By Dennis Brunson hssr.com Associate Editor Sumter – Trying to figure out who the best football team is in the South Carolina High School League’s AA classification has not been an easy task. Records have been distorted with teams like defending state champion Clinton and defending runner-up Fairfield Central playing up in non-region games and taking losses. Then you have tough regions like Region 2 with Strom Thurmond , Batesburg-Leesville and Saluda locking up in epic battles. Then there is Region 4. It has the team with the best record among the contenders in Central with a 9-1 record after the first round of the state playoffs. However the Eagles didn’t even wn the region title. They lost to Andrew Jackson , which is the region champion. They could meet again – for the state championship – since Region 4 is a hybrid region. AJ is in the upper state bracket and Central is in the lower state bracket. Another region team, Cheraw , is still alive in the lower state bracket. So you know how we figure all of this out, right? By letting the playoffs play out. With one week in the books, let’s try to figure out who will be playing for the state title on Saturday, December 6, at South Carolina State’s Oliver C. Dawson Stadium in Orangeburg beginning at 4 p.m. Here we go starting with the upper state second round: Saluda at Clinton Fairfield Central at Andrew Jackson Batesburg-Leesville at Chester Liberty at Strom Thurmond These are all teams that have been consequential in AA in the last few years. You have four region champions in Region 1 Clinton, Region 2 Strom Thurmond, Region 3 Chester and Region 4 Andrew Jackson. There are three second-place teams in Fairfield Central, B-L and Liberty. Saluda finished third but it lost to both Thurmond and B-L in overtime and dropped a 1-point decision to Ninety Six . While the Tigers will put up a strong fight, Clinton shoul come away victorious with running back Javen Cook leadin the way. Fairfield Central is 8-3, while AJ is 7-4 with one of thosef losses coming to the Griffins by a 35-0 count. The Volunteers won’t be able to make up enough of that gap. Batesburg-Leesville has rebounded from a slow start and is 8-3. Chester started the season 1-3 but has won six of its last seven to go to 7-4. Running back Amadre Wooden and wide receiver KD Whitt should provde enough plays to give B-L a victory. Strom Thurmond is 9-2 and Liberty is 8-3. Playing in Region 2 should be enough to push the Rebels past Liberty. The quarterfinal games are: Fairfield Central at Clinton Batesburg-Leesville at Strom Thurmond Fairfield and Clinton will meet again in the playoffs only one round earlier. The Red Devils will win again because of their overpowering running game. Thurmond and B-L faced off in their region opener with the Rebels coming away with a 28-26 overtime triumph. They took Region 2 with an undefeated record, but it will come to an end with a Panthers victory. The upper state title game will be: Batesburg-Leesville at Clinton This could be a very quick game as both teams love the running game and rightfully so. Two of the best running backs in the state will play in B-L’s Wooden, the school’s all-time leading rusher, and Clinton’s Cook. They will be toting the rock on a regular basis. Somehow, some way, the Panthers are going to come out victorious and advance to the title game. The four second-round games in the lower state are: Cheraw at Hampton County Timberland at Manning East Clarendon at Central Atlantic Collegiate at Philip Simmons These are four games that are intriguing as well but in a different fashion. Save Central – which again, didn’t win its region – each has had something to overcome. After losing three straighr games, including its first two Region 4 contests to Central and AJ, Cheraw is on a 4-game winning streak and is 7-4. Hampton had a 3-game losing streak of its own but has reeled off five straight wins to claim the Region 6 title. The losses all came to solid to strong teams in higher classes though, and the Hurricanes should be victorious. Manning, which played for the lower state title last year, started 0-2 and lost its Region 7 opener. However, the Monarchs won the rest of their region contests and are on a 6-game winning streak. Timberland is 9-2 but finished second in Region 6 after losing to Philip Simmons 22-0. This will be a slugfest between two teams who methodically run the ball and play tough defense. Manning will be victorious. East Clarendon is 9-2 but finished third in Region 7 with losses to Atlantic Collegiate and Lake City . Central is 9-1 with the lone loss coming to AJ by a 21-20 count. With the exception of a 34-27 win over Cheraw, all of the Eagles’ wins have come in blowout fashion. They will pick up their 10 th win. Atlantic Collegiate, in just its second year of football, has had something of a magical run in the second half of the season. The Armada lost its first five games, albeit against a murderous non-region schedule. However, ACA went 4-2 in Region 7 to finish second and opened with a home win over Woodland . Philip Simmons is on a 9-game winning streak after losing its first two. The Iron Horses will ground the Armada’s season. That means the quarterfinal games are: Hampton County at Manning Central at Philip Simmons Hampton County will have too much offensive firepower for the Monarchs. Central will have to make the almost 3-hour drive from Pageland to Charleston , but the trip back will be a little shorter after a victory. The lower state title game will have: Central at Hampton County Central will make an almost identical trip to Varnville to take on the Hurricanes the following week. Again, the Eagles will be celebrating on the return ride home. And your state title game will be: Batesburg-Leesville vs. Central These are two historically strong programs where their hometowns generally shut down on Friday nights. The Eagles, led by the likes of Dwayne Louallen Jr. , Ashten Wilson , Marques Allen and Taveon Moore , will be too hard for the Panthers to handle. Central will be a state champion for the first time since 2010. First Round Friday Upper State Clinton 56, North Central 7 Saluda 33, Mid-Carolina 13 Andrew Jackson 34, Ninety Six 16 Fairfield Central 50, Chesnee 21 Chester 50, Blacksburg 6 Batesburg-Leesville 42, Eau Claire 0 Strom Thurmond 49, Chesterfield 0 Liberty 35, Pelion 14 Lower State Hampton County 56, Lake City 22 Cheraw 17, Andrews 7 Manning 48, Academic Magnet 7 Timberland 46, Barnwell 8 Central 56, Kingstree 6 East Clarendon 14, Lake Marion 0 Philip Simmons 57, Whale Branch 12 Atlantic Collegiate 14, Woodland 0 Second Round November 14 Upper State Saluda at Clinton Andrew Jackson at Fairfield Central Batesburg-Leesville at Chester Liberty at Strom Thurmond Lower State Cheraw at Hampton County Timberland at Manning East Clarendon at Central Atlantic Collegiate at Philip Simmons

By WORTHY EVANS HSSR Contributing Writer Columbia - For the Fairfield Central football team Friday night, there was nothing better to get over a season-opening shutout loss on the road than coming home and getting a shutout win over a traditional opponent. The Griffins made a switch up at quarterback, enabling junior Kamauri Jones to play most of the snaps under center, while senior Kaden Diggs lined up as a receiver and made an impact at that position. Jones was 8-for-17 for 194 yards, a touchdown and an interception, and Diggs made 3 catches for 81 yards and a score as Fairfield Central shut out Union County 35-0 at E.K. McLendon Stadium Friday night. Dre Walker , who caught a short pass from Kenyon Douglas and raced it to the end zone to complete a 52-yard touchdown pass play, had four catches for 104 yards on the night. The Griffins’ 124 rushing yards on 42 attempts pushed their total yards number to 318. The win puts the Griffins’ 40-0 shutout at 5A Ridge View Aug. 22 in the rear-view mirror. “We were able to bounce back. Last week was probably one of the worst losses we’ve had since I’ve been here. We’ve been shut out a couple of times but I can’t remember the last time,” head coach Demetrius Davis said. “The kids bounced back. We’ve still got a couple of kids who’ve been out, (senior linebacker) Doug McLeod’s out, our (senior) starting left tackle Marley Swaby is out, but hopefully we can get them back in a couple of weeks.” Union (0-2) finished the night with 167 total yards, with 51 yards on the ground and 116 through the air. Fairfield Central limited the Yellow Jackets’ offense to 14 rushing yards in the first half and zero passing yards in the second half. Fairfield Central (1-1) stopped Union at midfield in the opening series, then needed only one play to get on the scoreboard. Quarterback Kenyon Douglas was the first of four Griffins under center in the game, and his first play was a pass in the flat to Dre Walker , who turned on the jets and completed the 52-yard touchdown pass play at the 9:22 mark of the first quarter. Later, Union knocked out a 14-play drive that only went 25 yards and ended then the Yellow Jackets turned the ball over on downs. The Griffins needed just three plays to go up double digits. Kamauri Jones took the field as quarterback and hit Kaden Diggs in the end zone from 34 yards out with 1:20 left in the first quarter. Early in the second Diggs scored on a 7-yard touchdown run. Jones connected with Ty’Quarius Shannon for the 2-point conversion to make it 21-0. The Griffins struck again when Douglas rumbled into the end zone on a bootleg to make it 28-0 midway through the second quarter. Union knocked out a quick drive in the final minute of the half, moving to the Fairfield Central 10-yard line with 4.4 seconds left. Yellow Jackets quarterback Qa Brannon fired at frequent target Myson grant in the end zone, but Grant dropped the ball and the teams broke for the locker room. After a scoreless third quarter, Douglas scored his second touchdown of the night on a 2-yard run early in the fourth quarter. Diggs rushed for 697 yards and 12 touchdowns and threw for 736 yards and three scores as the Griffins went 12-2 and reached the upper state final last year. Moving Diggs to wide receiver not only showed the athleticism of the senior to play multiple positions, it also opened up the quarterback job to Jones, who completed four passes for 56 yards in 2024. “We think that Kaden Diggs does a lot to the receiving corps for us,” Davis said. “We were able to put Kamauri in there and put Kaden in at receiver and that helped out a lot. Kudos to them guys.” Fairfield Central travels to 1A C.A. Johnson—44-18 victors over Branchville last week—Friday. The Griffins play host to Lewisville Sept. 12 before going on the road to play a tough Newberry team that finished 7-4 last year and have outscored its two opponents, Union County and Mid-Carolina, 107-14. This years Griffins have a lot of talent, but need in-game experience, Davis said. The next three games should give the team lots to grow on before opening Region 4-2A against Mid-Carolina Oct. 3. “We’ve got a lot of young kids, a lot of ninth graders,” Davis said. “No.27 ( Martez Harrison ) is a ninth grader, No.14 ( Calen Kulp ) is a ninth grader, and they played well for us tonight. We’ve just got a lot of young men that don’t have a lot of Friday night experience. If we can get these kids better each week, hopefully we can be able to make some noise come region.” Union County 0 0 0 0 – 0 Fairfield Central 13 15 0 7 – 35 First Quarter F - Dre Walker 52 pass from Kenyon Douglas (Sidney Wilson kick) 9:22 F - Kaden Diggs 34 pass from Kamauri Jones (kick failed) 1:20 Second Quarter F - Diggs 7 run (Ty’Quarius Shannon pass from Jones) 10:21 F - Douglas 12 run (Wilson kick) 5:33 Fourth Quarter F - Douglas 3 run (Wilson kick) 10:32 UC FC First Downs 10 18 Rushes-yds 23-51 42-124 Passing yds 116 194 Att-Com-Int 29-9-1 19-9-1 Fumbles-lost 1-1 0-0 Penalties-yds 5-31 9-71 Punts-avg 3-27.3 2-11.0 Individual Statistics RUSHING UC - Qa Brannon 12-23, Dreshaun Mills 11-29. FC - Kenyon Douglas 21-60, Derek Cammon 10-38,Kaden Diggs 7-27, Kamauri Jones 3-(-7), Dre Walker 1-6. PASSING UC - Qa Brannon 9-29-1. FC - Kamauri Jones 8-17-1, Kenyon Douglas 1-1-0, Kaden Diggs 0-1-0. RECEIVING UC - Myson Grant 4-39, A.J. Shaw 3-54, Zion Taylor-Jenkins 2-23. FC - Dre Walker 4-106, Kaden Diggs 3-81, Ty’Quarius Shannon 1-14, Kenyon Douglas 1-(-7).

Chesterfield's junior Guard Marquan Blount.

Williamsburg Academy's Caden Morris at the FTC Jamboree.