Division I Upperstate
McBee (11-1) at Southside Christian (11-1) By virtue of Christ Church's 31-21 loss to McBee last week, we are guaranteed of having a new Division I state champion. We will also have a first-time representative from the upperstate, since neither of these two teams has ever played for state. In fact, coming into this year, McBee had three playoff wins in its long history and Southside Christian had NOT NAM in its considerably shorter history. The Panthers have not really put up the gaudy, ridiculous, "holy crap, they scored how many?" offensive numbers they did during the regular season, but they also haven't had to. Their defense, which often goes unnoticed in the shadows because of the attention-getting offensive stats, has paved the way in the post-season. St. Joe's was like a nervous guy at a public restroom trough against them...unable to squeeze a drop. Christ Church really had one sustained drive and it was kept alive by a big play on a blown coverage. They hit two long touchdown passes to 6-foot-5, North-South All-Star receiver Braxton Westfield early against McBee's man coverage. After that, the Panthers made an adjustment, gave some help to his side and he didn't impact the game any further. Christ Church could not run on McBee. Southside Christian, on the other hand, has been doling out some grade one rootins in the past few weeks, hanging 63 on Wagener-Salley and 56 on Williston-Elko. If you've really paid attention to the Sabres athletics program, the run they are now on isn't a surprise. They have become a force in baseball and basketball in the past few years, so it stood to reason that football improvement was coming too. In terms of offensive balance in this match-up, Southside Christian wins in a runaway. They have a 2,000-plus-yard passer in Clayton Coulter and a 1,500-plus-yard rusher in Quintyn Reeder. Last week, Coulter had four scoring tosses and Reeder ran for 202 yards and two touchdowns. McBee runs the ball in spite of down and distance. I will note that they threw two passes last week, one on first down (which felt like a wacky, trick play). One went for a long touchdown, the other went for a long gain. Pulling a few more of those out of the hat would give the Sabres something else to worry about, but the offense will be a steady diet of Jordan Fair and Dashonnell Wright, two of the state's best backs. I would say the kicking game edge goes to Southside Christian, but McBee surprisingly won that battle last week, drilling an important field goal, blocking a Christ Church field goal and winning the field position battle. Defensively, as noted, McBee gets the nod. The Sabres do a lot of things well and are generally good on defense, but a dynamic back in Shakur Chisolm ran for 287 and four touchdowns on them last week. McBee's playoff road has been an upstate private school all-star regatta so far. They sent St. Joe's packing for AA, then did the same to Christ Church. In a close one, I say they make it three-for-three. The Pick-McBee Lowerstate Latta (9-3) at Allendale-Fairfax (11-1) Not to toot my own horn...OK, to toot it like Dizzy Gillespie, I am 21-3 picking Class A playoff games this year. Granted, the entire first round was filled with gimmes and I'm counting one team that forfeited as a win, so, maybe I ought to quit a'tootin'. Anyway, two of my misses last week were these two teams. Latta sprung the biggest upset of the Class A playoffs last week knocking off previously unbeaten, top-seeded Bamberg-Ehrhardt 35-28. They forced four turnovers and I'm wondering if B-E had seen a passing attack like Latta's this year. Colby Lee threw five touchdown passes in that one. The thing is, Latta has very quietly put together an impressive resume this year. You go back and look at their schedule and really examine their three losses. They fell to unbeaten AA power Dillon (hell, who doesn't lose to Dillon?), lost to McBee and dropped a hard-fought 54-41 decision to Lake View, who is still alive in the Division II bracket. Allendale-Fairfax's only loss in the regular season was to B-E, but they let a big lead slip away in the second half of that one. Last week, even though the Tigers play good defense, I figured they wouldn't be able to keep up with Calhoun County offensively. They weren't, but you can totally get away with that when your special teams score two touchdowns and set up another easy one. A-F managed to answer two Calhoun County touchdowns with kick-off return touchdowns, then they recovered an errant punt snap at the Saints 10 to get another one. None of that is luck, as some might think. You are good on special teams because you take them seriously and really focus on them. Latta can score in bunches, but Allendale-Fairfax has a very good defense. Latta doesn't, so much, especially against better teams. On paper, everything about this says Allendale-Fairfax will win the lowerstate championship. Of course, this blog isn't on paper. Call me crazy, but A-F feels like a virtual carbon copy of B-E...solid run game, good defense, but Latta blew that formula up last week and even good special teams units don't hand their team 21 points EVERY week. Has Allendale-Fairfax seen a pass-happpy spread offense this year? What fun is a wacky football blog if you never go out on a limb and always take the higher seed? The Upset Pick-Latta Division II Upperstate Ridge Spring-Monetta (8-4) at Lamar (9-3) I am not surprised in the least that RSM has made it this far. I saw them in an early scrimmage this year and was very impressed with their size and physical play. They usually run out of a tight wishbone. Two tight ends, full-house backfield and no receivers. Now, they throw it juuuuussst well enough that you have to respect that aspect of their game. They spread it a little, but seemed to throw it better (and protect better) out of that wishbone, actually. Defensively they are big up front. Not super quick there, but strong and very effective. Good athletes on the back end. They have also had a knack for getting on a roll come playoff time for the past few years. They barely got by McCormick by a 28-24 score last week, but a win is a win this time of year. And a penny saved is a penny earned. And a stitch in time saves nine...since I've turned into a friggin' cliché machine. Anyway, Corey Hopkins had 121 yards and Johnathan Gibson 94 on the ground in that one. Per my embedded Lamar informant, the Silver Foxes had a tougher time with two-time defending champion Hunter-Kinard-Tyler than the 34-6 final indicates. It was 14-6 late in the third, but Lamar stepped on their faces in the fourth, which is what good teams do. Trey Ceasar worked hard for it, but ran for over 200 yards. If RSM can control the clock and shorten the game, they have a puncher's chance here. Lamar isn't as big as they are up front, but they are comparable and have more dynamic playmakers with Ceasar, Durant, Barr etc. This'll be a good one, but I say the Silver Foxes are playing in Columbia next week... The Pick-Lamar Lowerstate Lake View (10-2) at C.E. Murray (11-1) I haven't seen Lake View this year, but as luck would have it my Lamar informant has. His description of them is "Lake View is good. Good size, speed in the backfield and LB, and tough. They have a hammer at RB who has speed and their QB is really big and athletic. We had him sacked several times for loss and he just kind of threw us off. They aren't really a threat to pass, but the line plays tough and they get their yards. They have no quit in them." What's funny is, aside from the big quarterback part, I could write those same sentences and be talking about C.E. Murray. They are almost mirror-images of one another. I have seen C.E. Murray and what I saw that night was a big, physical front line, a big thumper in the backfield (Isiah Odom, who has eight dadgum touchdowns in the past two games) an athletic quarterback and discipline all-around. I think they had two penalties and no turnovers the night I watched them play. Both teams are excellent defensively and just stomp your hopes and dreams and giblets with road-grader running attacks. So they have similar styles and similar resumes if you go week-by-week through their schedules. I'm seriusly torn on this one. I'll admit a bias, since I've actually seen the War Eagles in person and was impressed with the way they've handled terrible adversity in the form of devestating floods, but that group has a special vibe. One of the coaches I cover regularly often tells me "confidence is a bear." Once a group believes, the level of play goes up a notch. That describes this group. I may be wrong, but by the slimmest of margins... The Pick-C.E. Murray
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November 2021
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