Upperstate
Lewisville (8-3) at McCormick (6-4) The Lions are coming off a 31-2 thumping of Chitlinville, while the Chiefs had a bye last week. Lewisville’s game last week wasn’t even as competitive as the score makes it sound. They scored on their first play from scrimmage (on an 80-yard touchdown pass from Rhett Cox to Demetric Hardin), had another one-play drive in the second quarter (on a 50-yard pass from Cox to Quentin Sanders) and led 31-0 at the break. Cox went for 269 in the first half and the Hand Slung All-Americans didn’t crack 70 yards of total offense until the third quarter. The big plays were impressive, but it was the performance of the defense that really stood out. Simply put, Lewisville’s defensive front completely dominated the opposition. Josh Belk was nearly unblockable and Jaylen McFadden had 17 dadgum tackles. And those weren’t of the “he touched the pile with his pinky, give him an assist” variety. These were more in the “crying school children left in his wake” style. McCormick likely needed the week off to get star running back Mataeo Durant healthy, as he battled a bit of an ankle injury late in the season. He is, without question, one of the most electric offensive skill players I’ve seen in a long time. He has stop-start ability, an unholy first step and another gear to outrun pretty much anybody. That he is a Shrine Bowler, a Duke commitment and holds a 13 or so yards-per-carry average speak to the kind of player he is. For the most part, though, McCormick’s offense is a one-trick pony…granted, it’s the best trick pony a has ever done. The pony plays the trombone while walking on a tightrope, but Lewisville has so many weapons. They are also better up front on both sides. I don’t think it’s a 42-14 rout like last year’s match-up of these two teams, but I think it is a Lion’s victory. The pick…Lewisville Timmonsville (7-4) at Ridge Spring-Monetta (7-3) The Whirlwinds doled out a plus-sized rootin’ last week over an outmatched Denmark-Olar team 72-8. They ran the opening kickoff back for a touchdown, scored on their first play from scrimmage and hung 56 on the board in the first half. This team has been a little up-and-down this year. They needed two late scores to pull out a win over 2-8 McBee, but laid the wood to a good Scott’s Branch defense (to the tune of 52 points) and beat Lewisville. Where they’ve struggled is against big, physical teams. Even in the win over Lewisville they only had 180 yards of offense, but took advantage of six turnovers and ran a pair of kicks back. They have dynamic skill talent in the form of QB Jamaric Morris, RB Tyquan Eaddy and WR/KR/HOLY-CRAP-HE’S-FAST Chris Taylor. Taylor has really come on as a field-stretching receiver and momentum-shifting kick returner. RS-M goes the exact opposite route, mixing a little bit of a passing game in with a power running attack. Where they really win is on defense, though. They’ve allowed 9.7 points a game, but if you take out losses to two good higher classification teams and only look at 1A competition, that number drops to 4.3 a game with five shutouts in eight contests. Now, honesty compels me to point out that came against teams with a combined record of 25-50, but they did what a good team is supposed to do in those kind of contests and dominated. Still, watching Lewisville handily beat Wagener-Salley, who finished a competitive third in Region III, made me wonder how good that region really is. It’s hard to tell, really, because it’s so large that every team only gets three out-of-region games. Most of their body of work came against one another, so I looked at the out-of-region performance (limited as it is) of everyone in Region III. They were 6-17 in such games, including 4-6 against fellow Class A teams and 2-11 against teams of higher classification. Wagener-Salley’s only two regular season losses came in region to RS-M and Williston-Elko, but both were tight contests and last week, they were literally never it against Lewisville. You can’t always do the three-way comparison thing, but it does mean something. I also don’t think RS-M has seen many passing attacks. Timmonsville isn’t a big throwing team but they do make huge plays through the air. RS-M is at home, has had an extra week to prepare, has one of the state’s best defenses statistically and Timmonsville is facing a very long bus ride. The smart money is on them…but I’ not very smart, have very little money and think it’s sort of boring to never pick upsets. I say kick returns, explosive plays and the confidence the Whirlwinds seem to have now makes the difference… The pick, in an upset…Timmonsville Hunter-Kinard-Tyler (5-6) at Lamar (10-0) HKT is coming off a 50-10 whipping of Whitmire last week, while Lamar had an off week. HKT has been without quarterback Devante Scott for a couple of weeks, though he is expected back tonight. In his stead last week was Camry Jones, a wide receiver who apparently possesses more speed than a truck stop. Really, you don’t want a guy who has to get a Jimmy full of logs to C-Town by sun up getting drowsy at the wheel. What was I talking about now? Oh, anyway, Jones ran for 222 yards last week. I like HKT, I love seeing a school this size being competitive and successful and they are as scrappy as they come. Having said all that, they’re playing a Lamar team that’s had an extra week to prepare so… The pick…Lamar Dixie (8-3) at Williston-Elko (7-3) Dixie picked up a 38-12 win over Blackville-Hilda last week, while W-E was off. W.E. was actually my granddad’s name. That has nothing to do with this game, but don’t you sometimes want to know the man behind this silly blog a little better? You probably don’t actually, so I’ll move along…Look, Dixie hasn’t played a very rigorous schedule at all, with two wins over Ware Shoals and three victories against non-SCHSL competition. Still, they’re a vastly improved team over the past two years and figure to be a bit more of a player in the upstate in a couple of sports next year with Lewisville moving up to AA. They don’t throw it much at all, just enough for a tiny bit of balance. They are good up front and lean on RBs Deiveon Donald and Chandler Smalley offensively. The Blue Devils lost two “up” games early, but have been on a roll since. Tyran Parker is a dual-threat guy at quarterback and they have the versatility to both spread it out, or line up in the wishbone. They are very athletic on defense and even playing Woodland and Barnwell have only given up 10 points a game this year. I think they can shut down a fairly one-dimensional offense and do more than enough offensively to roll on to round three. The pick…Williston-Elko Lowerstate Green Sea-Floyds (6-4) at Baptist Hill (7-1) Since a surprising loss to East Clarendon and a blowout at the hands of second-ranked Hemingway, the Trojans have played really well, knocking off Hannah-Pamplico and Scott’s Branch their last two times out. That’s two, real quality wins. The problem for them tonight, I think, is that to beat the Bobcats, you’re going to have to score a lot of points. So long as Baptist Hill QB Corey Fields is healthy (which he apparently is) they’re going to put up silly, cartoonish, video game type numbers. GS-F has played pretty good defense this year, but even in last week’s win they had one, sustained drive, scoring once on a trick play and once on a kick return. They can probably slow the pace down a little and hold the Bobcats a bit under their average, but I just don’t think they can match them score-for-score. The pick…Baptist Hill Cross (7-3) at Lake View (8-2) If you like old-school football where guys named W.E. (did I mention my grandfather was named W.E.?) and Silas smoked in the huddle and beat the living crap out of one another running straight-Ts and wedges wearing leather helmets and no pads, this game is for you Cross had a tougher time last week with East Clarendon than I was expecting, but came out with a 26-10 victory. They are a tough-nosed team with a stud RB/LB in Nate Walker whom other school children do not like hitting or being hit by. Lake View, the defending state champ, has a little bit more offensive versatility and dynamic two-way quarterback in De’Ante Bridgett. Truthfully, they don’t have a big, signature win this year, but they gave Hemingway its most competitive game, with a pair of interception returns making the difference. I can see this one going either way, really, but based on its ability to make a few more plays in the passing game and its history of success in this series… The pick…Lake View Hannah-Pamplico (6-5) at C.E. Murray (9-1) H-P (no kin folks by that nomenclature to my knowledge) picked up a 57-22 win over Military Magnet this week, thanks in part to three rushing touchdowns from Kobe Praylow. They take a considerable step up in competition this week facing C.E. Murray, who is coming off a bye. Darius Rush gets most of the attention for the War Eagles, which is understandable since he’s a Division I commit with 15 touchdown catches, but he’s not their only weapon. Elijah Bey doesn’t get nearly the attention he should for a guy who has thrown for 1,888 yards with 26 touchdowns to three picks and a 64 percent completion percentage. This is probably also the most balanced offense in 1A (nearly 1,600 yards rushing) with a ton of offensive weapons. They’re pretty nasty on defense too. H-P may hang in for a while, but I think the War Eagles just have too much on both sides of the ball… The pick…C.E. Murray St. John’s (6-4) at Hemingway (10-0) St. John’s blasted Bethune-Bowman 46-12 last week. The Islanders got everyone’s attention early on by knocking off AAA, AAAA and AAAAA teams, but then kind of fell off the radar with a string of losses. They really shouldn’t have…all four losses were very close and all came to very good football teams. Some injuries also played a factor. They have an athletic senior quarterback in Kam Smiley THEY HAVE A REAL TIGHT END AND ACTUALLY THROW HIM THE BALL WHICH EVERYONE SHOULD DO and they run it well. Aside from a shootout with Baptist Hill, the defense was pretty salty all year too. Hemingway is unbeaten, they’ve outscored their average opponent 51-14 and they’ve really only been challenged a few times all year. Troy Singletary, Darius Taylor et al are big-play guys on offense, but the Tigers also score frequently on defense and special teams. They got two interception return scores against Lake View two weeks ago, in one of their only games where the outcome was in doubt at any point past the first quarter. They are a prohibitive favorite to win the lowerstate crown and are as good as advertised with a big, talented senior class. Just chew on this one thing, though…what happens if a team plays a clean game against them and they don’t get those gravy touchdowns? How do they handle it if someone sticks around into the second half with them? I think we may find out, because I think St. John’s has the talent to consistently move the chains and keep Hemingway’s offense off the field. I’m not calling for the upset here, but I am saying this was 30-25 game last year and St. John’s ain’t gonna lay down. The pick (closer than people think)…Hemingway
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TravisI am Travis, the king 0f SC 1A Football Archives
November 2021
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