Lewisville- 31
Wagener-Salley 2 Timmonsville- 72 Denmark-Olar- 8 HKT- 50 Whitmire- 10 Dixie- 38 Blackville-Hilda- 12 Green Sea-Floyds- 20 Scott’s Branch- 18 Cross- 26 East Clarendon- 10 Hannah-Pamplico- 57 Military Magnet- 22 St. John’s 46 Bethune-Bowman- 6 Breakdown- Round one of the Class A playoffs is THEORETICALLY supposed to feature close match-ups, since all the one seeds and some of the two seeds have byes, leaving THEORETICALLY evenly-matched twos, threes and fours battling. Well, not every theory turns out to be valid. People used to think toads grew out of mud and that their pee gave you tetter, or ringworm; some skin malady. Anyway, what we mostly got Friday night were railings and whoopins. The only really competitive game came in Green Sea-Floyd’s come-from-behind two-point win over Scott’s Branch. All year I’ve deemed Scott’s Branch the meat of consternation, in the pita of head-scratchers, slathered in the tzatziki sauce of uncertainty, on the plate of confusion at Sal’s WTH Diner. Thankfully I don’t have to make any more of those inane analogies about Scott’s Branch. Seriously though, you shut out Bamberg-Ehrhardt and give up 52 to Timonsville (and 40 to Cross) in the same season, I think I’m within my right to say dumb stuff like “the tzatziki sauce of uncertainty.” Grees Sea-Floyds was kind of in the same boat, really. I expected them to take a step forward this year and it didn’t really happen in the regular season. They beat Hannah-Pamplico, gave Lake View a heck of a game, but then somehow lost to East Clarendon. They didn’t do a whole lot offensively Friday, but they showed some fight, coming back from down 12-0. They got a kickoff return for a score, mounted one drive in the second half for a touchdown to go up 13-12 and then, trailing 18-13, executed the old hook-and-ladder for a touchdown with under three minutes to go. Special teams obviously played a big role, with Scott’s Branch missing on three, two-point conversion tries and allowing a kick return score. Green Sea now moves on to face the silly, pinball-like scoring offense of Baptist Hill this week… Region II pretty well flexed its muscles. Denmark-Olar is going to need some salve or lotion what the burn marks a 72-8 flailing leaves. Chris Taylor ran the opening kickoff back for a touchdown and hard as it is to believe, things only got worse from there for the Vikings. Tyquan Eaddy went 65 yards to the house for a touchdown on Timmonsville’s first play from scrimmage and it was 56-8 at halftime. The Whirlwinds, to me, are a pretty scary team right now. They have explosive offensive talent and they are playing with a metric butt-ton of confidence. Their match-up with Ridge Spring-Monetta this week is a very interesting one…The score wasn’t as lopsided, but Lewisville was every bit as dominant against Wagener-Salley as Timmonsville was in their game. I felt like the Lions would be able to get some quick strike scores, because the fellows from Chitlinland haven’t really played a passing team this year and good as their defensive numbers have been this year, they’ve had the luxury of loading the box and playing man coverage. Well, Lewisville’s first offensive play was an 80-yard touchdowns pass. They had another one-play drive (a 50-yard scoring toss) and it was 31-0 at halftime and Rhett Cox was 8-of-11 for 269 yards. They did hold Lewisville below their normal rushing totals, but when you give up 269 through the air in a half, that doesn’t much matter. The only thing that surprised me was how little the Stump Whooped All-Stars were able to do offensively. They haven’t put up dazzling offensive numbers by any stretch this year, but they got NOT NAM going against Lewisville. Had less than 70 yards at the break, and man, they tried everything. Fake punts, three different quarterbacks etc. The Lions, up front defensively, simply dominated. That (plus Dixie’s dismantling of Blackville-Hilda) really makes me wonder about how good Region III was. It’s such a HUGE region, that each team only gets three out-of-region contests, so there isn’t much of a body of work against anyone but each other to judge them by. We’ll see on Ridge Spring-Monetta and Williston-Elko this week. Lewisville now heads to McCormick…I was 7-1 on my first-round playoff picks, but on one of the games I got right my narrative was off by a freaking mile. I figured, much like last year, Whitmire and HKT would be a very close, competitive game. It wasn’t. 50-10 is not that. The Wolverines were a very young team this year and I expect them to be much improved next season. The reason I thought they could keep it close was because HKT, while prolific at times on offense, has struggled defensively. That obviously wasn’t the case Friday. One interesting note in this one is that Devante Scott did not play quarterback for the Trojans. Have no clue why he didn’t, but they put speedster Camry Jones under center and that worked out OK, if by “worked out OK” you mean “ran for 222 dadgum, flippin’ yards. Good for HKT, getting a playoff win is an indicator of a good season. Now they play Lamar, so, you know… Quick Hits- I was a tad flippant on my East Clarendon-Cross prediction Friday (my entire breakdown was “aw, bless it” because I expected savage beatdown) and apparently shouldn’t have been. E.C. gave a heck of an effort before falling 26-10. I haven’t been able to find an account of that game, but Cross won what turned into a more competitive game than I was expecting and will play one of the game’s of the week this Friday against Lake View…The season of the Mr. T Haircuts has come to a close via a 46-6 whipping at the hands of St. John’s. The Islanders got 215 yards on the ground from Jalen Hammond and a couple of scores from QB Kam Smiley. They knocked off a slew of big boys early in the season, then lost a couple of very close games to very good teams. They are balanced on offense and play real, actual defense. They go to unbeaten Hemingway this week. The Tigers, really, haven’t actually been challenged in a game this season. It will be interesting to see if St. John’s can do what no one else has…Hannah-Pamplico rolled over Miltary Magnet thanks in part to three touchdowns from Kobe Praylow. This is another team that on a given week seems capable of beating almost anyone (they gave Lamar its only really challenge of the year) or losing to anybody (they lost by two scores to Green Sea-Floyds and fell to The Sausages). They will face enormous test this week on the road at C.E. Murray. Suggested Reading… You can read about HKT’s offensive exploits and other game recaps here, or you can bury your head in the sand and pretend like we don’t have problems in this house Darlene! Does Dixie play “Dixieland Delight” at big home games? I don’t know about chubby ol’ groundhogs and croakin’ bullfrogs, but I did see a boar near there once. The chitlin party came to an end…if you can believe anything this poor excuse for a journalist says. Them ol’ Trojans can be real tricky now (in the sense that they run trick plays…that statement left to stand on its own is a tad dicey). COVER YOUR FACE DENMARK!
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TravisI am Travis, the king 0f SC 1A Football Archives
November 2021
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