Whitmire- 46
Calhoun Falls Charter- Remember how many birds Bob Marley sang about? Three less than that. Dixie- 56 Ware Shoals- 8 St. Joe’s 23 McCormick- A round number. I don’t mean divisible by two, I mean it is a number that is actually round in shape. McBee- 36 Great Falls- A number with a rich, interesting history Lamar- 42 Timmonsville- 8 Blackville-Hilda- 23 Estill- Seriously, people. My kingdom for a safety. Hunter-Kinard-Tyler- 30 Denmark-Olar- Abraham Lincoln’s most famous speech had four more scores than Denmark-Olar. Williston-Elko- 46 North- Atsa see-through dog diddy! Wagener-Salley- 20 Ridge Spring-Monetta- 6 Baptist Hill- 78 Charles Town Technical School for Buggy Repair and Blacksmithin’- Is this a test? It feels like a test. St. John’s- 53 Military Magnet- 13 Bethune-Bowman- 42 Cross- Read between the lines / / C.E. Murray- 22 Branchville- 12 Lake View- 37 Green Sea-Floyds- 22 Breakdown- You are getting an abbreviated version of my normal ration of silliness today for a couple of reasons. One, I had to cover two court cases this week and had other stuff to deal with in my “paying” gig, so I’m pretty late for tea here to start with. Also, there were only a couple of really impactful games last week…what we had in large supply was super sucky games. You could probably already tell that based on how hard I had to work to come up with all the “zero” references. The biggest game took place in Region III, where the boys from Chitlintown all but clinched a region championship with a 20-6 win over Ridge Spring-Monetta. The War Eagles just kinda did what they do in that one, controlling the line of scrimmage, running the ball well and largely preventing RS-M from doing the same. Coming into the season, I felt like this region was RS-M’s to lose, based on all the returning talent they have from last year’s upperstate championship runner-up team. For whatever reason, though, things haven’t worked out that way. They struggled to put away a few lesser opponents, then got stonewalled by Blackville-Hilda last week. The certainly had their chances in this game, but they fumbled inside the W-S 10 on one occasion, then had a drive stopped on downs at the 11. On the next play, they gave up an 89-yard scoring run. W-S had one non-offensive touchdown mixed in there too. So, this game was a bit closer than even the 20-6 score indicates. Given their remaining schedule, they should finish on a three-game winning streak, but unless Blackville-Hilda gets tripped up, they’ll finish in third place and miss out on a first-round bye. They’re probably looking at going to McBee or Timmonsville in the first round, then to Dixie in the second. Of course they usually play their best ball late, so a run isn’t out of the question. As for Chitlinistan, it’s hard to see them being challenged down the stretch barring locust plagues or a rubella outbreak or something. If they can muscle up and run for 312 yards like they did on a talented RS-M defense, it’s hard to see how Quentiz Barnes (188 yards last week), My’Kell Landy and company don’t just kinda name the score in their final three games. The other game I was really interested in was Lake View’s victory over Green Sea-Floyds. The Wild Gators have been a tad up-and-down this year, but I think that is much more attributable to their schedule than to any deficiencies they have. They lost close to a good AA team in Hannah-Pamplico, they got drummed by Dillon (who doesn’t get drummed by Dillon?) and smothered by Lamar (who specializes in smotherin’). The one minor surprise in this game to me was how well they ran the ball. Adarrian Dawkins went for 150 yards and two touchdowns and Benji Kelley added 102. Watching a few highlight clips of Dawkins (which you can and should do by clicking here) he was just flat-out too fast for GS-F. As for GS-F, I put them in the RS-M category and not just because I condense their name down to three letters and a hyphen. They are a physical team that shortens the games with a power running attack and has a lot of returners from a successful squad last year. Yet, they have three losses and two wins by single digits. They are also a team and school that was impacted horrifically by Hurricane Florence. That kept them off the field for almost a month and probably left them with more things on their plate to worry about than football. They get a resurgent Hemingway team this week. Lake View gets a tune-up for Hemingway as they play Creek Bridge. POLL TIME! As per usual, I will list my top 10, followed by the S.C. Prep Media Top 10, of which my poll is a part. Just outside the top 10 I have GS-F and RS-M. I think both are among the best 10 teams in the state, but polls this time of year have to be driven by the resume teams present and both are struggling on that front at present. Branchville, despite being 5-2, would be behind those two, largely because those five wins have come against teams with a combined record of 2-33. The Mr. T Haircuts (5-3) can prove they belong this week against C.E. Murray. 10. Whitmire- I know they lost to RS-M, but they’re 5-3, they aren’t going to lose again and they’re a well-coached, tenacious handful for anybody they play. 9. C.E. Murray- They have two quality “up” wins and have now won two straight after a brief skid. Coach Wilkes’ team knows how to win close games, a trait that will come in handy down the line. 8. Hemingway- Suddenly resurgent after a surprising 1-3 start, the Tigers are winning some exceptional defense the past few weeks. 7. St. John’s- Coach Harpe’s team is young, but their offense has a lot of weapons and shows nice versatility. Also key is that they are outstanding on special teams, which gives them a leg up in most every game. 6. Lake View- The Wild Gators lost three games to three top-level opponents but they’ve got a lot of talent, starting with their young signal caller Dawkins. They’ll be 5-3 next week going into their game with Hemingway. 5. Blackville-Hilda- Keep an eye on this team. They are just flogging people on defense, they’re good up front, they run the ball well and they throw it with young Adonis Davis just enough to keep you honest. 4. Baptist Hill- Since putting Rashad Maxwell at quarterback, they have put up cartoonish numbers (he accounted for nine touchdowns last week). More importantly, they are playing real, big boy defense. 3. Dixie- All but wrapped up a region title last week. Another team with a great kicking game that has really boosted them in some games. Deiveon Donald and Chandler Smalley are a good RB tandem and they’ve stood toe-to-toe with everyone they’ve played defensively this year, including AA unbeaten Ninety-Six. 2. Wagener-Salley- The pig innards are pretty much physically pushing everyone they play around at this point. 1. Lamar- Duh. 1. Lamar (12) 2. Wagener-Salley (1) 3. Dixie 4. Lake View 5. Baptist Hill 6. Blackville-Hilda 7. Hemingway 8. St. John’s 9. C.E. Murray 10. Ridge Spring-Monetta and Branchville Receiving votes: Denmark-Olar, Bethune-Bowman, Whitmire, Green Sea-Floyds, Timmonsville. CRANKSMACKS OF THE WEEK! Rashad Maxwell, Baptist Hill. Accounted for nine flippin’, dadgum, hot-a-rocky touchdowns in Baptist Hill’s epic rootin’ of the Riptide. Tyrone Hicks, St. John’s. Had 126 yards receiving and three touchdowns on offense and 10 tackles with two sacks in a big win for the Islanders.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
TravisI am Travis, the king 0f SC 1A Football Archives
November 2021
Categories |