Southside Christian-55
Calhoun Falls Charter-0 McCormick-37 Dixie-7 Ridge Spring-Monetta-27 Fox Creek-19 St. Joe's-31 Ware Shoals-6 Christ Church-28 Whitmire-6 Great Falls-16 C.A. Johnson-12 McBee-18 Lewisville-0 Andrew Jackson-16 Lamar-12 Calhoun County-33 Blackville-Hilda-0 Williston-Elko-32 Hunter-Kinard-Tyler-8 Wagener-Salley-51 North-8 Allendale-Fairfax-22 Denmark-Olar-10 Bamberg-Ehrhardt-47 Bethune-Bowman-0 Estill-40 Branchville-0 Gray Collegiate-14 Scott's Branch-6 Carvers Bay-33 Creek Bridge-6 Lake View-34 Green Sea-Floyds-8 Latta-16 Hemingway-0 Breakdown-We only had one "play up" game this week and it was a noteworthy one. It isn't often that a Class A team losing to a AA squad is considered an upset, but when I saw someone tweet that Andrew Jackson had beaten Lamar, I figured someone with fat susasage fingers must have sent the tweet and hit the wrong buttons. When I saw the same score from multiple sources I was still skeptical. "GO HOME TWITTER! YOU'RE DRUNK!" I thought. But that 16-12 Volunteers win was a real thing that happened. It was surprising, of course, because AJ came in with one win, that being a tough fight they had with Great Falls. They'd been on the receiving end of McBee's cruel, cruel drill in an 84-14 whipping as well. Lamar, on top of its tradition, had looked good this year. The Silver Foxes had only lost to Hartsville and Darlington, a pair of quality AAA programs and had won a couple of blowouts against overmatched teams and got a close win against a good Lake View squad. It sounded like AJ successfully played keepaway, opening the game with a 10-plus minute scoring drive. Lamar also lost three fumbles, while the Volunteers largely took care of the ball. Maybe it was good night for AJ, a bad night for Lamar...maybe neither is exactly what we thought they were or maybe it was one of those occasions where the physical size and depth of a larger school was just too much for a school with under 300 students to overcome. AJ certainly made the plays down the stretch when they needed them. I do notice that the superb run-pass balance Lamar almost always exhibits is absent this year. They've only thrown for a few hundred yards and didn't attempt a pass against the Volunteers. If this matters, Lamar didn't know they were playing Thursday night until late Thursday morning. Whatever the reason, it was a stunner. I took in the Lewisville-McBee game, which was called at halftime because of lightning with the Panthers ahead 18-0. There had been attempts to move the game to Thursday when the entire game would've been completed, uninterrupted by scary cloud farts, but we'll leave that discussion for another time. Jordan Fair and Dashonnell Wright are an incredible one-two punch. Those two would start for any team in the state in my opinion. Fair, a senior, rightly earned a spot on the Shrine Bowl team. Fair ran for 145 yards and two touchdowns and Wright 108 and a score in a half. I will say, Lewisville's defense stuck their noses in there and fought. It was a gutty performance. McBee is deserving of being the number one team in the state and I don't think anyone will beat them at this point. That doesn't mean there isn't a thing here or there that can't be exploited. They went mainly with a five-man front and brought the house on most every play, leaving their corners to play man. If you can hold up in protection against them, there are opportunities for big plays down the field. But that is a mighty big, overweight "if." They are also totally one-dimensional on offense, having thrown about a dozen passes all year. But when you block plays almost perfectly and have a couple of elite athletes with the ball in their hands on every play, maybe that doesn't make a difference. Something else needs to be addressed here. We've, by now, all seen the devastation that the prolonged rain and flooding has caused in parts of our state. If you are interested in helping those affected, read this and take some action (or find a way to help nearer where you live). I've seen pictures of some lowerstate stadiums and fields that look like Bill Dance should be baiting a hook and casting his line into them. A number of teams had to postpone their games and, frankly, with transportation limited or impossible is some areas, people displaced from their homes and at least 14 confirmed deaths, some communities have more to worry about than when they're going to get their games in. Helpfully, the high school league sent out some guidelines on making up games... Football (Rescheduling of Contest) The weather over the past week, especially this weekend, has had a major impact on high school football games. Many games have been postponed more than once. Some schools are still trying to schedule last week's games for this week. Some school districts may not even have school this week; further complicating rescheduling of games. The safety of participants, students and fans are of utmost importance. The following guidelines are suggested as you think about re-scheduling your game(s): Last week's games (Oct 2) can be made up as late as Wednesday, (Oct. 7) and this week's game Friday, (Oct 9) can be played on Saturday, (Oct 10) or Monday, (Oct 12). Then the regularly scheduled games for Oct. 16 can proceed as planned. If this week's game (Oct 9) cannot be played, the same plan should be used for the following week. There shall be a minimum of two (2) days off between games. (This is not ideal and we are not comfortable with this, but will support the two days off between games.) None of these suggestions are ideal and once-again, player safety is to be considered first and foremost when rescheduling games. If schools cannot agree to the arrangements for rescheduling a game, the schools and the League Office will discuss ways to handle the situation. If there are Region implications when the two schools cannot agree on rescheduling a game, the Region will have to decide what impact a non-played game will have on playoffs. Let me translate that for you. Your district may have cancelled school and may have rules against holding extracurricular activities if school is cancelled...you may not have a field that doesn't look like it is hosting a Bassmasters tournament and roads may be dangerous or impassable...but uh, you've got till Wednesday to knock em out. Good luck with it. Ideally, the league would back the season up a week to allow everyone to deal with the aftermath of this tragedy. That would be especially doable for Class A and AA since their seasons end a week earlier than AAA and AAAA. That would be a big step, but this isn't like a snowstorm where stuff is frozen for a few days, then melts away. Some people have lost everything and as of this writing we have 365 roads and over 150 bridges closed in this state. Maybe the league is locked into contracts for specific dates with venues hosting state title games. If they absolutely can't work out backing it up a week or find alternate venues to host (I'm certain someone would step up and make that happen given the circumstances) then they could take the step of cutting one week from the playoffs. I don't know if most folks would agree with that, but again we are dealing with special circumstances...being declared a federal disaster area is a "special circumstance" I think. At a bare minimum, the league should essentially tell everybody who couldn't play last week that they can make their game up whenever they can, so long as there is sufficient recovery time between the previous game and the succeeding game. Could affected games be considered ties and playoff points (where applicable) be split between the teams? I don't know, I'm not pretending to have the answers and I fully acknowledge this is a logistical nightmare to deal with. I know the league is trying to avoid a situation where last week's game is being played this week, and this week's next...What I am saying is that I have always been told that the league, essentially, is its members schools, not an independent body issuing edicts from on high. The well-paid league staff carries out the stated desires of schools, so I hope schools will speak with one voice, tell the league what they want done then insist that it gets done. (Note: Since writing this, AA has come up with a fix, which you can read about right here). Quick hits-Last week I compared Blackville-Hilda to a girl with hairy thumbs. It won't make anymore sense if I try to explain it. Basically, I thought they might have been better than their 1-4 record against a tough slate of opponents might indicate and I thought they might give unbeaten Calhoun County, who doesn't have anything I'd consider a quality win on their resume, a run for their money. Yeah...I also thought I looked like a giant bag of awesome rocking a bowl cut in 5th grade...wearing Jams and a OP shirt. Calhoun County beat them 33-nam...Congrats to Great Falls on getting their first win of the year, 16-14 over C.A. Johnson. They went down 6-0 late in the first half, ran back the ensuing kickoff then showed off some mighty big taters, going for an onsides kick and recovering it. They scored again to take a lead they would never relinquish...I still don't know that they stack up favorably against the top teams in the big Class A playoff bracket, but Southside Christian has back-to-back impressive wins after a 55-0 blasting of Calhoun Falls Charter. The Flashes only have one win, but have had scored a lot of points until running into the Sabres. We'll no for sure how good they are after this week when they face Christ Church...Speaking of the Cavs, it sounds like they and Whitmire had a pretty good game last week. The Wolverines led early before falling 28-6. They've lost two straight since I wrote a big feature piece on them...so, if any other of you other coaches out there want me to write about you SHOOT ME AN EMAIL! Suggested Reading My friend Jed Blackwell politely instructs the league to go crap in its hat in this dead-on column. Only two Class A players got picked for the Shrine Bowl, but they are two mighty good ones that you can read about here and here. Calhoun County scoffs at my insipid blog predictions. Whitmire might've proven how far they've come as much with Friday's loss as in their four wins. Williston-Elko seems to have settled into a groove...if by "settled into a groove" you mean "beat HKT." Bamberg-Ehrhardt tuned up for this week's big showdown with Allendale-Fairfax by leaving marks on Bethune-Bowman. The internet might be drunk and full of made-up pictures of hippos eating bowls of flan in Columbia, but sometimes the wacky stuff on there is true. Carver's Bay beat Creek Bridge, RSM won again and Latta did something or another. You can read about or it don't. Can't make you. I ain't your daddy...cuz if'n I was you wouldn't be so lippy or cavalier about calling grown folks by their Christian names.
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November 2021
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