Round 3 Recap

Dorman 35 Ridge View 14

For the first time since 2019, the Dorman Cavaliers are bound for the 5A upperstate championship game. The Cavaliers faced a tough challenge in hosting one of the speediest teams in the state. The 2 sides had some familiarity with one another, having scrimmaged in week -1 (can we call the week before week 0 that?). While obviously you cannot read much into that, the one thing that stood out from those 2 quarters at Boiling Springs was that Dorman struggled at the line of scrimmage – especially when it came to stopping the run.

That was far from the case in Friday’s 5A division I quarterfinal. The Cavs absolutely “out-physicaled” the Blazers on both lines. Ridge View’s leading rusher, Spencer Bobian, was held to 114 yards on 14 carries with a touchdown. On the outside looking in, that seems like they ran well. But, no other Blazer ball carrier tallied close to 50 rushing yards, and as a team they mustered just 143. Ridge View did not fare any better through the air. Both QBs that saw action – Bijon Virgo and Ashton Chapman, combined for just 49 yards, going 16 of 30 passing with a pair of interceptions. In total, the Blazers accumulated 192 yards of total offense.

On the flipside, Dorman used its prominent rushing attack (minus Isaac Tate), to impose their will. Nick Means, who also lined up at Tight End a few times in this game, ran the ball 22 times for 143 yards and 2 touchdowns. The freshman phenom Carter Nash tallied 85 yards on 15 touches with a score. Jabez Thomas also added a TD on the ground, toting the rock 3 times for 11 yards. Quarterback Meek Slydell also contributed, completing 6 of 11 passes for 73 yards and a touchdown (6 yard strike to Kamdyn Miller).

The Cavaliers will have to be just as physical at the point of attack next week if not more as they will hit the road for a date with Tom Knotts’ Dutch Fork Silver Foxes. Kickoff is set for 7:30 PM.

Speaking of the Foxes..

Dutch Fork 21 Byrnes 0

Despite the shutout, Byrnes’ defense managed to slow down an offense that had averaged 41 points per game over the course of a 6-game win streak. The Silver Foxes accumulated 293 yards of total offense – 223 of which came on the ground. It took Dutch Fork until the 4:36 mark of the 2nd quarter to finally get on the scoreboard – which was the first time all game to that point that they had gotten into the red zone. On the night, the Foxes went 3 for 4 in the red zone – the difference in the game.

In spite of the strong effort from the Rebel defense and the slow offensive start for DFHS, Byrnes was unable to move the ball themselves, mustering just 113 yards of total offense. They never found the red zone and turned the ball over on downs twice, lost a fumble, and threw one pick. For those of you doing the math, that is minus 4 in the turnover margin (-3 if you factor in the fumble Dutch Fork lost). Against a team as good as the Foxes, that is a death sentence.

Northwestern 52 Gaffney 45

The Indians found themselves down by 2 scores in the 3rd quarter of this game. They rallied, scoring 2 unanswered touchdowns and eventually tying the game in the 4th quarter after a Trojan fumble led to another TD with 2:57 to play in the game. Gaffney converted a pair of 2 point tries in that stretch, but Northwestern struck quickly after that, taking the lead with 2:52 to play. Gaffney had a chance to answer, but fumbled it away to seal their fate. But, the fight they showed to make a game out of it against the heavy favorite to win the 5A D2 state title as well as the tenacity they showed all season after losing to Greenville and seeing their starting QB leave midway through to finish 9-4 and go to the quarterfinals says a lot about Donnie Littlejohn’s coaching.

BHP 34 Woodruff 3

The Bears have been the top-ranked team at the 3A level all year long. As good as they are, Woodruff has also shown a lot of offensive prowess – especially when they are able to get Aiden Gibson involved in the game in multiple ways. Sadly, that is exactly how this one went wrong for the Wolverines.

Woodruff had just 31 rushing yards on 22 attempts and crossed the 50 just once – on their first possession of the game. Connor Davis threw 2 interceptions in a 12 for 21, 112 yard night. The Wolverines ended up minus three in the turnover margin with a fumble lost, and had just 143 yards of total offense and averaged just over 3 yards per play in a game that BHP dominated.

With the win, Belton-Honea Path punched their ticket to face the winner of MVP vs Powdersville for the 3A upperstate championship.

So.. They will face the Patriots, who defeated Mountain View Prep 52-30. The Stars found themselves in too deep of a hole to climb out of in spite of a late rally.