Dixie- 42
Calhoun Falls Charter- 6 Southside Christian- 47 McCormick- 20 Whitmire- 16 Ware Shoals- 12 Lewisville- 14 Great Falls- Points are just, like, your opinion man… C.A. Johnson- 36 McBee- 24 Blackville-Hilda- 22 North/Hunter-Kinard-Tyler- 16 points and three punctuation marks Ridge Spring-Monetta- 50 Denmark-Olar- 26 Wagener-Salley- 50 Williston-Elko- 33 Green Sea Floyds- 38 C.E. Murray- 12 Carvers Bay- 13 East Clarendon- 7 Scott’s Branch- 21 Hemingway- 12 Hannah-Pamplico- 36 Timmonsville- 20 Lake View- 30 Johnsonville- 20 Allendale-Fairfax- 42 Edisto- Less than AF had, let’s not be jerks about it, Karen Bamberg-Ehrhardt- 42 Bethune-Bowman- 3? No. 2? Again, no, but you’re getting closer… Branchville- 35 Estill- 20 Whale Branch- 21 Baptist Hill- 20 Cross- 62 Charleston Charter School for Accounting, Tax Preparation and Inflatable Pool Repair- NOT NAM Breakdown- If you had the upcoming Lamar-C.A. Johnson game being for the Region II title, raise your hand…and then hop on your crap wagon and ride it straight on back to Liarsville. Look, Lamar is always a safe bet to compete for a state championship and a region title is usually a foregone conclusion. They’ve sure looked that part this year railing McBee and Great Falls and losing by a single touchdown TO A BLASTED AAAAA SCHOOL THIS PAST WEEK. Their offensive line, as per the usual, looks like it was spawned in an illicit, subterranean sports lab in Darlington somewhere and they’ve got ample athletes. Coach Chad Wilkes has also opened up the offense a bit. They can spread with the best of them, or get in a wishbone and forcibly cram it down your throat if the mood suits them. When Corey Fountain was there, he much preferred the “we’ll step on your face and you’ll just lay there and cry while we do” tact. Obviously, that worked out VERY WELL. I will say, though, that during the Coach Boyd era, one of the things I always liked about Lamar was the balance they showed on offense. They could shred you like a tater with a chainsaw anyway they pleased and would have added several big trophies to the case had 1A not been overrun at the time by lots of private schools. But I digress…C.A. Johnson hasn’t had a winning record in a more than a decade and usually has size and athletes but just never manages to put it all together for whatever reason. Enter Coach Walt Wilson, who had some decent teams at Battery Creek the past few years (a place that often struggles with wins and losses) and had some VERY GOOD teams at Calhoun County before that. They found a way to rally from a halftime deficit and hold on late against Lewisville, got a big win over Great Falls and forced three crucial turnovers to get past what I figure should be a pretty good McBee team this past week. QB Isom Harris threw for over 400 yards in that one. This isn’t about “well, they really haven’t played anybody” or whatever, the Hornets are legitimately good. They’ll be out-of-region this week but their game against Lamar is on Oct. 30 is one to look forward to… I haven’t been able to find a whole lot on Southside Christian’s win over McCormick on Friday night, but suffice it to say that barring something completely unforeseen (like giant asteroid type stuff, which I hate to even speak into existence in 2020), that win just about cinched the region title for the Sabres. That’s not a knock on the rest of the region, at this point I just figure those are far-and-away the two best teams in Region I. The Chiefs got their normal fantastic output from sophomore running back A’Chean Durant (125 yards) and QB Suderian Harrison ran for 76 more. So Southside Christian couldn’t do much to stop the McCormick ground game, but the Chiefs also attempted 23 passes, which probably tells you how the game went. They’d certainly rather not have to fool with that newfangledy forward pass business if they didn’t have to, but were in a big hole. The Sabres are likely going to win that region and should be considered one of the favorites to win the whole thing… I’ve puzzled and puzzled and puzzled on the (relatively) muted offensive output from Green Sea Floyds in the first few weeks of the season. It’s not like they’ve been thumping it around with a lower appendage or anything, but with Jaquan Dixon back for his senior year and other returning talent from the two-time defending state title winners, 14, 28 and 38 isn’t quite what I expected, but there’s some things to keep in mind. First of all, Bubba Elliot, in addition to being named like a dude driving the Skinny’s Chicken Shack Monte Carlo at the local dirt track, was a dang good QB and not easily replaced. If you saw him play, you know he was a whole lot more than a guy who handed Jaquan the ball and got out of the way. Also, those offensive numbers are trending in the right direction, having increased every week. Let’s also consider the 14 came in a loss to Lake View, the others in wins to Hannah-Pamplico and C.E. Murray. These are SO NOT pushovers. That’s real, quality competition to open the slate. They also have a new coach in place and I’ve talked to lots of coaches who have mentioned how difficult it would be for this to be your first year at a school. You had no spring practice, no 7-on-7 stuff in the summer, very limited work through early September of any kind and only a few weeks of real practice before teeing it up for real. It would be really difficult to make any substantive changes in scheme. They are on the right track, but I’m going to tell you something, they don’t get a soft touch AT ALL coming up here against the Sausages, and that is liable to be for the last guaranteed playoff spot from that region with Lake View playing the way it is… Sometimes when you play with fire, you get burned. Sometimes if you try to steal a hobo’s bean can and socks, he shanks you with a knife he made out of soap. Analogies are not my strength, for those that are new here. Anyway, Baptist Hill was fortunate to escape with a win over Cross the week before, rallying from a huge deficit and winning in triple overtime. Well, they were clinging to a 20-14 lead late over Whale Branch this past Friday, threw pick late that was returned to their 45, then allowed a touchdown pass as time expired to lose it. Jalen Reeves threw that late score and accounted for all three of his team’s touchdowns. I didn’t know quite what to make of the Warriors prior to that game, since they’d played two teams you figured they’d spank and they spanked them. Knocking off the Bobcats was a quality win. Now, they face Cross in what basically equates to a region championship game this week. Baptist Hill is past the difficult part of the region schedule and will be fine, with at least second place and a playoff spot assured minus a gargantuan pants crappin’ that isn’t something they usually do… Before I make note of another significant game, this is a good point to beg for stuff, I think. Not money (though I will totally take it if you wanna mail some) or anything but information. With more online news sources putting information behind a paywall, it is difficult to find information at times. So, if you’re a coach or fan and want to send stats, your input on a particular 1A game or want me to mention a player who deserves recognition, email me at [email protected] or DM me on Twitter at @CNR_Sports. Beyond paywalls, there are some 1A schools that fall into pockets of our state where folks communicate by having a champion hog-caller named Clem holler stuff from atop a hill. These places are called news deserts, and they aren’t the fun find of deserts you see in cartoons where there is a tempting oasis with a refreshing pool and scantily clad women with thin veils over their faces anxiously waiting to hand-feed you grapes. It’s much more like the desolate kind that Clarke Griswold wandered through with his draws on his head. What was I talking about now? Oh yeah, news deserts. So, I’ve looked everywhere I can think to look and can’t find one dadgum thing about Allendale-Fairfax. Despite being, I think, one of the two smallest schools in AA last year, they hung in there and competed pretty well. They are a much more natural fit in Class A and I felt like they were probably in for a good season. Well, they blew the doors off Edisto this past week, are 2-0 and have what ought to be a really good matchup with Bamberg-Ehrhardt coming up that will give one a big, fat, delicious inside track to the Region 6 championship. If you’ve seen them, please let me know how they’ve looked, what they run, couple of key players, if the concession stand boiled peanuts are of high quality or pretty much anything at all. POLL TIME OK, so I will post the S.C. Prep Media Top 10 poll that dropped yesterday, followed by ballot for said poll. Because I’m also a huge music fan on top of having an unhealthy obsession with Class A football, the explanations I give for each of my picks will contain an homage to the great Eddie Van Halen, who passed away last week. Lake View (10) 2. Lamar (4) 3. Southside Christian 4. Green Sea Floyds 5. Blackville-Hilda 6. Whale Branch 7. Bamberg-Ehrhardt 8. Wagener-Salley 9. Ridge Spring-Monetta 10. Carvers Bay Others receiving votes- Williston-Elko, C.A. Johnson, Johnsonville, Allendale-Fairfax, Branchville 1. Lake View I’m finding it difficult to rank teams right now, with some teams having played one game and nobody having more than a couple. With region games going first, it’s also hard to know just how good everyone is because you really haven’t seen them play anyone outside their region to compare them by. So, I’ll go with body of work here. The Wild Gators beat the two-time defending state champs in Green Sea Floyds, a team I KNOW is good. Blew out what I think is a OK East Clarendon squad and beat the sausage people, who are off to a very strong start. Here they are and here they’ll stay until further notice. They can lay claim to standing ON TOP OF THE WORLD. They can say “I’M THE ONE.” And etc. and so on. 2. Blackville-Hilda They’re undefeated and boy that rootin’ of Wagener-Salley sure does look like a big ol’ gold star on the report card at this point, huh. If they run the table against a pretty brutal schedule the rest of the way, I could totally see a scenario where they JUMP into first place. 3. Southside Christian Limited body of work so far but the way they handled McCormick warrants this selection. (NOTE TO SELF: This would not be an appropriate place for “RUNNIN’ WITH THE DEVIL’”) 4. Lamar I’ve seen them in person and they are legit in every respect. Not going to punish them very harshly at all for last week’s loss given who it came against. They are one a contender every year and are one RIGHT NOW. 5. Bamberg-Ehrhardt Interested to see what they do against a quality opponent this week, but they were contender in AA, they dang sure are one in 1A and they are unbeaten. I don’t know if they can LIGHT UP THE SKY, but they can certainly light up a scoreboard. 6. Carvers Bay Three solid victories including that opener against a good C.E. Murray team stand out to you. They are at 6 with DREAMS of going higher and higher, straight up they’ll flllyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!! 7. Whale Branch A 3-0 record and that nail biter win over Baptist Hill earn them a spot, but I’LL WAIT to watch the next few weeks unfold before moving them up. 8. Green Sea Floyds I feel like I have them under ranked a bit since they seem to be picking up steam and their one loss was to the team I’ve got at number one. You also have to know when you are the two-time defending champ, you get everybody’s best shot. Yep, EVERYBODY WANTS SOME! 9. C.A. Johnson Count me as a believer in the Hornets a team that’s shown real fortitude in scoring some close wins. They’ve given up some points here-and-there but they have an offense that can move it on the ground or in the air. It’s THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS. 10. Wagener-Salley They get the last slot on my ballot based on the fact that they trounced what looked to be a super-improved Williston-Elko team this past week. Lot of challenges left on the slate, though, so there is a MEAN STREET ahead. Teams I strongly considered for the top 10 (we’ll call this the SEMI GOOD-LOOKING list) include Allendale-Fairfax, Williston-Elko, Baptist Hill, McCormick and Johnsonville.
1 Comment
Eddie Lott
10/15/2020 05:52:16 am
Lamar - CA Johnson game is October 23 not 30th.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
TravisI am Travis, the king 0f SC 1A Football Archives
November 2021
Categories |