By Billy G. Baker Publisher Moncks Corner - When Oceanside Collegiate used a highly rated junior quarterback. ( Aiden “Laser” Manavian ) to defeat AAAAA power Dutch Fork back in September, the media boys were about ready to phone in to the engraver at the South Carolina High School League to get the Class AAA trophy ready early for the Land Sharks. This reporter was on hand for that mild upset win at Charleston Southern back in September but there is too much football left to be played in Class AAA just to go ahead and give the trophy to the most talented team in AAA in South Carolina. The AAA SCHSL state finals will take place at high noon on Friday December 5 th at South Carolina State University so you AAA fans go ahead and phone in to your boss about having the flu because this is not a Saturday game. Oceanside Collegiate, coached by Brent LaPrad , advanced this week to host Marlboro County by defeating Georgetown 49-15 last week. The Bulldogs, who have an 180- mile ride to Charleston in front of them this week, advanced with a 49-13 win over Swansea. Do not be surprised if the Bulldogs hang around for three quarters against Oceanside but in the final quarter the Sharks should win with their depth numbers. BHP did survive the graduation of all-world running back Maurquise Henderson , and the number one ranked 11-0 Bears advanced with a 56-7 win over Palmetto in round one. Russell Blackstone’s team has been the most offensive productive team at all levels of prep football in SC with a state leading 558 points! (Wow!) Coach Blackston told the HSSR recently, “It sure is good when you can graduate 8,000 yards and 100 touchdowns in Marquise Henderson, that you can still be very good. There are people who thought we were not going to be anything and that’s okay. I knew we had 23 seniors back and six starters back on both sides. We’re where I thought we would be. We had a tremendous Spring and a tremendous summer.” BHP will host Southside Christian this week. The Sabres defeated Chapman 55-18 to advance. Senior BHP QB Noah Thomas is among the best dual threat athletes in the state. By season’s end Thomas should pass for well over 2,200 yards and he will be close to 1,000 yards rushing. His favorite target is junior stud Tajeh Watson Martin . Third ranked Loris (11-0) beat Dillon for the second year in a row and that got the folks around town pretty whipped up for sure. The Lions whipped Battery Creek 49-14 last week to advance. They will host upstart Orangeburg-Wilkinson this week after the 9-1 Bruins beat Keenan 25-12 last week. This game should be a one possession lead for either team well into the fourth quarter. Dillon has won a state title before with three losses, and the Wildcats have a rising star in 9 th grade QB Khayel Fong Talia (6-2, 200) who recently visited Clemson for the Florida State game. This Under Armour Next Level All-American has helped make talented North Carolina WR commitment and Shrine Bowler Zay Robertson the top WR in South Carolina. Robertson has drawn comparisons to former New England NFL receiver Troy Brown who played high school football at Blackville-Hilda . Dillon is also led by Shrine Bowl LB Daniel Capehart and North-South LB Keryien Brown . Dillon advanced in round one with a 49-8 win over Fox Creek and the Wildcats will host Silver Bluff this week, a 34-13 winner over North Charleston . It seems strange that Newberry (11-0) is competing in the playoffs as a lower state team this season but that is the case. Newberry is led by SC tight end commitment Jamel Howze (6-3,215) and they have dominated teams 470-142 this season. Newberry advanced with a 54-14 win over Aynor last week and they will host Hanahan this week. The Hawks advanced with a 38-21 win over Waccamaw last week. In the upper state , Powdersville advanced with a 66-0 win over Carolina , and they will host Pendleton this week. Pendleton advanced with a 24-21 win over Broome last week. Mountain View Prep (MVP) can be a sleeper but an early season loss to Woodruff exposed some of their weaknesses. MVP had a close 28-21 win over St. Joseph’s in round one to advance and they host Crescent this week. The Tigers advanced with a 52-14 win over Union County . Christ Church won Class A titles under head coach Quin Hatfield (a Manning native) in recent years but moved up to AAA with realignment two years ago. The Cav’s advanced with a 42-7 win over Walhalla last week and they will be at Woodruff this week. The 10-1 Wolverines are ranked 5 th by the HSSR this week and they advanced with a 49-7 win over West-Oak . Woodruff is led by a talented 1-2 punch junior pair on offense. QB Connor Davis (6-2, 210) has completed 147-of-242 passes for 1,904 yards and 23 TD’s coming into the game with Christ Church. Junior RB Amari Gibson has gained 1,284 yards on 159 carries and 19 TD’s. This makes Woodruff a very balanced team on offense between passing and running. While Class AAA might look like a BHP vs OC rematch anything can happen, and most teams are just one unfortunate injury away from a course correction so staying healthy is so important.

Dillon's Zay Robertson.

By Billy G. Baker Publisher Florence —Newcomer Loris High went up against seven-time state championship coach Zach Norris and Keenan (21-8) in the AAA boy’s lower state basketball finals at the Florence Civic Center on Feb., 28 and after this “scrap on the court” the Raiders prevailed 42-39 in a game that had several lead changes. Keenan will now rest their legs and get ready to play Powdersville High on Thursday March, 6 at 6 p.m. in the same arena. Powdersville nipped Christ Church 58-57 to advance. After this “every shot contested, every point earned game”, Coach Norris shared some thoughts with the HSSR, “It was that type of game for sure,” said Coach Norris. “It was a battle start to finish. We like to score inside and their zone defense made it a challenge for us. “I thought Antoine Caughman knocked down some big jumpers for us today,” said Coach Norris. “This was one of my more -prouder wins. You know our players could have hung their heads and said this is not our day, but they kept battling and battling, until we got it over the top, I felt like in the second half we played a lot better defensively. I also think we turned it over less.” With history making hanging in the balance against Powdersville next week, what does Coach Norris feel like his team needs to improv on? “We just need to execute better in all phases of the game,” said Coach Norris. “We just need to develop a plan to attack packed in zones better. In this game they were doubling up Brian Sumpter every time he had the ball.”  Loris head coach Andrew Eads told the HSSR after the game, “I thought we played well enough to win and I thought we had a really good game plan,” he said. “I am incredibly proud of the effort my team put out there. Sometimes the ball bounces off the rim in strange ways as it did for us several times in this game. “We knew coming into this game it was going to be physical and contested the whole way,” said Coach Eads. “We were ready for it. We were right there but we just could not get it done.” Loris has just one senior starter moving on in B.J. Johnson . “He could not find his footing at the start of the season but he kept working and improving and I could not be prouder of him,” said Coach Eads. This state championship game will have a lot of attention drawn to it as Keenan High will be going for their 10 th state boy’s state title, and should they defeat Powdersville, it will tie the school with Great Falls and Hall of Fame coach John Smith for most state titles by a SCHSL member. Coach Norris has played in 11 state finals to date, winning seven of them. Loris started out with a 10-5 lead over the Raiders after the first period. Khalid Sherman made two free throws and scored on a driving lay-up to put Loris up 4-1 at the 3:50 mark of the first period as both defenses dominated. The second period produced more offense with Keenan leading 20-16 at the half. The Raiders used a 7-1 run to build an 12-11 lead with 4:39 left in the second period. Broderick Anderson hit three-point shot and Ny’Keim McNeil scored off a steal-lay-up, and then Noah Smith added the 7 th point of the run on a put-back shot that gave Keenan their first lead of the game. In the third period both teams battled like an Ali-Frazier prize fight. After Loris guard Nigel Miller hit a floater to cut the deficit to 21-20 Khalid Sherman made two free throws to give the Lions the lead at 24-23 with 4:24 left in the quarter. Then Keenan’s Brian Sumpter scored on a put-back and Antoine Caughman scored on a twisting lay-up to put the Raiders back up 27-25 with 3:06 to play in the third. The third quarter ended in a 31-31 tie after Loris junior forward Jacobien Lewis converted one of two free throws with 2.5 seconds left. Keenan had pulled ahead 31-30 with 31.8 seconds left when Caughman made two free throws. In the fourth period, the intensity of the game reached a feverish pitch, with every steal, soft dunk, and foul whistled by the officials drawing either cheers or boo’s depending on what fan base benefitted. With 2:53 left in the game, Keenan took a 41-35 lead after a three-point shot by Caughman and a put-back by Marcus Simmons . In the final two minutes of the game Loris saw two lay-ups fall off the rim in near misses and neither team scored a basket in the final minute of the game. The closest Loris got was 41-39 with 1”31 left when Khalil Sherman converted two free throws. The final point of the game was claimed by Keenan on a free throw with one minute left. For the game Keenan was l din scoring by Caughman with 17 points followed by Andrson and Simmons with 8 points each. Sumpter contributed five points, McNiel three points, and Ty’Heim McNeil added one point. Loris had 8 players scored one point or more. Khalil Sherman led the team with 10 points followed by Khalid Sherman with 8 points. BJ Johnson contributed six points while Miller, Tyler Brown , and Lewis each had four points. Jay Stevenson scored two points and Mykhei Bell had one point.