All of the games still did technically start on Friday, not all of them ended on Friday. Once again rain and lightning impacted games throughout the area and we go again looking for a clean Friday night of football. Let’s dive in.
Gaffney @ Byrnes
The Gaffney Indians are off of a bye this week at 3-1 on the season, two weeks removed from a home loss to Dorman now go on the road to battle the 3-1 Byrnes Rebels in a non-region matchup.
The Indians played a lower-scoring game with Dorman and fell 24-16 at home on September 11th. 24 points is the most that the defense has allowed in a game so far this season, and will look to be a force again this week and going forward into region play. Zion Dawkins and Karein Good both recorded double-digit tackle games against the Cavaliers as the Indian offense struggled to establish the run in the loss. Friday will also, in all likelihood, represent Gaffney’s toughest road game of the regular season.
Byrnes rolled in the second half on the road last week to a 49-21 win against Spartanburg. Notching over 500 yards of offense, the Rebels entered halftime only up by a touchdown and ended up scoring the final 29 points of the game and all of the points scored in the second half. QB Gideon Merhib had his best passing game of the year, going 15-20 for 199 yards and 3 touchdowns, with two of his scoring connections going to WR Adrian Harris. RB Tre Segarra scored twice on 12 carries for 124 yards. Similarly to their opponents, a glance at the Rebels upcoming schedule strongly suggests that this will be the last big test for Byrnes before the playoffs in November.
Dorman @ Sumter
The Dorman Cavaliers battled the rain and the Irmo Yellow Jackets to a 20-14 overtime win at home last Friday night to get to 4-0 on the year. Nick Means scored the game winning touchdown after Irmo missed a field goal on its turn in the extra period.
Dorman fell behind 14-2 early in the third quarter and didn’t find the end zone until almost halfway through the same period. QB Cooper Patterson had his heaviest passing load of this year, going 18 for 29 for 176 yards and connecting with Anthony Peaks the most with 5 receptions. WR Dai’Shion Watkins-Hymes led in receiving with 63 yards while the Cavalier rushing attack was bottled up. RBs Carter Nash (10 carries, 48 yards) and Nick Means (11 carries, 37 yards) never broke through with big days but both had touchdowns.
The Sumter Gamecocks are 3-2 on the season, with wins against White Knoll, West Florence, and Crestwood. The two losses are to the two teams that met in the 5A-D1 state championship last year, Summerville and Dutch Fork, both on the road. Running the ball is the story of the Sumter offense, with two running backs averaging triple-digit yards per game. Freshman Jamarion Witherspool is the leader with 44 carries for 495 yards and 6 touchdowns, and junior Reggie Shannon is behind him at 64 carries and 343 yards and 7 touchdowns.
Laurens @ Greer
The Greer Yellow Jackets had a bye last week and now return home ahead of region play to take on Laurens. Two weeks ago Greer lost its first game of the season on the road against Byrnes, but are still 3-1 going into the final non-region game of the regular season.
The Yellow Jackets got beat 55-17 at Byrnes in its last game, and struggled to move the ball against the stout Rebel defense. The usually dynamic rushing attack of QB Xavier Sammet and RB Calvin McCoy stalled as the two combined for only 102 rushing yards, and McCoy scored the only rushing touchdown. The two still rank inside the top 10 of passing and rushing in our coverage area, and sophomore WR Zay Moseley is in the top 10 of receiving as well coming out of the bye.
The Laurens Raiders are 2-2 on the season and also are playing its last non-region game before a tough region start with Westside and TL Hanna. Laurens opened the season with a comeback win at JL Mann 43-34, then dropped two straight at Clinton (29-22) and home against Southside Christian (24-0), and will enter this Friday night off of a 38-20 win against Blythewood. Sophomore QB Logan Bragg completes 62% of his passes and has racked up 920 yards this season in 4 games with 6 touchdowns and 1 interception. He does a good job spreading the rock with 5 receivers totaling 11 catches or more through four games.
Spartanburg @ Charlotte Latin (NC)
The Spartanburg Vikings will go across state lines for its final non-region game of the season, taking on the Charlotte Latin Hawks at 7:00 PM. Charlotte Latin plays in the North Carolina private school division NCISAA, and has a 2-3 record going into the game.
Spartanburg was in a battle for a half with Byrnes last week at home, but stalled out in the second half as the Rebels ran away with a 49-21 win. Trenton Lynch ran all over Byrnes though, taking 23 carries 228 yards and into the end zone once, continuing his march to the all-time rushing record for Spartanburg. The pass game struggled, but the best hits were to WR Tre’gan Mickler who caught three passes for 58 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Charlotte Latin lost last week at Christ School 40-22 and are led by QB Troy Logan and his 1000 passing yards and 8 touchdowns on 64% completions. Senior RB Dejon Douglas paces the run game with 9 touchdowns on 71 carries and 107 yards per game. Elijah Alexander is all over the field on defense with 72 tackles in 5 games along with 5.5 TFL and a sack.
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