Northwoods Defeats Heathwood Hall 39-20 to Win Region Title

8-man brackets have yet to be officially released

Monarchs take final five region contests after dropping opener to defend crown

By WORTHY EVANS Contributing Writer Columbia - If there is such a thing as a dynasty in the early years of boys volleyball in South Carolina sports, Dorman has become one. With a 3-0 sweep of Carolina Forest Saturday at A.C. Flora High School , the Cavaliers won their fourth straight state championship, third straight state title sanctioned by the South Carolina High School League , and second straight 5A Division I crown. The win for Dorman (31-0) was also the 73 th straight victory of a streak dating to Sept. 16, 2023. Head coach Andrew Copeland said that while the match goes down in the books as a 3-0 win, he recognized a lot of fight and talent on the Panthers side of the court. “We knew that it was going to be a tough match,” Copeland said. “We knew that they were a scrappy team, so with their backs against the wall they were going to come out ready to play, ready to give us a little pushback, and so they got up on us but our guys they trust each other, they have a lot of grit, they have a lot of heart, they don’t want to lose this game, and so you saw that they responded later.” Both teams battled evenly until in the final stretch Dorman won the last four points and closed out the set 25-18. It was the second set where the Cavaliers main weapon, Lucas Helle , began to break the game open. Helle, a Long Beach State commit and opposite/outside hitter who also plays for the U19 national team peppered Carolina Forest with spikes and blocks. “He is one of the best players in the state if not the country. He’s a phenomenal athlete,” Copeland said. “He is a one in a generation athlete and it is a blessing to have him not only because of his leadership but for his play as well. What he gives to this team is unmatched.” Helle’s kills, along with Marcus McCullough - Bryant’s , pushed Dorman to a 25-17 win in the second set. The Panthers (27-6-1) did a better job defending Dorman’s front-row hitters, but the Cavaliers finished the match with a 25-20 win in the third set. Carolina Forest head coach Joe Goodwin , “Coach Goody” as he’s commonly known, is a former safety and football coach who later got into beach club volleyball in Myrtle Beach. He signed on to coach the Panthers in June, and since then he said it’s been a great ride. “I’ve known these kids for years. It was exciting for me coming towards the tail end of my career to get to do this with this group of kids,” Goodwin said. “This was the goal from the beginning, to get here and win of course, but you had to get here. They did awesome. They got us here and we were a No.3 seed, which was not something we were used to so we had to get on the road, but the boys battled hard, and we lost to a great team. They’re obviously a great team for the past four years and No.1 in the country. But we’re holding our heads high as we leave and I’m proud of these guys.” Dorman, ranked No.1 in the state and No.1 in the nation on MaxPreps graduates nine seniors. Most programs may consider the next year a rebuilding year, but Copeland, who openly remembered when he and his players “were literally celebrating getting three hits and getting it over the net” and comparing it to the present time, said he’s not worried about that. “We have some guys on our bench who if they were at another school would be starters,” he said. “With the depth that we have across the board at every position, that’s what keeps our team competitive and playing at a high level, they know we have people right behind them that can compete.” Both coaches are excited about the sports growth moving forward. “We actually got our boys coaches association approved this summer,” Copeland said. “And so helping to spotlight and highlight some of the different athletes, we have to show the different opportunities they have to go play at the next level. It means getting more exposure to get not only more guys to join but also to get more people to the games to support them.” Goodwin noted, “I moved to Myrtle Beach in my late 20s, and started playing beach volleyball, and it is just so much fun. I was a football coach at Myrtle Beach High School and ended my career as a volleyball coach. I never would have imagined it. But it’s just because of that reason that it’s going to grow. It’s just a matter of people, getting more kids out. Once they do it, they’re like this is great, this is awesome.”

By WORTHY EVANS Contributing Writer Columbia - Oceanside Collegiate’s boys volleyball team overcame an early stumble against Travelers Rest Saturday, the Landsharks pulled together for a 3-1 victory to win their second straight 4A state championship Saturday at A.C. Flora High School. “It means a lot for the team. It says a lot about the kids and their hard work and their dedication,” Oceanside Collegiate head coach Jorge Riesgo said. “Both teams wanted that game. As a team it means a lot about who we are and our character as individuals.” The Landsharks (23-3) fell behind the Devil Dogs (15-10) early in the first set and while they pulled even, never recovered. Travelers Rest took the first set 25-22. Oceanside pulled together quickly and jumped to a 6-0 lead as Koda Smith served, and eventually took a 10-3 lead and a 21-11 advantage. The Landsharks closed out the second set 25-16 to tie the match 1-1. Travelers Rest got back into the game and traded shots with Oceanside for most of the third set, but toward the end the Landsharks moved to a 22-18 advantage on Jack Hancock’s serves and soon won the third set 25-18.  With the game on the line in the fourth set, Travelers Rest and Oceanside battled point for point all the way to when the Devil Dogs trimmed the Landsharks’ lead to 21-20. Oceanside scored four of the last five points to close out a 25-21 set win and match victory. “It was very challenging for us to get this far, especially after losing some key pieces last year,” Riesgo said. “It took being able to recoup those losses and being able to work hard as a team to achieve our goals.” “That’s a really good team we played,” Travelers Rest head coach Andrew Lull said. “We tried to stay within ourselves and do what we’ve done all year and just keep executing on those levels, keep spreading the ball around. We have such incredible hitters, and making sure everyone gets hits so other teams have to stay aware of us from the outside, middle, opposite, everywhere.” The Devil Dogs lose three seniors but have good players to bring up next season. “We’re just building,” Lull said. “It’s year one for me and I’ve got a lot of guys who love it and a lot of guys who want to get in the gym tomorrow and just keep playing. More than anything it’s a love of the game, and getting those guys who want to play.” Looking back on the repeat win, Riesgo said it was much harder for the team this year than last year, because this year the Landsharks were the team to beat in 4A. “Everyone wants to beat us, everyone in our region wanted to beat us really bad, and everyone would usually play their best game of the season against us,” he said. “I believe the first one was a little easier because we weren’t proven yet, and going back to back was difficult. They want to beat the champions.”

By WORTHY EVANS Contributing Writer Columbia - Socastee got off to a rough start in its 5A Division 2 volleyball championship match with Catawba Ridge Saturday at A.C. Flora High School . The Braves eventually dropped the set, but rallied over the next three sets to win 3-1 and claim the team’s first state championship victory. “It’s just something to be so proud of for these boys,” head coach Gracie Hinson said. “They’ve worked their butts off the entire season. We didn’t know what to expect coming into the season, and to end up here and to win it here, it just shows the hard work they put in so far this season.” Socastee (27-7) fell behind 9-8 in the first set, and as Copperheads’ Jaxon Hathaway served, fell to a 19-11 deficit before dropping the first set 25-17. Hinson and the Braves didn’t like opening a state championship mass with a loss, but were determined to tighten up. “I told the boys, we didn’t expect to win that first set, and we knew that it was going to be a tough match anyway,” she said. “We knew we had to reset and get back into the game and that’s what we did.” Soccastee’s front row began to take advantage of Catawba Ridge’s apparent weakness in getting to balls hit to the middle of their court, and the Copperheads’ outside hitters’ tendency to kill the ball out of bounds. That strategy began to pay off. The Braves won the second set 25-18 and the third set 25-22. “We had a miscommunication on the court,” Catawba Ridge head coach Ross Lisee said. “We’ve been facing some adversity as a team this week, overcoming certain pieces out of our lineup, but the guys really fought through it, and we got pressed a little bit in that second set and we weren’t able to respond. Socastee was a good team and we started to make a lot of errors, and we can’t have that. And that’s really where the match went south.” The Copperheads (25-5-2) pushed hard in the fourth set, taking a 6-1 lead and later taking the set from 12-9 to 15-10. From that point it seemed that a tie-breaking fifth set would be inevitable, were it not for Socastee’s turnaround. “Our guys have been pressed all year,” Lisee said. “We’ve been on that chopping block with teams coming for us, but I’m always confident in our guys, even when we’re behind, we’ve come back and forced sets this year and we’ve won. I thought we’d respond, unfortunately that wasn’t the case.” The Braves won the point from Charlie Gallagher’s serve to make it 15-11, and with Preston Widner serving, Socastee took a 16-15 lead. The teams battled point for point briefly, but the Braves closed out the match and the game with a 25-22 win. “This is kind of crazy,” Widner said. “I was on JV before varsity, and I never would have thought this… I barely played. And now I get to start, play here and we won. And I didn’t think we could (back then). I never thought we could have done this.” One former player played a key role for the team on the bench—Hinson’s younger brother Bradley Hinson . Hinson played on the team until he graduated last year but lent emotional support to his former teammates and to his sister. “He is my go-to person, he really is,” she said. “He was out here last year playing on the court and this year having him beside me has been a pleasure, just because I look at him and I know that he knows we’re both in this game and I honestly would not be here today without him. I really wouldn’t be here.”

By WORTHY EVANS Contributing Writer Columbia - The Sumter football team pretty much gave Westwood the first quarter in their game Friday night, but the Redhawks wouldn’t take it. Instead, the Gamecocks struck for a quick score, and three more in the second period en route to a 52-27 victory at Westwood’s District Two Stadium. Sumter (9-1, 6-0 Region 5-5A), which had clinched the region championship last week with a 36-29 victory over Ridge View the week before, committed seven penalties for 55 yards in the first quarter Friday. Some of those penalties wiped out Sumter’s first possession, which was a turnover on downs. Yet, on Westwood’s first play after that series, Gamecock defender Javonte Brown picked off a Josiah Henryhand pass, and on the play after that, Reggie Shannon broke free for a 29-yard touchdown run. While Sumter’s first-quarter miscues weren’t costly, head coach Mark Barnes was livid on the sidelines and while talking to his team after the game. “We were obviously too penalized tonight, without question, some of them we probably deserved and some of them we may not have,” Barnes said. “But we’ve got to clean that up and that’s what I was talking to our players about at the end of the game, your attitude toward the game does affect the officiating. We’ve got to do a better job representing me as the head coach and our school.” Other than penalties, the Sumter ground attack piled up 400 yards on 47 attempts. Cleveland Pinckney had 20 carries for 166 yards and a touchdown and Shannon had 10 carries for 134 yards and two TDs. While penalties were a concern, Barnes added “We’re 9-1 and if you told me we’d be 9-1 I would’ve taken it in August, because this group has really overachieved, and we’ve just got to make sure we clean up things that’s going to keep us from winning in the playoffs.” The Gamecocks controlled the ball for most of the second quarter and got two 3-yard touchdown runs from Frank Richardson and a 13-yard Richardson TD pass to Lathan Bledsoe to take a 28-0 lead into halftime. The Gamecocks had the game well in hand after Conner Rivers’ 37-yard field goal made it 31-0 early in the third quarter, but Westwood came to life shortly afterward. With junior quarterback Elye Owens in for Henryhand, the Redhawks got on the scoreboard with an Owens-to- Tyrek Jenkins touchdown pass play of 67 yards at the 7:26 mark of the third. Westwood even recovered the onside kick, but Owens threw an interception on fourth-and-long that may as well have been a short punt. The Sumter possession that followed ended with Shannon’s 55-yard touchdown straight up the middle of the field that made it 38-7. The Gamecocks erred on the kickoff when they directed the ball to Jayden Boyd . The fastest Westwood player took the ball around the 12-yard line, ran into a crowd of blockers and tacklers, then bounced around the right side of the field and found his way to complete an 88-yard kickoff return for a touchdown at the 4:02 mark of the third quarter. Westwood’s kickoff went out of bounds and the ball was set at the 35-yard line, but the action continued when Pinckney took the handoff and dashed 65 yards for yet another score in the quarter. Gamecocks led 45-14 going into the fourth. “We’re explosive offensively, we’ve been explosive all year,” Barnes said. “We played better defense early in the game but in the second half we let some get away from us. They’re really skilled though, they’re fast. They do a great job coaching and putting their players in great opportunities.” Westwood scored on a Jovan Howard dive from one yard out that capped a long drive straddling the third and fourth quarters. Sumter’s Jacori Jackson scored on a 4-yard touchdown run to make it 52-21 in the final minutes, and Owens’ 5-yard touchdown pass to Quentin McGill with 32 seconds left gave Westwood (6-4, 3-3) a final score before the game’s end. While the Redhawks did put four scores on the board in the second half, the first half’s misfirings made first-year head coach Stephen Burris seethe. “We’ve got to learn how not to beat ourselves. At times I think we’re growing up and then we take a step backwards,” Burris said. “I understand this is the first year of a staff and all those things, but we’re five months into this thing and my expectations are high for us to execute at a high level and to get better week to week and I didn’t see it in the first half at all.” Sumter is a No. 3 seed and has a bye in the 5A Division 1 bracket, they play the winner of Friday’s Wando -at- James Island matchup Nov. 14. Westwood is a No.7 seed in the 5A Division 2 bracket and plays host to St . James Friday. Sumter 7 21 17 7 – 52 Westwood 0 0 14 13 – 27 First Quarter S - Reggie Shannon 29 run (Connor Rivers kick) 6:48 Second Quarter S - Frank Richardson 3 run (kick failed) 10:00 S - Richardson 3 run (Joseph Chapman pass from Richardson) 3:30 S - Lathan Bledsoe 13 pass from Richardson (Rivers kick) :38 Third Quarter S - Rivers 37 field goal 9:12 W - Tyrek Jenkins 67 pass from Elye Owens (Muhsin Yakubu kick) 7:26 S - Shannon 55 run (Rivers kick) 4:19 W - Jayden Boyd 88 kickoff return (Yakubu kick) 4:02 S - Cleveland Pinckney 65 run (Connor kick) 3:51 Fourth Quarter W - Jovan Howard 1 run (Yakubu kick) 9:32 S - Jacori Jackson 4 run (Rivers kick) 4:40 W - Quentin McGill 5 pass from Owens (kick failed) :32 SHS WHS First downs 18 9 Rushes-yds 47-400 27-118 Passing yds 50 65 Att-Com-Int 6-2-0 20-15-2 Fumbles-lost 0-0 3-1 Penalties-yds 13-100 5-25 Punts-avg 1-33.0 2-32.5 INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING S - Cleveland Pinckney 20-166, Reggie Shannon 10-134, Frank Richardson 9-36, Jacori Jackson 4-36, Lathan Bledsoe 4-28. W - Angelo Rios 11-18, Jovan Howard 6-53, Elye Owens 5-35, Quentin McGill 4-14, Jayden Boyd 1-(-2). PASSING S - Frank Richardson 2-6-0. W - Josiah Henryhand 2-5-1, Elye Owens 13-15-1. RECEIVING S - Jacori Jackson 1-37, Lathan Bledsoe 1-13. W - Angelo Rios 4-8, C.J. Bennett 3-27, Quentin McGill 2-9, Tyrek Jenkins 2-7, Jovan Howard, 2-5, Jayden Boyd 1-7, Sheldon Bradley 1-2.

6 state championhip games set for December 6-7 in Orangeburg

Cougars dominating in 3-0 victory over Curtis Baptist

Defending state champs Dutch Fork, Northwestern, Oceanside, Abbeville roll in big matchups