Region play officially kicked off last Friday night and the road to the playoffs is on. For 5A teams, that means the 2nd of 7 straight games are coming up this week after taking an early bye. The grind rolls on to another week of region games, so let’s take a look at the slate for this week.
Gaffney @ Spartanburg
Spartanburg picked up a win in its first region game of the season, but it certainly was far from the smooth sailing that last year’s game against Eastside saw. The Vikings trailed this one at the half against the Eagles, behind 21-17 before outscoring Eastside 31-13 in the second half. Fueling a 48-34 win, RB Trenton Lynch ran for 208 yards and 3 touchdowns along with 4 catches for 65 yards and two additional touchdowns in the victory. The Spartanburg defense will have to sharpen up ahead of this week’s game with Gaffney after giving up over 450 yards to the Eagles.
Gaffney on the other hand cruised to a 34-7 win at home against Boiling Springs, shutting out the Bulldogs for all but the final five minutes of the game. The Indians defense collected four interceptions and held Boiling Springs to 107 yards of offense and 1-9 on third down. Zion Dawkins, Ty McGill, Zyon Ratchford, Adreyan Monroe recorded the picks for Gaffney. QB Banks Bouton made his first start of the season for Gaffney and completed 18 of 31 passes for 273 yards and 2 touchdowns in the win.
This was the first game this season that Gaffney looked like themselves after a non-region slate of playing two quarterbacks, looking stagnant on offense, and struggling to turnover their opponents. None of that was the case last Friday night, but the Indians still need to clean up the penalties. Spartanburg was able to get past Eastside after a very slow start, and can’t have another one if they want to beat Gaffney for the first time in its last nine tries.
Eastside @ Boiling Springs
Boiling Springs was on the receiving end of the Gaffney beat down last week, struggling to just over 100 total yards and turning the ball over four times. The defense struggled to get pressure in the Indians backfield while stalled drives and turnovers halted any momentum on offense the Bulldogs could come up with. QBs Josh Kahl and Imri Logan both played, DB Jeremiah Favorite did not play a second consecutive game with an injury, and his replacement S Tyvion Hall came out with an ankle injury in the first half.
Eastside senior RB Lucas Tankersly ran wild against Spartanburg last week, carrying the ball 22 times for 229 yards and a touchdown and led the Eagles offensively. Eastside as a team ran for nearly 400 yards, and the interior of the Boiling Springs front seven will be tested this week and have to be sound in its tackling to slow Tankersly down. WR Cayden Workman was QB Peyton Schrader’s favorite target in the loss to Spartanburg, hauling in five catches for 78 yards.
Getting back home should help the Bulldogs, where they haven’t yet lost in 2025. Getting the offense back on the right track will give the defense less time on the field, and help stop the sudden turnovers and tough field position that Boiling Springs was battling last week against Gaffney.
Dorman @ Byrnes
Byrnes stays home after a blowout win against Wade Hampton one week ago, the Rebels meet a significantly better opponent in Dorman. The Cavaliers also enter this matchup off of a win at home against Riverside.
Dorman is 3-1 on the year, its lone loss coming in overtime against Greenwood, and has real hopes at a run at the region title. The Cavaliers have shown a dominant run game behind a big offensive line and a two-headed rushing attack of Nick Means and Isaac Tate. Means has already scored 10 touchdowns and picked up over 481 yards, while Tate has scored 3 times and ran for 253 yards. As for the defense, it’s just been one off game as a unit. Greenwood, clearly the best team they’ve seen so far, scored 35 points on them in regulation, while the other three opponents have scored 10 points combined.
Byrnes is also 3-1 and coming off a region win where many of the starters saw limited action in a blowout. A 45-3 win over Wade Hampton followed a big win at Greer to make it two in a row, and the season began with a win over TL Hanna and a loss to Irmo. The Rebels offense has been firing on all cylinders, scoring 30 points in every game so far and 40+ in the last two against Greer and Wade Hampton. It’ll be a much tougher defense on the other sideline for Byrnes to deal with, but the Rebels also feature a dynamic two-headed rushing monster between Tre Segarra and Jacobie Fuller and also the best WR in the region in Chanin ‘Choo Choo’ Harris.
Greer @ Travelers Rest
The Greer Yellow Jackets grabbed their first win of the year last Friday night, a 56-0 win at home against Berea to snap an 0-4 start. RB Calvin McCoy scored five touchdowns in the win, rolling past Berea for the second straight season. This week Greer will go on the road for the first time in region play to matchup with the Travelers Rest Devildogs.
Greer has played a very difficult non-region schedule, and even though it didn’t win any of those games the slate clearly has prepared the Yellow Jackets as they rolled over an overmatched team. The Yellow Jackets non-region schedule featured Boiling Springs BHP, Hillcrest, and Byrnes. Sophomore QB Dawson Fowler has thrown for 152 yards per game and four touchdowns in his first year as a starter for Greer.
Travelers Rest is 2-2 on the season with wins against Wade Hampton and Palmetto, losses against Seneca and Emerald. In 2024, the Devildogs went 1-8 and were only able to beat Wade Hampton in its first game of the year. Greer beat Travelers Rest 51-0 in the regular season finale on the road last season.
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