By Mitch
One of the best times of the year has finally arrived as high school football season has officially kicked off. Although it is hard to take away too much from opening week, let’s take a look at what we have learned from week 0.
Landrum Has an Experienced Football Team
The Landrum Cardinals a year ago missed out on the playoffs and finished the season with a 1-9 record. They played hard each week and were involved in a lot of close ball games. Unfortunately, they were just not able to make enough plays to win those games.
Talking with Coach Farmer leading up to the season, he shared that his team is returning 20 seniors and 20 juniors. The last few seasons it was said over and over again that this Landrum team is young, that’s not the case anymore. It’s a team that has been battle tested and look poised to have a breakout season.
This showed on Friday night as the Cardinals took on a bigger 4A school with the Blue Ridge Tigers coming to town. The Cardinals jumped on them early and never looked back, they dominated every aspect of the game pulling out a 42-0 victory.
Chapman Can Still Put Up Points
The biggest question coming into this season for the Chapman Panthers was how are they going to look after losing stars like Colton Bailey, DJ Twitty, Patrick Phongsat, and Richard Tucker. The Panthers offense for the last few years has probably been the most lethal offense in the state.
Would this offense, that scored 51 points per game last year still be able to put up big numbers? Well, they showed last night they certainly can. Chapman put up 59 points on Union Friday night, showing they still can light up the scoreboard in their 59-40 win.
They did this on the road at Union County Stadium, which is not an easy place to play. Certainly a strong start to the season for Coach Hodge and the Chapman Panthers.
Woodruff Is Back At Full Strength
The Wolverines were a team that had some big expectations a year ago, but injuries derailed their season. The biggest blow was to their star quarterback Keegan Halloran. He is back at full strength and as well as other key players on the team. That could be a very dangerous thing for other teams in 3A.
Also, Coach Adams made his debut with the Wolverines on Friday night. Coach Adams is a coach that loves the ground and pound philosophy, but with a quarterback as good as Halloran, would he change his approach to the offense and pass it a bit more?
In the 44-0 victory over the Chesnee Eagles, the run game for the Wolverines did plenty of damage as they ran for over 300 yards. Let’s see if the passing game becomes a bigger part of the offense as the weeks move on.
Lookout for Greer
The Yellow Jackets may have lost to the Byrnes Rebels on Friday night 39-26 but they played them tough. Greer has had some bad lopsided losses to the Rebels in the past few years including last season’s 42-7 loss.
They went toe-to-toe with the Rebels, who are once again a team with big expectations this year. Turnovers hurt the Yellow Jackets chances to pull off an upset, but they did have the Rebels on the ropes.
Greer’s running back Dre Williams put on a show breaking out long runs all game long. At the half in this game, he had 178 yards rushing and a pair of touchdowns. Williams also had a 95-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. So it may be a loss for the Yellow Jackets but they showed you better be ready to play them because they will play you tough.
No Slow Start By Dorman This Year
Dorman is a powerhouse and everyone knows it, but last year the Cavaliers did get off to a slow start, starting the year off at 0-2 before making the run they did to the state championship game. They started off this season with a dominating 55-0 victory over Wade Hampton.
The most impressive part of their shutout victory was the number of players that had an impact in this game. Seven different guys found the end zone for the Cavaliers. They showed they have a lot of depth and will once again be a force to be reckoned with.
Week 0 is in the books and these are the five things that stood out to me from the week. Something to keep on eye heading into week one is the injuries to some star running backs. Zykamren Robinson from Spartanburg left the game with an ankle injury and Byrnes running back Rahjai Harris also had an ankle injury. Their Status for next week is still unknown, so we will try to have updates this week on their status.
