(Photo by Lexington High School)
By Thomas Grant Jr.
Lightning storms continued to interrupt high school games around Lake Murray this past Friday.
Despite in-contest delays, Lexington County District One teams mostly came out on the winning ends. Lexington, White Knoll, Gilbert and River Bluff were all victorious as all begin to focus on region play.
Lexington 31, Emerald 21
For the second straight week, the Wildcats played host to the “Vikings”.
This time, it was an undefeated Emerald team off to its best start in close to 30 years.
While this was a rare matchup between the two schools, the head coaches were quite familiar with each other. Back in 2009, Lexington head coach Stewart Young led Saluda to a comeback victory over Abbeville in the Upper State final.
Emerald head coach Tad DuBose was a defensive coordinator for the Panthers.
The rematch would end up following a similar storyline. Emerald jumped out to a 14-0 lead when quarterback Easton Crocker threw the first of two touchdown passes.
At halftime, incoming lightning kept the teams in the locker room for more than an hour. Once play resumed, the Wildcats got within 14-12 on a punt return TD by Ian Danson.
Following a turnover, Lexington drove downfield and Crocker broke out of a tackle and completed a pass to Danson for a fourth down conversion.
Noah Dunn scored on a touchdown run to put the Wildcats up 18-14 in the third quarter.
The Vikings reclaimed the lead in the fourth quarter on a touchdown run by Joe Moore. Following a second weather delay, Lexington answered back with another Dunn touchdown run to go up 25-21.
Lexington forced a fumble by quarterback Beau Hite to set up the insurance score minutes later by Crocker to Danson.
White Knoll 41, Goose Creek 16
The Timberwolves picked up their first victory in the Victor Floyd era on the road.
Quarterback Brayden Cress threw three touchdown passes to Tyler Brown in the victory. The loss snapped a 5-game losing streak dating back to last season for White Knoll (1-4).
Gilbert 41, Batesburg-Leesville 6
The winless Panthers led 6-0 in the first quarter following a 50-yard touchdown run by Dee Coleman.
It was all Indians (3-1) from there in their home opener. Quarterback Kendall Wright threw for 252 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for one.
Chandler Guthrie caught both touchdown passes and finished with five receptions for 105 yards. Charles McLaunchin finished with six receptions for 106 yards and Jaylen Brost rushed for 161 yards and two scores.
River Bluff 31, W.J. Keenan 20
The Gators also handed a ranked opponent their first loss of the season.
After lightning resulted in two delays on Homecoming, the Gators scored 15 unanswered points
in the second half for the victory to improve to 4-1.
Caleb Pinkney had two rushing touchdowns and Davis Taylor had a score for the Gators (4-1).
The defense also recorded two safeties.
Saluda 49, Chester 3
Tristan Daniels rushed for 147 yards and three of his four touchdowns on the ground, to lead the Tigers (3-1).
Swansea 63, Fox Creek 21
The Tigers played “Homecoming” spoiler as they defeated a Class 4A school for the second time in school history.
A pair of touchdown runs by Deandre Caldwell put Swansea ahead 14-0 in the first quarter. Jayron Hart then answered a score by the Predators with a 61-yard touchdown to make it 21-7 in the second quarter.
Tarez James scored on a 53-yard touchdown run and Trace Selfridge added a 21-yard score to put Swansea up 35-7.
Fox Creek scored 14 straight points to get within 35-21 with 8:28 left in the third quarter. Swansea answered with 28 unanswered points to close out the victory.
Jayron Hartwell started the scoring rally with a 59-yard touchdown run and Selfridge followed with an 8-yard touchdown run. Swansea then scored two defensive touchdowns off a fumble recovery by Carter Young and an interception return by Gabriel Kirsh.
Placekicker Oscar Espinosa was 9-9 on PATs for Swansea (2-3).
OTHER WEEK 5 SCORES
Wagener-Salley 28, Pelion 14
Academic Magnet 51, American Leadership Academy (Lexington) 0
S.C. PREP FOOTBALL MEDIA WEEK 5 POLL
(Class 3A)
1. Daniel (16), 2. Camden, 3. Bishop England, 4. Oceanside Collegiate, 5. (tie) Hanahan & Wren, 7. Emerald, 8. Loris, 9. Chapman, 10. Gilbert
Others receiving votes: Hartsville, Belton-Honea Path, Powdersville, Pickens, Aynor
(Class 2A)
1. Strom Thurmond (16), 2. Marlboro County, 3. Dillon, 4. Woodruff, 5. Orangeburg-Wilkinson, 6. Clinton, 7. Mid-Carolina, 8. Keenan, 9. St. Joseph’s, 10. (tie) Saluda and Southside Christian
Others receiving votes: Battery Creek, Woodland, Andrew Jackson, Chester
WEEK 6 SCHEDULE
American Leadership Academy (Lexington) at Buford
Lexington at Blythewood
Mid-Carolina at Brookland-Cayce
Pelion at Orangeburg-Wilkinson
A.C. Flora at River Bluff
White Knoll is idle
Chapin at Gilbert
