Up and down perfect description for Kingstree football season
Blazers offense playing its best against better teams on schedule
Kingstree – If you want to talk about an up-and=down football team, the 2026 edition of the Kingstree High School Blazers is a great starting point.
The Blazers are 2-5 overall and 0-2 in Region 5-Class A after falling to Hannah-Pamplico 28-14 on October 2. Their two wins were against a pair of 2-win AA teams in Timberland and Lake City. KHS beat Timberland 38-19 and Lake City 16-8.
One of Kingstree’s losses was 48-26 to Hanahan, easily the best team on the schedule with a 6-0 record and ranked fifth in the High School Sports Report AAA poll.
The other losses? The Blazers lost to Marion 33-6 in the season opener, fell to Mullins 12-6 and lost to Andrews 9-0. Each is a Class A school whose only win prior to their October 2 games came at the expense of KHS.
Kingstree head coach Brandon Cantrell said he’s never seen anything quite like this.
“I’ve been doing this 20 years,” said Cantrell, who is in his second year as Blazers head coach after serving the first 18 as an assistant at different schools with the first being Kingstree. “I’ve been on the offensive side of the ball all those years, and I can’t explain this. I can’t put my finger on what it is.
“We just may have a lot of old Kingstree in us,” Cantrell said in reference to the school’s less-than-stellar football history. “It’s nothing we did. Week in and week out, we prepared the same way, working on the fundamentals. We do a walk-though on Monday, and on Tuesday and Wednesday we ramp it up.”
Cantrell said the Blazers had over 400 yards of total offense against Timberland and close to 375 against Hanahan.
“There’s always flashes of good things,” he said. “This year hasn’t been a lack of effort, a lack of trying. It’s just execution. We play hard, we just didn’t execute. We have great effort every week, but we just haven’t executed consistently.”
The offense revolves around senior quarterback Randy McFadden. A 2-year starter, McFadden had completed 42 of 101 passes for 553 yards and three touchdowns through the first six games. He was also the leading rusher with 292 yards and six scores on 70 attempts.
Junior Jaward Cooper was right behind McFadden in rushing with 290 yards and two TDs on 60 carries. Junior Landon Hannah had 102 yards on 22 carries and also had 14 receptions for 184 yards and one touchdown.
The top pass catcher was junior Meltrin Segars with 18 for 219 yards. Senior Maleek Dukes had four grabs for 63 yards, two of them for scores.
Dukes is a playmaker on defense as well from his linebacker slot. Selected as the Region 7=AA Defensive Player of the Year last season, Dukes had a team high 12 tackles for a loss and two quarterback sacks among his 24 tackles. He also had two interceptions, returning one for a TD.
Freshman linebacker Jaylen Williams is the leading tackler with 34 to go with three TFLs. Senior linebacker Mark Pickard had 31 tackles, two sacks and six TFLs. Segars had three picks and 27 tackles as a defensive back.
