Laurens Academy Hopes Third Time is the Charm
By Dennis Brunson
hssr.com Associate Editor
Laurens – The Laurens Academy football team hopes the third time is the charm on Friday in the SCISA 8-man state championship game.
The Crusaders will be going up against W.W. King Academy undefeated Richard Winn Academy at the field in Batesburg-Leesville beginning at 7:30 p.m. The Eagles won easily in the two regular-season meetings with their Region 1 foes.
However, here LA is playing for the state championship after going on the road to beat defending state champion Jefferson Davis Academy 34-28 in a semifinal game. That did not come as a shock to Laurens Academy head coach Jolly Doolittle.
“I don’t think surprised is the right word,” Doolittle said when asked about his thoughts on playing for the state title. “You can say we’re blessed. These young men have worked hard, improved as the season has gone along. Sometimes falsely, we believed we could win every game. We’ve prepared well, practiced well, and mostly played well. We’re a blessed team.”
The Crusaders will take a 9-3 record into the title game. The win over Jefferson Davis was a roller-coaster ride. LA jumped out to a 14-0 lead only to see the Raiders tie the game at 22-22 at halftime.
JDA received the second-half kickoff and scored to go up 28-22. Laurens Academy didn’t tie the game until senior running back Garrett Murphy scored with 1:27 remaining in the game.
That forced overtime and Jefferson Davis got the ball first. The Crusaders held the Raiders on four downs, and Murphy scored from 10 yards out on the first play of their possession to pull out the win.
Murphy had a massive game. The senior rushed for 184 yards and four touchdowns on 29 carries while catching four passes for 76 yards and another touchdown. Murphy also had two 2-point conversions to account for all of LA’s points.
Murphy’s performance didn’t come as a surprise to Doolittle. Murphy went over the 2,000-yard mark for the season. He now has 2,095 yards and 28 touchdowns on 189 carries. He also has 27 catches for 476 yards and six more touchdowns.
“He’s had a tremendous year,” said Doolittle, who is in his second season as the LA head coach. “What makes him so special is he does it on the other side of the ball too. He’s just an outstanding player.”
Doolittle pointed out that Laurens Academy’s offensive line has played a major role in Murphy’s success. Senior Hack Hardy is the center with junior Garrison Vaughan at right guard and senior Jay Riddle at left guard. Junior Nathan Bell and senior Anthony Candelas split time at tight end.
Sophomore Caleb Hardy is the H back and has rushed for 485 yards and nine touchdowns on 65 carries while pulling in 73 catches for 680 yards and seven more scores. Freshman Mason Cooper has 441 yards and two TDs on 60 carries.
Sophomore quarterback Ethan Collins has shown steady improvement throughout the season. He has completed 144 of 197 passes for 1,738 yards and 18 touchdowns against just nine interceptions.
Doolittle said Collins has done exactly what he and his coaching staff have wanted from him.
“Some take it as an insult when you call a quarterback a game manager, but that is what Ethan has been for us,” he said. “He does what we need. He has a high completion percentage. He’s had a turnover here or there, but he gets us in the right play and completes a high percentage of balls. Plus, he is an even-keeled player, which you need at quarterback.”
Bell has 17 catches for 142 yards while Candelas has 15 catches for 239 yards and three scores. Also, senior Spires McCameron has eight catches for 187 yards and two scores.
While Laurens Academy has scored 456 points, it has allowed 353. While he would obviously like to have allowed fewer points, Doolittle makes a good point.
“We’ve certainly been challenged by some very good teams in our region,” he said. “We’ve got some phenomenal offensive players in our region. We’ve got better as a defensive unit. The most important defensive statistic is points allowed, and we’ve outscored the other team in nine games.
“We’ve made plays in key moments when we had to have them.”
The Crusaders have been a big-play defense led by Vaughan on the defensive front.
Vaughan easily leads the team in tackles with 117 to go with an amazing 42 ½ tackles for loss. He also leads in quarterback sacks with 7 ½ while forcing five fumbles, recovering three of them and blocking four punts.
“He’s one of the best defensive linemen I’ve ever had,” Doolittle said. “He’s putting up video game numbers.”
Hack Hardy starts on the defensive line and has 89 tackles and 19 tackles for loss, while Candelas has 71 tackles, six sacks and 17 ½ tackles for loss.
Murphy, Caleb Hardy and Bell are the linebackers. Murphy has 66 tackles, three sacks and 13 ½ tackles for loss, Hardy has 94 tackles and 15 ½ tackles for loss, while Bell has 83 tackles and 17 tackles for loss.
McCameron, Cooper and Elias Littleton make up the secondary. McCameron has 37 tackles, Cooper has 39 tackles and one tackle for loss and Littleton, an eighth-grader who became a starter over the last three games, has 15 tackles.
Doolittle said he can’t point to any specific game or play that was a turning point in the Crusaders’ season. Instead, he thinks it was the day-in, day-out work done by his team that has led to its success.
“We stacked a lot of good practice days,” he said. “We were very good Monday through Thursday. We had some games where we could have played better or things didn’t go our way, but we always worked hard.”
Doolittle knows Laurens Academy has its hands full with Richard Winn, which is 11-0. The Eagles won the first meeting between the teams 56-20 and took the second contest by a 62-12 score.
However, the head coach said his team will be prepared and then see what happens.
“It’s quite a tall task because they beat us handily in both matchups during the season,” he said. “They’ve got a great quarterback in Charlie Bonds. With him, they are able to have a vertical pass game, and they have a phenomenal power-option run game. They are prolific on offense and are just a tough matchup for everybody.
“We’re going to try and play our best, create the best game plan we can. We’ll see if that will give us some breaks and see where it takes us.”
