Midlands football teams hope to use home-field advantage to beat powerhouse programs
A huge opportunity awaits three Midlands teams Friday in the third round of the SC high school football playoffs.
Brookland-Cayce, Gilbert and Gray Collegiate each have the chance to knock off traditional powerhouse programs in the state. Brookland-Cayce gets Hartsville in Class 4A while Gilbert takes on Dillon in 3A. Gray Collegiate faces defending champ Abbeville in 2A at Newberry College, where the War Eagles will be the home team.
Airport also has a shot against another power, Class 4A champion Myrtle Beach, but will have to do it on the road. The Eagles haven’t been this far in the playoffs since the mid-1990s.
“You got three teams in the same attendance zone (B-C, Airport and Gray Collegiate) so it speaks volumes for the programs all the way down to the middle schools,” Brookland-Cayce coach Rusty Charpia said. “We have good players and talent in the area.”
“It says a lot about football around here,” Gilbert coach Chad Leaphart said. “For a long time, football around here hasn’t done a lot of damage in the state playoffs except for Dutch Fork. I know two years ago other than Dutch Fork we were one of the few teams playing in the third round. This time around there is a bunch of us playing against the traditional powers. It speaks a lot of football in the area getting better.”
Gilbert hopes to avenge previous loss to Dillon
Gilbert hopes this matchup against Dillon goes better than the one two years ago. In 2017, the Indians had the Wildcats at home but were dominated 34-7. Dillon went on to win the state title and has won five championships in the past seven years. The two years the Wildcats didn’t win, they lost in the title game.
Gilbert has several players who were on that 2017 team. They’re nowin the midst of the most successful stretch in more than 20 years of the program. The Indians, who played in three straight lower state titles from 1990-92, have won more than 10 games in three of Leaphart’s four seasons.
Indians quarterback Jy Tolen has thrown for 3,749 yards and 45 touchdowns with just two interceptions. Gilbert’s offense is averaging 563 yards per game.
“I think two years ago we were happy to be there and not really known what we are getting into and it showed in the game,” Leaphart said. “We got several guys that played in the game and that are seniors and have played in big games since then. We are battle tested and should be ready to give them a better game than two years ago.”
Can Gray Collegiate beat Abbeville?
Gray Collegiate is in the midst of the best season since the school opened in 2014. The War Eagles have won a school-record 10 games and are in the third round of the playoffs for the first time in school history.
The War Eagles’ reward is a chance to knock off four-time defending champion Abbeville, which hasn’t lost a game since 2017.
“We have been talking about this since last year when we saw how the brackets worked out. It has been a goal of ours,” Gray Collegiate coach Adam Holmes said. “Abbeville is a top team, they have set a foundation and are one of the best programs in the state. When you are building a program here at Gray, we are trying to be that kind of standard. We are getting the opportunity to prove ourselves Friday night. Our guys are excited about it and we are ready to play Friday.”
The game will be a contrast in style with the War Eagles relying on their passing game and Abbeville heavy on running the ball. Gray quarterback Hunter Helms has thrown for 3,932 yards, 45 touchdowns and just four interceptions. Omarion Dollison has 83 catches for 1,605 yards and 21 touchdowns. and KZ Adams rushed for 1,511 yards and 25 touchdowns.
Abbeville averages 332 yards a game on the ground and has thrown for just 422 yards all season.
“We like to air it out and they ground and pound,” Holmes said. “They are good at what we do and should be really good matchup.”
It’s Brookland-Cayce vs. Hartsville again
B-C gets a shot at Hartsville for the second straight year. The Bearcats ran out of steam against the Red Foxes in a 65-38 loss in the second round last year. The game was tied at 28 midway through the third quarter but B-C managed a touchdown over the final 17 minutes.
B-C started this season 1-3 before winning its last seven games. Charpia said he tried playing a lot of different players early in the season, including at quarterback, which helped build depth as the season went along.
The Bearcats’ program has been on the rise over the past five seasons. B-C made it to back-to-back Class 3A Lower State championships in 2016-17 and look for its first one in Class 4A.
“We have had some success here lately. We expect to do well late in the year. The kids see that it has been done before,” Charpia said. “Before we didn’t have that experience. But now we kind of expect to get this far and the kids have done a great job.”
SCHSL playoff schedule
Class 5A
Upper State
Gaffney at Byrnes
Dorman at Clover
Lower State
Dutch Fork at Fort Dorchester
Goose Creek at Carolina Forest
Class 4A
Upper State
Wren at Greenville
Ridge View at Daniel (Thursday)
Lower State
Airport at Myrtle Beach
Hartsville at Brookland-Cayce
Class 3A
Upper State
Woodruff at Chapman
Camden at Union County
Lower State
Strom Thurmond at May River
Dillon at Gilbert
Class 2A
Upper State
Saluda at Southside Christian
Abbeville at Gray Collegiate at Newberry College
Lower State
Timberland at Barnwell
Oceanside Collegiate at Woodland
Class A
Upper State
Ridge Spring Monetta at Blackville-Hilda
Lamar at Wagener-Salley
Lower State
Cross at Lake View
CE Murray at Green Sea Floyds
SCISA
State Championships
8-man
At Calhoun Academy Football Stadium
Friday
Andrew Jackson vs. St. John’s Christian
At Benedict College
Friday
Class 3A
Hammond vs. Laurence Manning, 7 p.m.
Saturday
Class A
Thomas Heyward vs. Bethesda Academy, 1 p.m.
Class 2A
Hilton Head Christian vs. Trinity-Byrnes, 6 p.m.
This story was originally published November 20, 2019 at 6:19 PM.
