Region 2-AAAA has Dorman and Spartanburg, two teams that not only have a fierce rivalry, but have a history of competing on the Big 16 level, which is the largest school classification for South Carolina football teams. Byrnes, which many Upstate fans refer to as “Byrnes University,” has joined that elite status in the last five years.
Mauldin, a former Region 1-AAAA school, comes into region play Friday night with a 6-0 record and averaging more than 50 points a game. Still, most high school football critics feel the best the Mavericks can hope for is fourth place in the six-team conference.
Region 1-AAAA doesn’t have any Big 16 teams at the present time. Greenwood has occasionally reached that level, but when a portion of the school was split off to create Emerald High School several years ago, it put the Eagles safely within the AAAA Divisison II status.
And while Greenwood won the 2006 AAAA Division II state title, the Eagles have not made it past the second round of the playoffs for the past two years.
With that in mind, it’s tough to admit this, but Region 1-AAAA is going through a bad season this year.
Easley, as we well know, comes into tonight’s game against Hanna with a 1-5 record. Still, that’s not the bottom of the conference. Both Laurens and Westside will come into tonight’s action winless at 0-6.
With that in mind, this could be the year when both Easley and Wren are able to find a spot in the top half of the league.
The Green Wave have not won a conference championship since Stanley Morgan and Mike Barnes led the 1972 team to an undefeated season. Wren’s last conference title came in 1980 as part of the Western AAA conference.
Easley will be hoping that starting quarterback Zach Lappin is able to play after missing a game and a half with a shoulder injury. While Trevin Franklin and Andrew Gilstrap have performed admirably at the quarterback position, both are talented performers at other positions, and moving either to quarterback leaves Easley with a weaker overall offensive attack.
Hanna comes into tonight’s game 3-3. Last year the Yellow Jackets defeated Easley 25-0 at Brice Field. Two years ago Hanna topped Easley 51-7. Easley’s last win over the Yellow Jackets came in 2005 at Hanna, with the Green Wave coming out on top 24-17.
Hanna leads the all-time series 19-8.
Hanna comes into Friday’s game with a 2-4 record. The Yellow Jackets defeated arch rival Westside the first week of the season, and then fell to Daniel, Mauldin, Gaffney and Dorman before topping Hillcrest last Friday.
Wren travels to Laurens
Wren head football Coach has his football team on the edge of experiencing something special.
Wren and Greenwood both come into the first week of region play with 4-2 records, the only winning non-conference records among Region 1-AAAA teams.
Greenwood hosts winless Westside Friday night. Wren travels to winless Laurens Friday night.
The difference is that while Greenwood has had continued success, including a state title in 2006, Wren has struggled for the past decade. The Hurricanes have a chance to win five games in a season for the first time since 1996’s team was 6-5, playing in the Western AAA conference.
Wren also has a chance to earn its first win over Laurens since topping the Raiders 18-14 in 2004, the first year the Hurricanes were promoted to the AAAA level.
Laurens topped Wren 42-7 last season.
Laurens’ winless non-conference record is somewhat misleading, as the Raiders have played a tough schedule, including losses to Dorman and Mauldin in the past two weeks.
For Wren, which has benefited from a bye week before beginning region play, everything starts and stops with junior quarterback Austin McCaskill, who has thrown at least three touchdown passes in every game this season. He also leads the team in rushing.
Pickens tries to stop streak
When Pickens football fans talk about streaks, they like to talk about the 56-game regular-season winning streak the Blue Flame teams in the early 1970s had — still a state record.
They don’t like to talk about the four-game losing streak from last season that changed a 6-0 Pickens team with hopes of competing for the Western AAA title into a 6-4 team that was sitting at home come playoff time.
And they don’t care to continue the three-game losing streak that the Blue Flame are riding now.
Pickens opened the season 3-0, but after an impressive 37-17 win over Easley, the Blue Flame have fallen to Travelers Rest, Berea and Seneca.
Perhaps the most embarrassing loss was last week at Seneca when the formerly-winless Bobcats handled the Blue Flame with ease, 30-3.
Pickens needs to turn things around in a hurry, or face another year away from the state playoffs.
There’s no doubt Pickens has the ability to compete with the tough teams in the Western AAA conference. But Friday night’s game at Bruce Field against Belton-Honea Path is probably not the ideal set-up for ending a losing streak.
The Bears’ only loss this season came against perennial powerhouse Clinton.
Belton-Honea Path and Daniel have generally dominated the Western AAA conference for the past dozen years with each school winning six conference titles in that time. (Seneca was the last team other than Daniel or BHP to win the Western AAA title in 1996).
The Bears are a power-running team, led by Charles Lindsay and Nino Woolridge.
Daniel hosts Seneca
Daniel plays Seneca Friday night, and the winner will have at least a share of the lead in the Western AAA Conference.
It’s a situation that was very common years ago, as the two teams traditionally played at the end of the season. But Belton-Honea Path has moved into the “top contender” position, while Seneca has struggled for the past decade, including going 0-5 in non-conference games before defeating Pickens 30-3 in the first Western AAA game of the season.
The Bobcats will attempt to halt the Lions’ 23-game regular season winning streak, and their 12-game conference winning streak.
Liberty hopes for first win
Liberty’s hopes to put an end to its 11-game losing streak Friday night at Red Devil Stadium, but it will be difficult with 5-1 Pendleton coming to town.
The Bulldogs’ only loss came to undefeated AAA power Daniel earlier this season.
The Bulldogs are led by running back Reggie Earle.
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