Division I
Southside Christian-56 McBee-26 Allendale-Fairfax-28 Latta-0 Division II Lamar-40 Ridge Spring-Monetta-14 C.E. Murray-16 Lake View-14 Breakdown- You've no doubt heard allusions over the years to the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Dr. Jekyll was an upstanding member of society, but his alter-ego Mr Hyde was a deranged phsychopath that would get all kill-y and junk...well when it comes to football pickin', I too have two distinct personalities. On one hand I am Sir Einstein of Smartville, going 16-0 on picking the first round of the Class A playoffs. At times, though, I morph into Bubba McDumbass, who goes BIG FAT O-FER on Division I semi-finals games. I have to say, I absolutely did not see Southside Christian's beatdown of McBee coming. After the Panthers knocked Christ Church out of the playoffs last week, I thought they'd punched their ticket to a state title. While they didn't exhibit anywhere near the offensive balance of The Sabres, I figured they had more dynamic play-makers on offense and had a defense that would overwhelm Southside Christian at the line of scrimmage. At a bare minimum, I figured they'd blow up a lot of what the Sabres wanted to do before it even got started with sacks, tackles-for-loss and pressures. Wait, did I think that or was it Bubba McDumbass? Yeah, none of that happened. McBee took an 18-14 lead in the second quarter, but then Southside Christian did what they've done to everyone lately, which is dominate the second half. They were up 56-18 before the Panthers got one last junk score late in the proceedings. Part of the problem is that I haven't seen Southside Christian in person this year. With a 2,000-yard passer and a 1,500-plus yard rusher, I certainly knew they had talent and could put points on the board. What I didn't know is that their offensive line would be able to not only hold up against McBee's withering blitz, but they'd be able to essentially do whatever they wanted against them. It also wouldn't have occurred to me that after getting gashed by Jordan Fair, Dashonnell Wright and the rest of McBee's offensive studs early on, that Southside Christian would make some adjustments and shut them down. Like I said when Lamar beat McBee, it's a day's work to limit the Panthers' explosive, 50-plus yard plays, much less keep their Wishbone offense from consistently grinding out clusters of five and six-yard gains. If I'm being honest and really looking at the numbers, McBee did not finish the year strong. After running out to 8-0, averaging over 60 points a game and inspiring my ridiculous power-drill massacre meme, they lost 21-13 to Lamar, routed a totally overmatched C.A. Johnson team, beat St. Joe's 21-0, got a 31-21 victory over Christ Church then got smacked Friday. Maybe being so totally one-dimensional on offense finally started to bite them. Against the lesser teams on their schedule, they probably walked on the field up 35-0 based on superior athleticism alone. Against better teams, ones who can not only cook up a scheme to stop just a running game but have the athletes to do so, maybe they needed to vary things a little more. I'm not around the Panthers everyday, it's entirely possible they had guys hurt. At Class A schools, one injury can often mean you've actually lost two starters, since most guys go both ways. Maybe by game 13, guys who've had to start both ways are worn down. I hate to bring this up, since I have so very many times before, but you also have to accept that private schools have A LOT of built-in advantages over their public counterparts. I was also told by my McBee guy that the officiating seemed one-sided. I will tell you that the only time I have ever, in covering prep sports, felt like officials had decided before the game who was going to win and then facilitated that, it was a basketball game at a Greenville private school. Now, with so lopsided a score, my McBee expert conceeded that refs were not the responsible for the outcome. He said McBee's defense got picked apart...the offense moved the ball, he said, until they got a couple of scores down and had to get out of their comfort zone. Certainly, Southside Christian is a very good team and deserves the upperstate crown they just won, especially when you consider the 10-year-old program had never won a playoff game until this season. They'll be in AA next year, along with the other upstate powerhouse private schools. I hope the window hasn't closed for McBee, who deserves success after winning one playoff game in their long history before last season. They lose an awful lot of starters, including Fair. Whatever next year holds, the last two seasons have been special, they just didn't end the way I thought they would. I can't tell you much of anything about Allendale-Fairfax's 28-0 blanking of Latta. If you've seen a written account of the game, please let me know in the comment section where to find it. I took a bit of a reach and picked Latta, based on the fact that they had beaten Bamberg-Ehrhardt the week before, which is very similar in talent and style to A-F. Perhaps, like B-E, they would not have seen a passing offense as effective as Latta's, I thought. They'd also needed three special teams scores the previous week to beat Calhoun County. I figured A-F might have been the better team, but hey, I write a goofy Class A blog, so why not go out on a limb...maybe because the limb breaks and you fall on a nice old lady and her puppy dog and squish them and look like a terrible person in the process. Well, I didn't do that, but I TOTALLY missed the narrative on this one and was full-on Bubba McDumbass in my pick of Latta. A-F, obviously, is equipped to handle any offense they see. Offensively they don't wow you, but they eat clock and squeeze enough points out of their power running game to go 12-1 and win the lowerstate crown. OK, Sir Einstein of Smartville made an appearance for the Division II games, both of which went exactly as I figured they would. As you know, I now have a confidential Lamar informant. His summary of the game was "Lamar's offensive and defensive lines won this game. Absolutely whipped them up front for most of the night. They stopped us on downs on our first drive, but after that we went 14-0 quick on a 75-yard TD run by Tre Ceasar and then an interception returned for a TD. They drove back down then field on a really nice drive to make it 14-6. Then they went for an onside kick, but we recovered and had a very short field. Durant took it up the middle a couple plays later for around 45 yards to go up 21-6. After getting the ball back we then went up 27-6. Our next possession we threw an interception around our on 40. They scored a few plays later and the score was 27-14 going into half. They actually had some momentum at that point and based on how they came back on us last year…I was officially worried. After halftime they got the ball first, but did nothing with it. Nor did they do anything else really for the rest of the half. Our defense played great in the second and the offense grinded. Not huge plays, just chunks to keep the chains and the clock moving." RSM had a good year. I saw them early on and was impressed with their size. Very tough team, extremely physical. But, Lamar proved against McBee that they can stop somewhat one-dimensional offenses, they have at least comparable size and more dynamic playmakers on offense. They also have depth since all-world super stud RB Tre Ceasar suffered a hamstring injury and was limited to just four carries...of course one was a 75-yard score, but Durant, Barr, etc. filled the gap ably. Hopefully they'll have him back at full strength Saturday, because they'll need him. I also figured C.E. Murray-Lake View would be the closest game of Friday night and it certainly was. The War Eagles kicked a last-second field goal to secure the 16-14 win. I'm sure a lot of people didn't buy into C.E. Murray for a while. They are tucked down in Williamsburg kind of by themselves, don't get a lot of media coverage and don't have a history of success. I've seen them with my own eyes, though, and can tell you they are very good on the offensive line. Isiah Odom is big thumper at RB that steps on other high school children's faces and hurts their feelings if they try to tackle him, they have an athletic quarterback, speed on the back end of the defense and penetrators up front on that side. Nothing fancy, a stack I offense that bludgeouns you, but they are disciplined, don't turn it over and don't incur many penalties. They've also shown real determination and drive by enduring terrible flooding that left many players homeless for a time. Having now beaten a superb Lake View team, nobody can doubt them anymore. They'll play Lamar for state and it will be a classic. Suggested Reading Southside Christian whooped McBee, which Bubba totally did not see coming. C.E. Murray kept it's dream season alive with a last-second win over Lake View. Lamar gave RSM a proper seeing to despite a tough early injury. Also, I did attend the Class A state championship press conferences and will bring you some stories from that event throughout the week.
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November 2021
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