Batesburg-Leesville begins Class A Division I playoffs on 6-game winning streak

Batesburg-Leesville – The Batesburg-Leesville High School football team lost its first four games of the season. That is something no one wants to go through, but looking back now it isn’t that much of a surprise.

The losses were to 10-0 Mid-Carolina, 8-2 Saluda, 9-1 and defending AA state champion Strom Thurmond and 8-2 Gilbert. The first three are AA schools while Gilbert is a AAA school.

Having no players with any significant varsity experience to start the year didn’t help matters for B-L, which was in its first season in Class A.

“I can't say there was doubt on our players’ part; it was more of an unsureness of what to do,” said Panthers head coach Greg Lawson. “It’s just something you’ve got to learn, and the first four games we sure learned a lot.

There’s the old saying that you learn more when you lose than you do when you win. That’s about as true as it comes.”

B-L learned enough to win six games in a row, claim the Region 2 championship with a 5-0 record and earn the No. 7 seed in the Class A Division I state playoffs. It will play host to No. 10 Ninety Six at The Pit in a second-round game on November 13.

Batesburg-Leesville snapped the losing streak with a 35-28 overtime win over Clinton. The Panthers trailed 28-13 entering the fourth quarter but scored 15 points to force overtime. They then scored on their first play in overtime and kept Clinton out of the end zone on its possession.

They followed that up by outscoring their region foes 258-30.

Sophomore quarterback Terrance Cook has been the leader of the offense. He has rushed for 891 yards and 17 touchdowns on 109 carries. He’s completed 62 of 139 passes for 1,128 yards and 19 scores against just three interceptions.

“Terrance is one of those kids that learned a lot,” Lawson said. “He gets better every week. He is going to be very special for us.”

Junior Mario Waters is having a good season running the ball with 792 yards and eight TDs on 123 carries. Sophomore Dee Coleman has 363 yards and five touchdowns on 40 carries.

Junior Graham Pierce is the leading pass catcher with 29 for 645 yards and nine touchdowns. Sophomore Jayvier Hill-Nelson has 19 catches for 371 yards and seven scores.

Junior placekicker Trey Smith has been solid on extra point attempts, connectuing on 31 of 33.

Should Batesburg-Leesville win over Ninety Six, it would more than likely face No. 2 seed Central in the third round. The other part of the bracket features No. 3 seed Fairfield Central and No. 6 Hampton County.

“I feel like we got a good bracket with where we landed,” Lawson said. “We just need to take it one week at a time. We’ve told the kids there’s no tomorrow if we don’t get it right.”

Lawson thinks the tradition that surrounds the Batesburg-Leesville program helped its players turn the season around.

“Once we won, they understood what they had to do to keep on winning,” he said. “The tradition that we have here goes all the way back to their great-great granddaddies. Those kids are ours, not anybody else's.”