Greenwood Christian- 42 Calhoun Falls Charter- 14 Dixie- 19 Christ Church- TELL ‘EM BOUT IT DWIGHT Crescent- 44 McCormick- TELL ‘EM BOUT IT BOYHOOD CRUSHES OF MINE Oakbrook Prep- 44 Ware Shoals- 8 Mid-Carolina- 33 Whitmire- 7 Great Falls- 8 C.A. Johnson- 6 Lamar- All of the points (69) Hemingway- 7 Andrew Jackson- 45 McBee- 3 Timmonsville- 14 East Clarendon- 12 Blackville-Hilda- 28 Bethune-Bowman- TELL ‘EM BOUT IT MARK Edisto- 39 HKT- TELL ‘EM BOUT IT DAVE Batesburg-Leesville- 15 Ridge Spring-Monetta- 8 Wagener-Salley- 22 Pelion- TELL ‘EM BOUT IT TOM Barnwell- 54 Williston-Elko- 6 The OC- 17 Baptist Hill- 8 Porter-Gaud- 56 That place across from Rodney Scott’s new BBQ restaurant- TELL ‘EM BOUT IT BILLY Allendale-Fairfax v Estill- It come up a bad cloud Military Magnet- 32 Lake Marion- 14 St. John’s- 36 Phillip Simmons- 6 C.E. Murray- 16 Kingstree- 12 Burke- 26 Cross- TELL ‘EM BOUT IT DARIUS Manning- 28 Scott’s Branch- TELL ‘EM BOUT IT KEITH The Sausages- 42 Creek Bridge- I am totally running out of musical ways to convey zero points being scored. Green Sea-Floyds- 49 West Columbus- Seriously. A safety or something, please… Hannah-Pamplico- 28 Lake View- 26 Breakdown- Class A teams went 7-9 against their higher classification counterparts this week. To me, there was not a more significant victory than Dixie’s 19-0 shutout of Christ Church. I’ve talked before about how Dixie has taken some nice steps forward the past two years but did so a against a schedule that included some non-SCHSL private schools and loose bands home schooled kids. They have stepped that up considerably, eschewing Jimmy Jack’s Living Room Rangers for folks like the Cavaliers. I knew they were going to be strong up front and knew they had a stable of good running backs, but I wanted to see how they performed against a beefier schedule before passing judgment on them. I now cast judgment; they are good. I don’t care how many starters Christ Church lost from last year. You’re talking about a school that dominated Class A as recently as three years ago and has remained fairly competitive in the AA ranks. Deiveon Donald had 126 yards on the ground and Chandler Smalley had a good night with a rushing touchdown. That, plus the big fat nothing on the other side of the scoreboard tells me they won the physical battle up front. If they can do that Christ Church, they can do it to a lot of folks. This is a signature win for the program and should serve notice that the Hornets are for real… I went to one of the other Class A “up” wins, that being Great Falls’ victory over C.A. Johnson. The Red Devils have had a very rough go of things recently, having not won a game since 2015. I carry on a lot here about teams being on the receiving end of rootins and crank smacks and whatnot (I’ll do that here shortly) but honestly, I hate seeing any program struggle the way the Red Devils have. On top of this being a fairly storied program, it sucks to see kids and coaches work so hard and get no reward for it in terms of wins. They celebrated like they won state Friday and they should have. I don’t know how good C.A. Johnson is, but they were big as crap up front and had some really good athletes. They also dressed 30-something, whereas Great Falls, with some kids injured, brought 19 to the party. Well, those 19 played their tails off. Kelton Talford at 6’6, with arms the length of pine trees and spring-loaded legs, is close to not being coverable. He scored their lone touchdown and generally jumped over shorter school children to catch lots of fades. Their defense turned the Hornets away at the goal line twice, forced four turnovers and made that lead stand up. I don’t think it’s out of the question to look forward and find more success for Great Falls this year… St. John’s welcomed Phillip Simmons to SCHSL football with a sound kick square to the ouchie place. I took in one of their practices this summer and was impressed with their size up front and overall team speed. They also had a kicker who was banging 45-yarders through the uprights with relative ease. Seriously, teed it up somewhere on Kiawah and snuck it over the crossbar at St. John’s. The only thing they lacked was experience, with a lot of underclassmen being counted on. Well, they’ve obviously picked things up quickly. Several guys had big nights for them, including Tyrus Richardson, who ran a kickoff back for a score, he caught the ball well and had a big night running it. With AJ, Garrett Applied Technical A&M at Charleston and North Charleston coming up, the Islanders have a chance to get a couple of more “up” wins before they get into region play… I felt like going into last week that Lamar was the best Class A team in the state and that they’d handle Hemingway. “Handle” and “vicious toolin’” are two different things, however. I talked to my super secret Lamar informant about this one. He actually thinks Hemingway will end up being OK in the long run. He took into account that they lost a bunch of seniors from last year and have a new coach. He said they looked a little gassed as the contest went on. He said Lamar played well up front and that (shocker) Jacquez Lucas is a scary robot football ninja with chainsaw hands that has mastered the art of time travel. I think he’s one of the best running backs in the state regardless of classification. My informant said the Silver Foxes are a little unproven at linebacker, which, given that they shut out Hemingway (their one score was a fumble return), once they get some experience under their belts, DADGUM. They place Pageland this week while Hemingway’s perilous minefield of a schedule takes them to Andrews, Sausageville, Carver’s Bay, Lakewood and C.E. Murray the next few weeks. Honestly, you come out of that stretch at 2-4, you probably feel pretty good about it… There were only a few Class A “up” losses that surprised me. I think some folks were surprised by Hannah-Pamplico’s narrow win over Lake View. I wasn’t, only because I’ve heard from a lot of folks that the people in H-P think they may have one of the best team’s in recent memory. Eric Mays will probably run for 7 or 8 miles this year behind a good offensive line. They also got points in the kicking game thanks to Cam Profit’s 90-yard kickoff return. Defensively they did about as good a job on Wild Gators QB Adarrian Dawkins as is possible (since he ONLY had three touchdowns). There was also a timeout that was or wasn’t called, then a 15-yard penalty on a coach and a hat flingin’ of some variety that seemed to impact the outcome. Whatever. Lake View is going to be fine in the long run. They have play with the sausages next but have as brutal a stretch imaginable coming up with games against Dillon and Lamar. The other score that surprised me was Burke’s shutout of Cross. Burke has struggled for years in Class A and AA and Cross is generally a lowcountry contender. The thing is, they are a very small school and in those situations talent can ebb and flow a bit. When you’ve got 200-ish kids, you can end up with an imbalance of boys to girls on a pure genetic crapshoot. Having 140 girls and 60 boys is most beneficial in some ways (like, say in finding a prom date) but can create some havoc where football is concerned. Cross lost a top-tier talent from last year in RB/LB Nate Walker who is at Wofford now, where I expect he’ll soon be making a collection of Paladins and Bulldogs question why they chose to participate in competitive athletics. Other talent is gone too and Cross has three seniors on the roster this year. The schedule gives them no breaks either, with Whale Branch, Timberland, Kingstree, Baptist Hill, Lake Marion and C.E. Murray on the horizon. They don’t play a like-sized school until Branchville in early October. Quick hits- I figured Timmonsville High might struggle a bit this year, what with super-athletic quarterback Jamaric Morris having transferred to Wilson. He apparently transferred back, or somehow plays for both or something. But anyway, their fortunes have improved…I don’t know much about West Columbus (other than it probably isn’t near East Columbus) but Green Sea-Floyds left marks on them with a 49-0 flogging. People seem to be sleeping on GS-F and that’s a mistake…Some people might see the 15-8 final score of the Batesburg-Leesville v Ridge Spring-Monetta game and think YAWNY MCYAWNSTEIN. I see it and think of the fight scene from “They Live” (parental guidance for language and violence) Which is to say awesome and crazy and probably not a thing that can actually happen in real life. Seriously, five straight flying knee drops to the groin and you’ve somehow got the energy to execute s leg sweep, grab a board, bust a windshield and laugh about it? Right. They probably stomped the crap out of each other is my point. RS-M is still one of my favorites in Class A this year….Military Magnet totally blitzed Lake Marion. Their defense was strong and their offense was explosive and I’m making football/military cross-reference jokes and should be ashamed of myself. Suggested Reading and watching Great Falls broke a two-plus year losing streak, if anything this hack writes is to be believed. If you don't like words and junk you can see some moving pictures here. I didn’t realize “hat-flinging” was a penalty. I wonder if it was ball cap, or if Daryl King rocks a fedora or beanie on the sidelines? You can read about various lowcountry games right here or can choose not too. I can only lead you to the water, Hoss. The boys from behind the wall, next to the public course ran the ball well but came up short against Mid-Carolina. Ever wonder what's it like to cover prep sports for a living? It involves dump trucks, poop and drunken chain crews according to this story.
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TravisI am Travis, the king 0f SC 1A Football Archives
November 2021
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