Week 3 2A/3A Preview

Week 3 of the High School Football season is only a few days away, and many teams are in their open week, but we still have a strong slate of games. Let’s take a look at the matchups from the 2A/3A area in our local listening area.

Emerald @ Broome 

The Broome Centurions are coming off a lopsided defeat last week by a final score of 50-7. Now, the Centurions played the Spartanburg Vikings, which was an extremely tough matchup, so that is not something to look too deeply into. They will look to bounce back this week against Emerald.

Emerald is coming off a loss by a final score of 50-22 as they were simply dominated by a loaded Woodruff Wolverine squad. So they will look to get back on the winning track against Broome this Friday Night

Emerald so far this year has been able to find success on the ground with Christopher Dean, who has had a pair of 100+ yards rushing games so that has to be Broome’s focus as they have had some trouble stopping the run. If Broome can do that, then they should put themselves in a position to win. If they don’t stop the run, Emerald could control the clock and the game.

Chapman @ Clinton

The Chapman Panthers are coming off a lopsided loss to the Boiling Springs Bulldogs by a final score of 56-0. It was a game where they were overwhelmed and outmatched as they nearly gave up 400 yards of offense, so they will look to get their first win on the season on Friday Night at Clinton.

The Clinton Red Devils have shown their not as strong as they have been in the last couple of years, as they are just off to a 1-2 start. Their latest game was last Friday Night against Newberry, and they lost 41-12. Newberry, however, is a solid football team.

Chapman has struggled with consistency on both sides of the ball so far this season. They are still a young team developing, and with that will come its ups and downs.  They will have to key in on the Red Devils running game in this one. When Clinton has been able to run the football, they have had success. If Chapman’s defense can turn Clinton’s offense into a one-dimensional passing game, I don’t think their passing attack can beat them.

Right now I am leaning towards Clinton winning this football game due to their ability to run the football. I think they will be able to break a few runs and overall wear the Panthers out over the course of the game.

RS Central @ Chesnee

The Chesnee Eagles bounced back last week from their overtime loss to the Broome Centurions a couple of weeks ago, defeating the Walhalla Razorbacks 33-6. They had another strong performance from their quarterback Evan Lawter, who passed for two touchdowns and rushed for three more, and had 187 combined yards.

RS Central is 0-2 to start the season. They had an open week last week, so their last game was on Aug 29 to North Henderson, where they lost 42-37.

RS Central has shown they can be effective at running the football and putting up some points, but they have struggled to stop anything defensively, and I think that is where the Eagles have the advantage in this game where they will force the most stops and because of that I see the Eagles winning a good football game at home.

Blacksburg @ Union 

Union is coming off their third straight loss to start the season as they fell to York 27-20. This game was huge improvement, however, as they gave themselves a shot to win the game but came up a little short.  Perhaps they could build off of that performance and get their first win this Friday Night.

Blacksburg is also 0-3 as they were defeated last week to Chase 28-20, where they surrendered nearly 300 yards of total offense. Blacksburg, so far this season, has been outscored 32-113, so they are a team that is struggling as well to put up points and stop the opponent from scoring them.

This is a game that Union has a real good shot to win, if they can take care of the football and win the field position battle, than I can see them picking up their first win of the season.

Woodruff @ Woodmont 

The Woodruff Wolverines improved to 3-0 on the season last week with a win over Emerald 50-22. They did fall behind early in the game 22-0, which was quite a surprise but they came out like a new team after and scored 50 unanswered points to win the football game.

Woodmont is 1-1 this season and are coming off their open week, so their latest game was on Aug 29 where they beat Pendelton by a final score of 28-21.

Woodruff definitely would love to get off to a faster start because falling behind 22 points is obviously is not a recipe to win too many games. But once again I believe Woodruff is the better team here and they should go on to win this game and improve to 4-0 on the season.

MVP @ Crescent 

MVP is coming off a dominating win last week against St. Josephs 66-27. The stars put up huge offensive numbers, putting up over 500 yards of total offense. St. Joes simply didn’t have an answer for them offensively and the Stars will look to duplicate that kind of performance against this week against Crescent

Crescent is 1-1 this season as they had their open week last week, so their latest game was on Aug 29 against Palmetto, and they were victorious by a final score of 21-6.

This is another game where MVP is clearly the superior team, and they should win this game big and improve to 4-0 this season. I just don’t see the Stars having a struggle against them, but Crescent did take the lead in the half last year against Crescent, and that was very surprising, but I don’t see that happening again this year.

Asheville Christian @ Landrum 

The Landrum Cardinals are coming off a loss last week to the hands of the Ware Shoals 20-12. The Cardinals played well enough defensively but couldn’t generate any offense despite having success on the ground and through the air; they just couldn’t finish drives.

Asheville Christian is 0-4 on the season, and their latest loss came to Avery County 44-8 last week. That was their first points they have scored all season, as so far they have been outscored 8-233 points.

Not much to say here, that stat above says it all, that this is not a great football team that the Cardinals are facing so I see the Cardinals winning big.