First of all, my apologies for not posting a review of last week as normal. My wife got sick, very considerately passed that nasty bug onto me and let me tell you, I am SUPER PRODUCTIVE AND MOTIVATED TO DO EXTRA when I have snot coming out of my face. I’m better now, though, and ready to jump into my upper and lowerstate picks…
Lamar (10-1) at Dixie (10-2) Once we had a representative sample of games to go by and a bracket showing us which region was matched up with which, this pretty much felt like the matchup we were going to get. That Lamar is here is not a shock, obviously. We’re almost to the point that you can call the upperstate championship game the Silver Foxes Invitational. Since Corey Fountain took over the program in 2014, they’ve gotten here every year. Last week, they ended the season of the boys from Chitlin Junction with a 37-17 win that actually wasn’t as close as it sounds like. The Stump Whooped All-Stars scored the game’s final points with less than two minutes on the clock. My super secret, embedded Lamar informant told me that it looked like Wagener-Salley was working against its tendencies a bit, going to the air more than have in most any game this year. There are plusses and minuses to not dancing with the girl that brung ya. I mean, how big is her daddy and does he have anger issues? Plus, who are you dancing with instead? What was I talking about now? Oh, honestly, Chitlinville had a great season, they won a region title but I don’t think what plays they called were going to make a difference. Unless Lamar absolutely messed themselves, they were going to win because they are just a better team. They aren’t throwing it quite as much since QB Cam Galloway went down, but when you are as good up front as they are and have two jumbo boxes of “holy crap” in the backfield like Jacquez Lucas and Malik Johnson, whatever you can get through the air is just gravy anyway. Dixie absolutely belongs here. They have held seven opponents to eight or fewer points, they have some signature wins (Christ Church and Ridge Spring-Monetta) and they operate with efficiency on offense. Last week, they came up with a 26-6 win over McBee. (As a quick aside, let me congratulate McBee Coach Johnny Kline on an amazing late-season run in his first year as a head coach. When they were 0-6 and getting railed every week, I thought it was a rebuilding year chalked up to lots of talent having graduated, a new coach and a new offensive philosophy. They got better as the year went on, his kids kept playing hard and good things happened. To end up in the third round of the playoffs is a mark of a great season in my book. Let’s please not forget the job he did or that Scotty Steen did at Great Falls this year. Both deserve kudos for the improvement they helped deliver). But I digress…Dixie is senior laden, especially up front on offense and they keep it simple. By “keep it simple” I mean “stomp on your face with a 230-pound man/tank named De’Iveon Donald.” He delivered most of the offense against McBee, though fellow back Chandler Smalley provided a nice compliment as well. They are physical, no frills, don’t throw it much and don’t beat themselves. Defensively, they aren’t huge, but they are tough as crap, quick and obviously very good. They are a lot like Lamar actually…but that isn’t really a good thing. Just as I said last week about Chitlinvania, it is really hard to out-Lamar, Lamar. To me, if you can’t spread the Silver Foxes out at least a little bit, don’t threaten to throw the ball or don’t throw a lot of misdirection at them, it’s going to be really hard to get much going offensively. Part of the reason they are so good is that they are just flat-out more physical than most people they play. They bring an intimidating presence to the field that you can almost feel. This will be one of those games that will be like two guys standing a few feet apart and headbutting each other in the face until someone passes out or wets their pants. Dixie has had one of their best seasons in history, they have a lot to be proud of, but until I see somebody line up and physically beat Lamar, I just can’t predict that it will happen. The Pick- Lamar Hemingway (7-5) at Green Sea-Floyds (8-3) Look, I’m not one to toot my horn…let’s just say that someone who produces a Class A football and meat blog and uses analogies about people headbutting one another until they mess themselves said before the season started that GS-F was a strong dark horse contender to come out of the lowcountry. Now here they sit, playing for the lowerstate championship for the first time in school history. No one should look at what Coach Kiefer and his team have accomplished and think it is flukey or a flash in the pan. Along the way, they beat Loris for the first time in 34 years, they beat a game Timmonsville team, they knocked off Hemingway and they have absolutely cranksmacked their last four opponents (by a combined score of 239-50). They did all that despite having to halt their season and lives for a month in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence. That in itself should tell you what kind of team they are. I went down to Green Sea Wednesday to do a story (which you should totally read) and what I found was a great group of guys who have completely bought into Coach Kiefer’s system. He told them when they arrived that they shouldn’t settle for 6-6 seasons, that they should expect more. They’ve poured themselves into his offseason strength and speed program and every player I talked to relishes the physical style they play. I was also impressed by their overall attitude. They are proud to have gone somewhere the program has never gone before, but they also want to lay a foundation for the future. In the years to come, they want GS-F to be thought of alongside Lamar, Lake View, Hemingway and other Class A powerhouses. I love that. Last week, to be blunt, they kicked defending lowerstate champ Baptist Hill around. From the little bit I saw of them practicing, they will take a deep shot here and there, but they’re pretty much in a bone/wing offense and run a little option out of it. Not gigantic up front, but good and they have the athletes to make it go. Here’s a hint, teams comprised of laughably unathletic people like me don’t average 60 a game. Jaquan Dixon, Anwain Graham and others provide them with lots of firepower. This week, they get a rematch against Hemingway. When these two met on October 19, GS-F trailed 21-14 late. They scored with three seconds left and immediately went for two. They got it, and pulled out a 22-21 victory. So, they are evenly matched and both teams have improved since then. Hemingway couldn’t have started out much worse, going 1-3 and just toting a couple of rootins. But you have to look at who those came to (Lamar and Carvers Bay), the fact that they have a new head coach and lost 16 starters from last year. They’ve found their way since then, going 6-2 down the stretch. The two losses came to GS-F and Lake View, who they got a successful rematch with last week. They have as much front line, top-drawer talent as anybody. Darius Williams regularly maims opposing school children. He’s listed at 6’3 and about 220 but he looks much bigger on film. Against Lake View, he lined up at DE and OLB and often either dispatched would-be blockers like annoying insects or was just running to space…perhaps because no one wanted to try to block him. He was a terror in Lake View’s backfield. Offensively, they list him as a tight end and he does look good running routes, catching the ball and stepping on people, but he’s such an athlete that they sometimes use him almost like a wingback. They bring him in motion and run jet sweeps with him. Have fun tackling that. They also have Darius Taylor, who mainly plays QB but gets sprinkled around to other skill spots too. He is just electric in the open field. This should be another great game, one that could certainly go either way…but boy, the Trojans are red hot on offense and their defense shut down that prolific Baptist Hill attack last week, so… The Pick- Green Sea-Floyds
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TravisI am Travis, the king 0f SC 1A Football Archives
November 2021
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