Editor’s Note: My apologies for the tardiness of this post but I decided to use Monday to pursue the other topic of this blog (photo evidence to follow)
Dixie- 38 Carolina Christian Cavaliers- 6 Laney- 40 McCormick- You know, not as many as Laney had. We don’t have to be jerks about it. Ridge Spring-Monetta- 38 Whitmire- 8 Great Falls- 26 Lewisville- 22 Lamar- 26 Darlington- A raging debate among physicists Lee Central- 14 Timmonsville- 12 North Central- 61 McBee- 13 Blackville-Hilda- 16 Allendale-Fairfax- 13 Denmark-Olar- 28 Branchville- 13 Bethune-Bowman- 42 North- It’s called math, kids Wagener-Salley- 58 Eau Claire- 6 Baptist Hill- 60 Burke- 6 Wade Hampton- 41 Estill- Really big yolks! Academic Magnet- 27 Military Magnet- 14 St. John’s- 18 Garrett Tech Academy Middle College- 6 The OC- 44 C.E. Murray- 16 Timberland- 47 Cross- Who doesn’t love action cartoons? Bamberg-Ehrhardt- 28 Scott’s Branch- A round number. I don’t mean divisible by 2, I mean its shape is round. West Columbus- 27 Creek Bridge- If you took the “m” out of “not many” you’d be left with this Aynor- 24 Green Sea-Floyds- 16 Hemingway- 28 The Sausages- 14 Lake View- 53 South Robeson- 6 Breakdown- It was a good week for our Class A friends as they posted a 7-8 record against the larger classifications Friday. I took in one of those in person as Great Falls rallied to knock off rival Lewisville for the first time since 2013. This is one of the best rivalries in the state and it wasn’t much fun to watch it become so non-competitive over the past few years as Lewisville had a bumper crop of athletes come through and the Red Devils struggled at times to field a team. Well, in his second season as the head coach, Scotty Steen has helped author a huge turnaround. This isn’t just about level of competition, Great Falls is 2-1 because they are legitimately improved. The defense has done an outstanding job of forcing turnovers and has improved immeasurably against the run. They did give up a few big plays in the passing game Friday (one when someone took a bad angle on a tackle and another when a nice play fake left a guy wide open) but have gotten better there too. The offense is still adapting as they move away from the spread and towards more of a zone-oriented power running game but Elijah Simpson showed some nice pop and power on the ground last week. Then there is a 6-foot-6 receiver Kelton Talford, who has become as difficult a cover as there is in Class A. Seriously, watching most guys try to cover him is like watching a legless o’possum try to outjump a giraffe on a trampoline (note to new readers, I’m terrible at both analogies and examples). Just loft a high one in his direction and odds are he’s winning the jump ball. It was a really good, back-and-forth game too that sort of embodied everything I love about Class A football to start with. It MATTERED to all those kids on both teams, most of whom never left the field. For their teammates, their school and their community, they left every bit of themselves on the field. It got chippy, there was an ejection, it was as physical as all get-out and the huge Great Falls contingent went nuts when the Devils forced a late turnover on downs to all but clinch it. Lewisville (who is sadly not in Class A anymore) will be fine in the long-term, they are just very young and have a lot of injuries to contend with right now. It’s great to see a proud program with some history like Great Falls be back to playing competitive football again. They get what looks like a very stiff test this week at AJ… Lamar won “up” again and did so (again) by shutting out a AAAA Darlington team that was averaging over 30 a game coming in. So far, everyone who has played Lamar has been like that nervous guy at the public restaurant trough, unable to squeeze out even the tiniest drop. In three games, the Silver Foxes defense has allowed NOT NAM POINTS! The opener against Hemingway, in retrospect, came against a team that has continued to surprisingly struggle offensively. The next week they savagely cranksmacked a physical Pageland team while allowing big, fat nothing, now they’ve taken a AAAA team with nice skill talent and left them squirming uncomfortably in their chair, craving the relief only ice and a big tube of linament can provide. Offensively, they aren’t quite matching the flashy output they had last year, but Jacquez Lucas ran for 156 yards and Cam Galloway had 146 Friday. I’m not sure that even matters, though, when you play D the way they do. Throwing a little less and focusing even more on your super-productive run game may actually be an aid to the defense, really. I also still think Lamar is up about 14-0 when they walk on the field most nights. They play with a hard, intimidating edge and even AAAA teams aren’t immune from its impact. They play a North Central team this week that isn’t a pushover by any means (with big wins over Columbia and McBee the past two weeks) but then Lamar runs what will be a difficult month-long gauntlet even for them as they face Cheraw, Lake View, Gray Collegiate and Timmonsville… Unless your mother named you “Awesome McBadass” or “Jimmy Jack Weinercastle” or something, you probably don’t have a cooler name than Adonis Davis, who helped Blackville-Hilda come from behind to beat Allendale-Fairfax. The QB accounted for 64 yards on a late, game-winning march that moved the Hawks to 2-1. I kind of like what I’m seeing from B-H under new coach Corey Crosby. They seem to have retained that physical “we’re going to grind you down to a fine powder and line our field with your dusty remnants” mindset they’ve had as they showed improvement the past few years, but they appear to have balanced the offense just a tad. They were basically running a single-wingy kinda thing recently where a forward pass was either considered a crazy trick play or a fruitless act of desperation. Adonis had four completions for 51 yards in clutch time when they were driving and trying to take the lead. That will serve them well down the line as they get begin region play against a lot of teams that are fairly one-dimensional offensively and that don’t see the ball in the air a whole lot… I wasn’t shocked by any of the other “up” victories. Wagener-Salley roasted Eau Claire in a game that seemed ripe for a roasting from the start. I’ve seen Eau Claire and they have decent size up front and go super no-frills on offense, running between the tackles and mixing in a little bit of option. It’s a bad idea to play “we’re gonna run right at you and you run right as us and let’s see how it goes” with the Stump Whooped All-Stars…St. John’s bounced back with a nice win over Garrett. I think that AJ loss really doesn’t look bad at all now in retrospect and the Phillip Simmons blowout win looks a tad better even. Tyler Durham threw for more than 140 and ran for another 41 to lead a balanced attack. They are good on special teams, spread the sugar around well offensively and if you start looking forward, you can honestly see a scenario where their only competitive games might be with The OC Semi-Pros and Baptist Hill…Speaking of those Bobcats, they shook off their offensive funk, set it on fire, lifted it high in the air with a cane pole and paraded it around town as they hung 61 on Burke. From the blurb I read, Rashad Maxwell, the team’s uber-stud WR, played QB and did OK, if by “OK” you mean “threw for seven touchdowns.” I’m not sure if that position switch was because of injury or just to jump start the offense (if you know, hit me up at [email protected]) but it obviously worked. They get an improved Academic Magnet team next, then gt what should be a couple of wins before facing Green Sea-Floyds…SPEAKING OF GREEN SEA, they lost to Aynor, giving up a late lead. I still like their chances long-term with a veteran roster and overall toughness, but after two games they should have a good shot to win (Loris and McBee) we’ll really know where they stand in the following three weeks when they get Baptist Hill, Timmonsville and Lake View...McCormick lost to Laney last week, but it wasn't the Laney I thought it was. It was one in Georgia, not the one in North Carolina where Michael Jordan played. But, you know, I got to make a Luc Longley joke out of it so I TOTALLY STAND BY IT, AM NOT SORRY AND DO NOT APOLOGIZE!!! Poll Time As per usual, I’m putting my 1A poll that is part of the S.C. Prep Media Poll, followed by the actual S.C. Prep Media Poll. You’ll note that I still have Lamar number one (duh), dropped C.E. Murray from two, but not very far, moved Lake View and Chitlinville up, brought St. John’s back to the party and welcomed Great Falls in for the first time in a long time (just edging out Blackville-Hilda). 1A 1. Lamar 2. Lake View 3. Wagener-Salley 4. Dixie 5. C.E. Murray 6. Ridge Spring-Monetta 7. Timmonsville 8. Green Sea-Floyds 9. St. John’s 10. Great Falls 1. Lamar (15) 2. Lake View 3. Wagener-Salley 4. C.E Murray 5. Ridge Spring-Monetta 6. Dixie 7. Timmonsville 8. Hemingway 9. St. John’s 10. Blackville-Hilda Suggested Reading You can read lots of game capsules involving Class A teams here and here or you can keep embarrassing your family with your no-count ways, Stanley. Great Falls beat Lewisville according to this article but it is super suspect. This reporter is a hack deluxe. Unless you are named Hercules Python Jr. or Fat Willy Taterflinger or something, B-H’s QB has you beat. Cross lost and whatnot BUT LOOK AT THAT SMOKE RING!
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November 2021
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