McCormick- 41
Dixie- 14 Whitmire- 32 Ware Shoals- 3 Gray- 28 Lamar- 26 Timmonsville- 10 Hemingway- 6 Blackville-Hilda- 38 HKT- 12 Ridge Spring-Monetta- 30 Denmark-Olar- 20 Estill- 57 North (An oldie but goodie) WHITE CANDY BAR!!!! Wagener-Salley- 54 Williston-Elko- 16 Green Sea Floyds- 47 Baptist Hill- Not 47. We don’t have to be jerks about it. Legion- 59 Charleston Charter School of Diplomacy and Frog-Gigging-If the spread was 60, they barely covered. Bethune-Bowman- 38 Military Magnet- 10 Calvary Day- 48 St. John’s- 12 Branchville- 33 Scott’s Branch- Scott may have a branch, but he had no points C.E. Murray- 33 Cross- 7 Lake View- 48 McBee- 3 Breakdown- With nearly everyone having started region play at this point, there was only one “up” game, that being Lamar’s narrow loss to Gray Collegiate. I figured that would be a close, down-to-the-wire affair and it was, with the difference being a failed two-point conversion attempt by the Silver Foxes with 2:13 left in the game. What I was wrong about was the means by which the game would play out. If you’d told me before the game Lamar would throw for more yards than Gray, in the game I would have bet my actual butt on that outcome…and today I’d be weird, no butt guy, walking around with no means of sitting down. Gray came in with the most prolific passing attack in the state and Lamar came in really not wanting to throw the ball much at all if they can help it. Now Gray had an efficient night tossing it around, hitting 14-of-19 passes, but they went for only 131 yards, so it was major league Dinky McCheckdown stuff. Cam Galloway made some big plays in the passing game for Lamar, though, hitting 6-of-10 for 182 yards. Another odd twist was that aside from 52 yards from Galloway, the Silver Foxes found pretty tough sledding on the ground. KZ Adams had 174 yards rushing for Gray. I know it looks odd to see Lamar with two losses in a season, but when you look at the two losses closely, you see not much of anything to worry about. They lost a close game at Pageland and were a two-point conversion play away from sending a game with a AA sports academy into overtime. They’ll be fine, probably starting this week when they open region play with Timmonsville… From a name standpoint, Green Sea Floyds v. Baptist Hill was an attractive matchup, certainly and I thought the game might at least be entertaining and it was in much the same way watching a pack of lion chase, kill and eat a three-legged deer is entertaining. The one thing I thought that Baptist Hill might be able to do was stretch the field a little, hit some big plays in the passing game. From what I’d been told, Green Sea has a bit of a downhill defense, which makes sense no more than they see the spread. It turns out that “haven’t had to defend the pass” and “can’t defend the pass” are way different things. They overwhelmed the Bobcats, got a ton of negative yardage plays, held them to negative total rushing yards and only 100 yards of offense. For the Trojans, it was the usual suspects on offense (Bubba Elliot, Jaquan Dixon). Now we just kind of sit back and wait a few weeks for them to face Lake View in a game that should be for the region title and about the only actual challenge the Trojans have left. Baptist Hill isn’t a bad team by any stretch, but they aren’t putting up the gaudy, pretend, video game offensive totals of the past few years. I wouldn’t be shocked to see them in a dog fight with St. John’s for their region at the end of the season…just a hunch… C.E. Murray-Cross was another game that going in seemed like it might be a decent contest, but turned into a one-sided tail-whipping. Cross is a bit offensively challenged just to start with. They haven’t scored 20 points in nearly two seasons, but have been successful this year eating some clock and playing really good defense. That formula just didn’t work against the War Eagles who are playing some of Class A’s best defense right now. They’ve allowed only 36 points all year and only seven in two games against 1A competition. They were also able to have a lot of success running the ball on Cross (which hasn’t happened much this year). I’m sure you stand shocked and amazed that a Brian Smith coached team is stepping on people’s faces in the run game and just kinda going “nah” on defense. They get an off week then they’ll take on a hot Branchville team in a game that will essentially be for the region title. There weren’t a lot of other big matchups or “name” showdowns last week. Now, Ridge Spring-Monetta having to rally for a comeback win against Denmark-Olar turned out to be a good one. With Williston obviously just having a down year RS-M is about the only thing between Wagener-Salley and a region crown (and the number one playoff seed that comes with it). They get a tough one at Blackville-Hilda next week, then face the boys from Chitlinville, likely with everything on the line…I also did want to mention one noteworthy individual achievement from this past week. I’ve mentioned Jesus Benjamin from Bethune Bowman on several occasions. Old-school plow-horse back who logs a ton of carries and accounts for most of what the Mr. T Haircuts do on offense. Watching highlights he may not be super big or fast, but he’s a patient, smart, tough runner than you better bring some friends to help tackle. Well, Military Magnet must not have any friends, because he had 448 total yards including 376 on the ground Friday night. An unbelievable, all-time great performance. Pol Time You know the drill by now. The first poll is the actual S.C. Prep Media Poll, followed by my ballot for said. 1. Wagener-Salley (7) 2. Green Sea Floyds (2) 3. Lamar (2) 4. Lake View 5. Blackville-Hilda 6. C.E. Murray 7. Branchville 8. Ridge Spring-Monetta 9. GREAT FALLS 10. (tie) Baptist Hill, Denmark-Olar 1. Green Sea Floyds 2. Wagener-Salley 3. Lamar 4. Lake View 5. Branchville 6. C.E. Murray 7. Blackville-Hilda 8. Ridge Spring-Monetta 9. Great Falls 10. Baptist Hill Suggested reading… You can read capsules of several games right here, including one detailing Jesus Benjamin’s big night…or you can choose not to. I ain’t the boss of you, Hoss. Green Sea Floyds is good at football. The team that plays next to the public course, behind the wall in the Pearl of the Piedmont is over .500 now and figures to lock up a winning record the next two weeks.
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TravisI am Travis, the king 0f SC 1A Football Archives
November 2021
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