Great Falls- 26
Dixie- 7 McCormick- 37 Eau Claire- A round number. Not divisible by two, I mean it’s shape is round. Camden Military- 56 Ware Shoals- 12 Branchville- 52 Whitmire- 16 Lamar- 52 Cheraw- 27 Blackville-Hilda- 37 Denmark-Olar- 14 Williston-Elko- 44 Estill- 16 Wagener-Salley- 54 HKT- Charlie might ought not have drank the fizzy lifting drink Ridge Spring-Monetta- 60 North- 8 Baptist Hill- 22 Cross- 14 Burke- 46 Charleston Charter for School for widget and doodad studies- LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, KEITH WHITLEY!!!! Scott’s Branch- 36 Military Magnet- 15 The OC Semi-pros- 58 St. John’s- The accompanying video pronouncing this word seems a hair unnecessary. C.E. Murray- 53 Lake Marion- More like Lake Mari-none. AMIRITE?!?! Aynor- 36 Green Sea Floyds- 22 Lakewood- 44 Hemingway- 7 Marion- 28 Lake View- 12 Breakdown- As some teams are starting to get into region play, we had far fewer “up” games this week, but our Class A brethren posted a solid 3-5 mark against teams of higher classification. Two of those were in no way surprising (McCormick’s rout of Eau Claire and C.E. Murray’s proper seeing to of Lake Marion), so let’s focus on Lamar drilling a very good, ranked AAA Cheraw squad. Since their loss at Pageland, Lamar has savagely flogged the unfortunate sets of school children tasked with playing them. The crap bombed AAAA Darlington 48-0, stuck in North Central sideways (64-12) and now handled Cheraw 52-27. The same Cheraw that beat Marlboro County, Chesterfield and Pageland. Now, Cheraw moved the ball a little better than some of Lamar’s other opponents, but we’re talking about a quality AAA team here. The Silver Foxes made Cheraw’s run defense look like, well, not a turnstile as much as a well-lubricated turnstile with rocket boosters. Jiaquell James went for 161, Cam Galloway had 152 and Dajour Green added 56 yards. Think about this…Cheraw held Pageland, home to melon-chunking giants and very fast people to, to 12 points. Lamar lined up against that same defense and averaged nearly 7 yards-a-carry. When you can do that, you can compete with (or whip) pretty much anybody. The Silver Foxes have two more stiff out-of-region tests (Lake View and Gray, against whom eating clock and running the ball well will be essential) but they look every bit like the contender we assumed they’d be… The only “up” loss that caused me to raise an eyebrow was Green Sea Floyds having their 10-game winning streak snapped by Aynor. There is really no reason, though, save maybe overinflated expectations, to make any kind of a big deal out of that result. Here again, we are talking about Class A team not only playing a AAA team, but playing an undefeated, very good AAA team. The reason I start this ridiculous BLAWG out every week by highlighting “up” wins is because they are a big deal. When you can go toe-to-toe with someone double, triple or eleventydrupletuple (that’s probably not an actual thing) your size, the deck is stacked against you. More students likely means more athletes walking the halls and it certainly means considerably better depth. From what I read, depth did play a factor, with Aynor piling up yards on the ground in the second half. Still, QB and stock car mechanic Bubba Elliot ran for 134 yards, Jaquan Dixon ran for over 100 and had a 50-plus yard scoring catch. They are the most explosive offense in Class A and against competition ONLY twice their size, their defense has bordered on being dominant. They’ll be more than fine in the games that matter. They get a scrappy McBee team this week, then face Baptist Hill in what figures to be an interesting matchup. Given the downhill, load the box defense they play, it will be interesting to see them go up against a more wide-open spread attack like that Baptist Hill operates… It’s a little early to hype any contest as being a de facto region title showdown, but here I am, on Wednesday, September 25, telling you this week’s Blackville-Hilda at Wagener-Salley game is kind of a de facto region title showdown. Besides, in most every way imaginable, it is WAY better to be early than late. Anywho, I thought Wagener-Salley might get a bit of a test from HKT, who had been playing defense and an effective game of keepaway on offense through the opening weeks of the season, and holy crap was I wrong. It was non-competitive from the jump, with the boys from Chitlin Junction dominated up front on both sides of the ball. Likewise, I thought Denmark-Olar, another team playing some salty defense and controlling the ball, might be a handful for Blackville-Hilda. And they were, in the sense that Blackville gave them a handful of their hind ends. Now, Ridge Spring is certainly playing better after a rough start vs. a tough schedule and Williston blew up offensively this past week. They’ll have some say, but boy, this feels like the top two teams in the region playing this week. We’ll have a preview of that one (and every Class A game) up, hopefully on Thursday... I wanted to take a second here to congratulate all the Class A players whose hard work was honored with inclusion on the South Carolina Shrine Bowl roster. Unfortunately, those players are represented by the Keith Whitley and Willy Wonka references above. Not one player from the Class A level was selected for the game. At this point, we know Class A players will be slighted and get short shrift. Generally, it takes either a Division I signee (see, KeShawn Toney) or a guy who plays for someone on the Shrine Bowl coaching staff. We almost always at least get the latter, and weren’t even tossed that crumb this year. I get that Class A has been diminished a bit in terms of size by realignment, it isn’t a super great year for top-end Class A seniors and we had lots of coaching turnover in the class this year, which has an impact. A friend of mine actually heard the argument once “well sure, that running back puts up good numbers, but he does it against 1A competition.” Yeah, and he does it behind a 1A line, while also starting at linebacker and returning kicks and being the punter. Unlike in larger classes, most Class A teams don’t have the numbers to two platoon, so the best athletes never leave the field. I doubt many 5A QBs double as starting safeties. To me, that makes any stats look far MORE impressive for Class A guys. And of course, Lamar, Green Sea, Wagener and a bevy of other drop a metric crap ton of points and yards on AA, AAA and sometimes even AAAA competition. You honestly mean to tell me Bubba Elliot couldn’t have helped the Sandlappers? “Well he doesn’t fit our system.” In which case you system must be “losing at football.” Kevin Jackson? How about any offensive lineman from Lamar? I always hear what a tough time they have finding linemen? Plenty of them in that little town down in Darlington off I-20. I get that the team is no longer picked based on what you do as a senior, or sometimes on the field at all. Combines, 7-on-7s and summer work play an increasingly large part in the selection process and small, poor, rural Class A schools are often underrepresented at all those events for financial reasons. Many will get their due in the North-South game, but to not get the acknowledgement from the Shrine Bowl remains very disappointing to me. Suggested reading… Aynor is a super funny word and also their football team is good. You can read capsules on lots of games here and then also here, or say you did and don’t. Nobody believes a word you say anymore anyway, Carol. You can read about Great Falls beating Dixie here, but remember the guy who wrote it is a hack and sucks as a person.
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TravisI am Travis, the king 0f SC 1A Football Archives
November 2021
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