SCPrepTalk

Gaffney x Boiling Springs
Gaffney's placement in the brackets rest on Week 10 and Week 11. Looking at the projections, and yes I have Byrnes beating Dorman, so Gaffney goes from 7 to 13 depending on the next two games. Seven would mean at least one game at home while anything above 8 puts you on the road.

A Boiling Springs win could get them as high as #6 with a chance at #5 if Dutch Fork doesn't win Region V. The #6 seed would mean the only rematch against the Rebels would be at Williams-Brice. The Bulldogs are capable of beating Gaffney....

Byrnes x Dorman
Simple statement: Rebels win and the Region championship is theirs and they will be at home for all playoff games until Columbia.

Spartanburg x Mauldin
Spartanburg is still the team on the bubble when it comes to Division One or Division Two so it's not a matter of will they get in, it's where? Seeding should be in the 10-12 range in Division Two and maybe 11-13 range if it is Division One. Mauldin (goodness gracious what would this team be if they had anything that resembled a defense?) looks to be in that 11-13 range in Division One as well and will be a Royal Pain in the butt for host team in round one (GoBigGreen, trust me, you don't want them in Round One)

York x South Pointe
Another easy one... winner will be #2 automatic bid from Region III and gets a higher seed due to Region Runner Up. I'm thinking the winner will be about #5 while the loser could fall to #10 or so. Difference - No Home Game In Round One!

Dutch Fork x Lexington
Lexington would wrap up Region V with a win, while at Dutch Fork win sets up a Week Eleven match up against North Augusta that could bring the Region Championship down to points and I think North Augusta would win that tiebreaker for Region Champions with Dutch Fork getting second. That means this game goes a long way in determining seeds in BOTH brackets.

South Florence x Stratford
This game means zero when it comes to Region standings, but two undefeated teams meeting with a lot of pride on the line. It will not have a lot of bearing on their seedings unless it comes down to Opponent Wins tiebreaker as the loser will only get 3.0 points so they may lose their win totals to take a 4.0 win over 5-6 AAAA team.

Beaufort x Fort Dorchester
Fort D wins and they are looking like the #2 automatic qualifier from Region VIII. That means a seed in the #5 range with Summerville probable at #4. That means I could have to pick Fort D again this year to beat Summerville to make GoBigGreen happy, that is if they can get by Mauldin in round one (Ain't happening!)

I realize Mauldin is probably too much for ANY defense in the state and Byrnes' defense, while not vaunted by your typical Byrnes detractor, is still pretty dang good. But Summerville is known this year for it's defense. A Summerville/Mauldin first round matchup should be a pretty good indicator of where their low country defense is compared to Byrnes' upstate defense.

I use the terms low country and upstate not to imply that they are different or characteristic of anything geographical but simply to indicate that teams like Summerville and Byrnes just don't have many common opponents during the regular season. Dorman got stymied by Mauldin in the 1st half but held them scoreless in the 2nd half so what's up with that?? Football can be a strange sport especially when you consider that Byrnes shut down Gaffney's offense while Dorman couldn't stop Gaffney.

Something else that comes to mind is that 1st and Goal told me on the phone last night that there just wasn't very many punts last night between Mauldin and Byrnes. Basically Mauldin went for it on every 4th down and tried an onside kick on every kickoff. That makes complete sense. If they know for a fact that they cannot possibly stop Byrnes (and they didn't as from what I was told Byrnes was 11 for 11 possessions on TD's), then it doesn't matter where on the field Byrnes begins their possession. Jeff also said that Mauldin actually recovered several of these onside kicks which of course is more or less equivalent to forcing a Byrnes punt except that the Byrnes defense doesn't get a rest.

Question is does Mauldin do this for every opponent or just because Byrnes' offense is so potent. It would be interesting to see how this Mauldin team plays out.

When you say, "Ain't happening," do you mean that Summerville wouldn't beat Mauldin? Mauldin has lost 4 games already this year. I see now reason that Summerville can't beat them.

Our D has been performing better than our offense for most of the season but our O is improving each week. Our redzone D has been great as of late. We held FD to 7 points and shutout Beaufort. We have weapons on offense but each week we seem to lose a few. This week we lost two rbs and a starting ol. Hopefully they can all return this week against AR. A 1st round match up against Mauldin would be a test but I would like our chances at home.

Stratford @ South Florence - The Irrelevant Bowl.
This should be the best, meaningless game of the week.

West Florence @ Carolina Forest - The Bracket Buster Bowl.
A win by Carolina Forest will put them in the driver's seat to claim the 3rd automatic berth from Region 6 and push Spartanburg down into the Div II bracket. . It would also guarantee SF the region title. I gotta find someone to send me text updates on this one.

Lot of big games this week.

Man I feel we got lucky to bad play calling to beat fort.two bad passes and giving the ball to a 300 pound fb 8 yds from the line of scrimmage .thats a give the ball while hes running at the line player.give the ball at the line under a full head of steam 3 x we lose that gameor its very tight at the least.our secondary is nonexistent from medium to deep.