Calhoun Falls- 14
Ware Shoals- 13 Landrum- 35 Dixie- 7 Lincoln County- 41 McCormick- Remember how many it took to make a thing go right? Two less than that. Whitmire- 37 Great Falls- 29 Pageland Central- 33 Lamar- 20 Chesterfield- 35 McBee- 26 Edisto- 22 Timmonsville- 14 Barnwell- 62 Blackville-Hilda- 18 Denmark-Olar- 26 Bethune-Bowman- 6 Ridgeland/Hardeeville- 39 Estill- Less points than the above team’s name has slashes Hunter-Kinard-Tyler- 36 Eau Claire- Two less points that the above team has hyphens Branchville- 55 North- You say it best when you say this Saluda- 41 Ridge Spring-Monetta- 6 Wagener-Salley- 42 Fox Creek- 20 Silver Bluff- 20 Williston-Elko- 6 Bishop England- 31 Baptist Hill- 12 Academic Magnet- 14 Charleston Charter School for Computer Technology, Applied Mathematics and Spoon Technology- 12 North Charleston- 32 Military Magnet- 21 Andrew Jackson- 69 St. John’s- Not as many as Andrew Jackson had, by like, 69 Lee Central- 14 C.E. Murray- 13 Whale Branch- 28 Cross- Tell ‘em bout it, childhood crushes of mine East Clarendon- 39 Scott’s Branch- Not nam Green Sea Floyds- 47 Hannah-Pamplico- Did I already do the joke about less points that hyphens? I think I did. Andrews- 53 Hemingway- Seriously people…can I get a safety or something here? Lake View- 20 Johnsonville- 6 Breakdown- It wasn’t the best week for our Class A brethren in terms of taking on the big this week. After going almost .500 on “up” games in the ridiculously named Week 0, Class A schools were just 4-16 playing teams of higher classification this past week. That bad number came about because some teams we are accustomed to seeing win such games lost close ones (see: Lamar and C.E. Murray), some were playing teams that don’t look particularly beatable by anybody (see: Blackville-Hilda and St. John’s) and some are probably just going to struggle regardless of whom they play at this point in the year (see Scott’s Branch and Charleston Charter). Some of those four wins were impressive ones, including Wagener-Salley’s victory over Fox Creek. That had the making of a shootout for a while, with Fox Creek leading 13-12 after one. From that point on, the Chitlinville All-Stars savagely defiled what is normally a pretty good AA team. Kevin Jackson ran wild (three touchdowns), Kaleb Shaw did likewise and the defense allowed only one more score the rest of the way, none in the second half. They did get dinged by the passing game of the Predators early on, which is a thing they have been susceptible to in recent years, but they defended well from the second quarter on. If they can continue to do that, maul people with that big O line and studly collection of backs and mix just a tiny semblance of a passing game (which they did do Friday) in, it might be a while before they lose one. They’ll be big favorites the next two times out against Eau Claire and HKT, then their region slate is front-loaded with Blackville-Hilda and Williston-Elko early. They could have a region crown and a high playoff seed sewn up early… Lake View’s win over the Fightin’ Sausages wasn’t overwhelming it terms of score (20-6) but if you dig inside the numbers a bit, you’ll see a different story. Johnsonville didn’t scratch out much offensively, but the Wild Gators just went about the business of slowly draining the clock of it’s precious seconds and the Sausages of their will to compete. They ran the ball 50-some flippin’ times for near 300 yards. Ja’Correus Ford (a name you should familiarize yourself with) had 129, Adarrian Dawkins had 77 and threw a touchdown and Michael McInnis added 72. They play a super manly schedule that features Dillon, Marion and Lamar out-of-region in the coming weeks. Hard to imagine them getting through that hellish gauntlet unscathed, but running the ball and playing defense can get you a long way in this game, Broham… The least surprising “up” win for a Class A team was Green Sea Floyds’ CRANKSMACKING of Hannah-Pamplico. After taking a Grade 1 rootin’ from Lake View in the opener, we all might have figured H-P wasn’t quite the team we expected or close to being what we saw from them last year. At least not here early in the season. Still, it’s a AA team that has a lot of starters back up front and some athletes. We know that with QB Bubba Elliot (who plays football when not driving the Larry Jim’s Taxidermy and Accounting Services Buick at the local drag strip) and Jaquan Dixon, the Trojans are pretty much gonna name their score. Both had huge games again. But their defense did not allow H-P to cross midfield. Like, at all. For the entire game. They’ve got some tests coming up in Aynor, Loris, Baptist Hill and Lake View, but right now it almost doesn’t feel like it matters who they play. They are a giant, destructive force. They’re like, um, what’s something topical here? A giant, destructive force that lays waste to everything in its path in the Atlantic? Maybe a tug boat full of dynamite captained by a cross-eyed guy that huffs paint? Analogies are not my strong suit. I’ll keep thinking on it…The other “up” win was HKT’s blistering of Eau Claire. Couldn’t find much on that game, but HKT might be a team to keep an eye on. They were very competitive in an opening loss to what is now a 2-0 Edisto team. Eau Claire is in for a long, rough year (having gotten housed the previous week by Lewisville) but HKT did what you are supposed to do in those instances, which is take care of business… As I figured would be the case, C.E. Murray v Lee Central was old-timey football, minus the coaches smoking on the sidelines and nattily attired fans drinking hooch from leather flasks stuff. That was two very physical teams that can’t much be bothered with the forward pass. The identity of both is to whip your ass at the line of scrimmage, run the ball, stop the run and leave with a “W” with little care whether they get that 3-2 or 70-0. C.E. Murray held a lead late, but Lee Central scored with under two minutes to go, went for two and got it. I’ve heard good things about the talent Lee Central returns this year and their prospects for the season, so this is by no means a bad loss. From all appearances, Brian Smith has put his stamp back on the War Eagles program in a hurry, with his team shutting out Kingstree in the opener and narrowly dropping this one in a hard-fought battle. They get a week off before battling Mullins, Lake Marion and Hemingway in successive weeks… I have to admit I was fairly surprised by the Lamar-Pageland outcome, but I probably should not have been. Despite their close opening loss to Broome (a pretty good AAA team) all I’d heard about the Eagles coming into the year is how deep they are, how big they are up front on both sides of the line and how good they are against the run. Lamar’s entire O line from last year returns intact and that’s five big, scary dudes, not five randos they rounded up from the pizza line in the cafeteria. What the Silver Foxes don’t and won’t do much is throw the ball, so they essentially had to go strength-on-strength. QB Cam Galloway ran the ball well, going for 67 yards on 10 carries. For the most part, though, designed running plays to their backs didn’t net much in the way of yardage (69 yards total). But the thing is, Pageland couldn’t run the ball on Lamar either (133 yards on 44 attempts) and the Silver Foxes had a lead late in the contest. What happened was Paglenad scored with 4:30 left in the contest to go up 21-20. Lamar then suffered two turnovers in the course of 69 seconds, both of which were returned for scores. That was it. Pageland didn’t throw the ball much, but did get a long touchdown pass early and turned two picks into scores late. It was a tough loss, but Lamar will be more than fine and will benefit down the road from playing teams of Pageland’s caliber… I’m not going to go on-and-on about the game I attended Friday (Great Falls v Whitmire), since I wrote a story about it that you can read if you so choose. I do want to note a few things, though. First, if you beat Whitmire it’s because you’re just better than them, because they play their tails off for 48 minutes, they put pressure on you in the kicking game and they are perfectly content to run for three yards out of that scrum, wait as long as possible until snapping it again, then running for three more yards. And they almost always go for it on fourth down. That can backfire sometimes, obviously, but it also makes you continue to have to make plays. They short-squibbed every kickoff against Great Falls, so essentially they attempt an onsides kick on every kickoff. They only recovered one, but that came early in the third. They had just driven for a score, then got to put that offense back out there to kick and thump on down the field, eat clock and score again. They won by one TD, so that made a big difference. Chandler Crumley is a total load at fullback. He may not rack up massive yardage totals, but he’s like a refrigerator on wheels rolling down a hill. Maybe one with spikes on the door and a gun turret on top. He’s a big kid (near 240) who runs low to the ground and is a big-time stick-mover. I really like Jaquan Tindell-White at running back. He’s not real big at this point (only a sophomore) but is quick, shifty and runs with great patience for a younger player. Great Falls was down 22 in the second half and had ample chances to quit. Instead, they clamped down on Whitmire defensively and made huge plays in the passing game. Kelton Talford is a mismatch against almost anyone (because he’s a tall person with large hands who runs fast) but Xavion Moore had a big game at WR too. Both were over 100 yards. They aren’t real deep but they can score points and they showed a lot of grit in battling back. Poll Time As always, I will present you with the S.C. Pep Media Class A Poll, followed by my ballot for said poll. Gonna level with you here…it was a difficult week for pollin’. We’re at the point in the season when some teams have only played once, so it’s hard to judge them. Then you have to try to measure teams that are 0-1 and 0-2 but have played much bigger, super strong competition, against teams that feast early on sweet, delicious cupcake schedules. I’m not good at measuring or anything else involving numbers, but here you go… S.C. Prep Media Class A Poll 1. Green Sea Floyds (9) 2. Wagener-Salley (1) 3. (tie) Lamar (1), Lake View 5. Blackville-Hilda 6. C.E. Murray 7. Branchville 8. Baptist Hill 9. Denmark-Olar 10. (tie) McBee, Calhoun Falls Charter My ballot 1. Green Sea Floyds 2. Wagener-Salley 3. Lake View 4. Lamar 5. C.E. Murray 6. Blackville-Hilda 7. Denmark-Olar 8. Whitmire 9. Branchville 10. Baptist Hill Suggested reading Check out this Great Falls-Whitmire story if you want to but take it with a grain of salt because the guy that wrote it is a hack deluxe. Much like when you eat them, it’s hard to keep chitlins down. Destructive force near the beach? Maybe a dolphin with a bazooka? You can read this roundup that includes lots of 1A action or you can be ignorant like your doggone diddy. All joking aside, congrats to Calhoun Falls Charter on breaking a nearly three-year losing streak on Friday.
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TravisI am Travis, the king 0f SC 1A Football Archives
November 2021
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