two best teams in the upperstate and it’s a shame they aren’t meeting in the upperstate title game. Lamar has not only been here before, they’ve been here repeatedly. They’ve played for four straight state titles and would have a longer string than that if they’d not had to contend with several private schools in the years prior. They have a dominant, senior-laden offensive line, an athletic, gamer of a QB in Cam Galloway and an array of backs whose skill sets fall somewhere between “will step on your head” and “you ain’t catching him, Hoss.” They’ve also begun to toy with a spread in the past few weeks, sometimes flexing Galloway into the slot or at RB. Now, coach Chad Wilkes WANTS to run the spread, but with the talent on hand it just made sense to bludgeon people into submission every week. MAYBE they’ve tinkered with the spread to give Wagener-Salley something else to prepare for (they’ve both known this matchup was coming for a long time) or maybe they feel like the Chitlinburg 11 are so dadgum good at running the ball, controlling the line of scrimmage and stopping the run that they need to at least present the threat of a passing attack to beat them. Maybe they’ve looked at recent history and seen W-S pillaging and marauding through the regular season only to get boat-raced by teams that throw the ball in the post-season. Wagener-Salley has not really played in a competitive game this season. Their closest contest was a 42-20 win over Fox Creek. In region, Blackville-Hilda kept it close for a half before falling 49-12. The thing is, aside from Blackville and Ridge Spring-Monetta, they really played anybody. Out of region they faced a Fox Creek team that turned out to be in for a down year, and Pelion and Eau Claire who, to be polite, turned out to be Pelion and Eau Claire. Region III was very good, but man was it top-heavy. They haven’t played a team of Lamar’s caliber this year. The Silver Foxes, meanwhile, are battle-tested, having played Gray Collegiate, Cheraw, Lake View, Pageland and AAAA Darlington. They didn’t win them all, but their two losses were of thee close and last minute variety. A lot of people have Wagener penciled in as no worse than the upperstate champion and there is no doubt they have the talent to do that. They are well-coached and have been growing towards this exact moment for five years…BUT, I don’t think it’s a minor point that they’ve barely broken a sweat this year. That obviously means you’re good, but it also means I have no indication of how you can deal with someone punching you in the mouth. And Lamar is GOING to punch you in the mouth. Maybe the torch gets passed tonight, but what fun is it to do a silly football and meat BLAWG without a picking an upset here and there. I’ll take experienced, battle-tested and blessed with scary, large school children in the trenches to pull out a squeaker. The Pick- Lamar C.E. Murray (8-2) at Green Sea-Floyds (9-1) There are some who think that the Trojans are a prohibitive favorite to not only make it back to state but to repeat as Class A champions. I was probably among those, until I really thought about it. Now, GS-F is LOADED with talent. You know the names by now (QB/Quarter-Mile Dirt Track Driver Bubba Elliot, RB/Cheetah Jaquan Dixon) and know they are liable to hang half a hundo on anybody. The defense gets overshadowed by the gaudy stat-wagon that the offense has become, but it shouldn’t, having allowed 100 points in 10 games, with 36 of those coming in a competitive loss to a AAA Aynor team that went unbeaten in the regular season. In six games against fellow Class A competition, they’ve yielded 28 points. This is what I started thinking about, though…C.E. Murray has operated just a hair under the radar this year, but they have just clicked right along, physically mauling most everyone they’ve played. They have one of the best defenses in the state with the 84 points allowed in 10 games not even really telling the story, since lots of those points come with games well out of reach for the opponents late. Offensively, they run the ball and run it very well. I’ve thought for a few weeks now that C.E. Murray is the only team in the lowerstate who can beat Green Sea-Floyds precisely because they play real, big boy defense and have the potential to keep the Trojans on the sidelines with long, ground-based drives. Having said that, being capable of beating someone is different than actually beating them. Green Sea’s big-play potential and stifling, downhill defense that is particularly effective against the power running attack the Eagles favor makes them tough to beat and gives them a slight edge I’m only picking one upset this week, but I might be picking the wrong one… The Pick- In a “closer than everybody thinks” special…Green Sea-Floyds Cross (7-4) at Lake View (8-4) I’ll be succinct here. Major hat tip to Cross for bouncing back from a winless 2018 to earn a winning record and two playoff wins. They are a tough, physical team with an offense that has come around in the past few weeks after struggling all of last year and most of this one. Lake View, though, is teeming with young talent, they make lots of big plays and LAW MERCY did they give a good Branchville team a grade 1 toolin’ last week (it was 60-6). The Wild Gators pull away late to advance to the lowerstate title game… The Pick- Lake View Overall playoff pickin’ record- 15-1
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November 2021
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