White Knoll locks in postseason spot, will ‘celebrate to be part of the playoffs’
The rebuilding process at White Knoll took another step Friday.
The Timberwolves finished off their regular season with a 38-21 win over Chapin at Cecil Woolbright Field.
It was White Knoll’s seventh win of the season after winning just two in Nick Pelham’s debut a year ago. The Timberwolves (7-3) will be playing in the playoffs in two weeks either as the fourth seed from Region 4-5A or as an at-large team.
“Last year was a great year to start but didn’t have the successes to build on,” Pelham said. “So, we were selling them on hope this offseason. …. I’m just incredibly proud of where these young men were.
“We just have kids that work and kids that show up, take hard coaching. We need to celebrate to be part of the playoffs. And we will see what happens against a really good team.”
If River Bluff beats Chapin next week, White Knoll will finish fourth in the region. If Chapin wins, there will be a three-way tie between the teams, and a tiebreaker will determine the seeds.
White Knoll, which had lost three-straight games after a 6-0 start, led 21-0 at halftime Friday. Austin Cunningham caught a TD pass from Landon Sharpe and also ran one in for a score in the half.
Chapin cut the lead to 28-8 in the third quarter, but Sharpe hit Hasan Lee on an 80-yard touchdown pass to make it 35-8 with five seconds left in the third quarter.
Sharpe finished with 316 yards passing and three total TDs. Lee caught five passes for 151 yards.
Jesse Ross rushed for 63 yards and a TD for White Knoll.
Chapin quarterback Brady Albro threw for 193 yards and had a rushing TD. Nolan Beerman ran for two scores..
The Eagles (3-6, 0-3) are still alive for the postseason but need to beat River Bluff. Chapin could also get one of the at-large berths in 5A Lower State.
Region championship updates
A look at who clinched region titles Friday:
Blythewood wins Region 5-5A
Camden wins Region 5-3A
Next week, three-games locally will determine region championships:
Region 4-5A: Dutch Fork at Lexington
Region 5-4A: Ridge View at AC Flora
Region 5-3A: Brookland-Cayce at Gilbert
Dutch Fork 56, River Bluff 7
Running back Jarvis Green tied a school-record with seven touchdowns, all in the first half, as the Silver Foxes tied Lexington for the lead in Region 4-5A. Dutch Fork and Lexington will play for the region title next week.
Green’s seven touchdowns tied Stephen Davis Jr.’s record set in 2014 against Boiling Springs.
The James Madison commit finished with 191 yards rushing and five touchdowns, and also caught four passes for 106 yards and two touchdowns.
Quarterback Aliam Appler was 10-of-13 passing for 257 yards and three touchdowns. Dutch Fork outgained River Bluff, 534-184.
Cooper Johns rushed for 123 yards and a TD for River Bluff.
Blythewood 31, Rock Hill 7
Harrison Collins and Zahir Jones each had two touchdown runs as the Bengals clinched the Region 3-5A championship. It’s the school’s first region title since 2012.
Blythewood 17-7 at halftime.
Lexington 50, Aiken 0
Taiden Mines threw two touchdown passes to Kamadi Maxwell and Jonah Norris ran for two scores as the Wildcats won a non-region game before next week’s big game with Dutch Fork.
Mines was 14-of-17 for 162 yards passing and also ran for a TD. Maxwell caught five passes for 109 yards. Norris carried it 15 times for 90 yards.
Lexington’s defense held Aiken to 51 yards of offense.
Ridge View 41, Richland Northeast 34
The Blazers built a 21-point lead and held on to defeat the Cavs and remain tied in Region 5-4A standings.
Ridge View and A.C. Flora both are 4-0 in region play and will play in the regular-season finale next week.
Ridge View led 34-14 after quarterback Braylon Boyd’s 9-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. Boyd started in place of Donald Tomlin, who missed the game with injury.
RNE cut it to 34-20 in the fourth on Will Wilson’s TD pass to Zackery Watkins. But RV’s Zion Agnew returned the ensuing kickoff for a TD to make it 41-20.
RNE answered with two Wilson TD passes, one to Watkins and other to Betette Blake to cut the lead to 41-34 with 2:34 left. The Cavs got inside the 30-yard with a chance to tie but turned it over on downs.
Boyd finished with two touchdown runs and two TD passes, one to Agnew and other to Adonis McDaniel. Marcus Kelly also had a TD run for Ridge View.
Camden 53, Crestwood 20
The Bulldogs captured their fourth-straight region title with a win on the road.
Quarterback Grayson White threw for 257 yards and had four total touchdowns in the win. Running back Averee Hickmon ran for 102 yards and two touchdowns, and Cortez Lane also had two TDs.
AC Flora 54, Lugoff-Elgin 7
The Falcons moved to 9-0 on the season with a shutout of the Demons.
Quarterback Carew Bates threw four touchdowns and Markel Townsend had another big night on the ground for the Falcons, who stayed in a first-place tie with Ridge View in Region 5-4A.
Townsend finished with 160 yards rushing and three total touchdowns. Chris Lofton caught two touchdowns. Jack Purdy and Braxton Murray also had TD catches.
Irmo 42, Westwood 0
Irmo helped its playoff chances with a win over the Redhawks.
The Yellow Jackets can clinch a playoff berth by defeating Lugoff-Elgin next week. Westwood makes the playoffs if it defeats Richland Northeast next week.
Irmo scored 35 points in the second half. Quarterback AJ Brand had three touchdown passes and a TD run. He finished with 240 yards in the air and 72 on the ground.
Jayden Harrison rushed for 169 yards for Westwood.
Gilbert 56, Dreher 21
Jaden Allen-Hendrix and Alias Graham-Woodberry each rushed for more than 200 yards and combined for five touchdowns in Gilbert’s win.
Gilbert stayed tied with Brookland-Cayce atop the Region 5-3A standings. The two teams play next week for the region title.
Graham-Woodberry finished with 229 yards and two touchdowns. Allen-Hendrix rushed for 227 yards and three scores. Gilbert quarterback Drake Braddock also threw for two TDs.
Brookland-Cayce 49, Swansea 0
The Bearcats won their fifth-straight game and will play for the Region 5-3A title against Gilbert next week.
Deshaun Washington rushed for 138 yards and four touchdowns and Naahzeikial Mays added 126 yards. Washington also had a defensive touchdown and went over 1,000 yards rushing for the season.
Quarterback Tanner Staton threw a TD pass to Will Young and also rushed for a score.
Lower Richland 31, Orangeburg-Wilkinson 0
Running back Lamarion Pearson had two touchdown runs as the Diamond Hornets picked up their second-straight region win.
MJ Smith and Jamel Myers also had TD runs and Jamel Patterson returned an interception for a score.
Ben Lippen 13, Augusta Christian 12
Bo Morris scored the game-tying TD run and William Gaines hit the extra point with 19 seconds left to give Ben Lippen a come-from-behind win.
Ben Lippen went 92 yards in just over two minutes for the go-ahead score. Jed Essig blocked two Augusta Christian extra-point attempts in the game.
It was Ben Lippen’s seventh win of the season, the most since 2017.
Saluda 42, Fox Creek 0
Tyleke Mathis ran for 157 yards and three touchdowns and quarterback Drew Arant had two TD passes to Jonah McCary for the Tigers, who snapped a two-game losing streak.
Newberry 43, Columbia 2
The Bulldogs moved to 4-1 in Region 4-2A with a homecoming victory over the Capitals.
Keenan 46, Mid-Carolina 25
The Raiders came back from a 21-20 halftime deficit to defeat the Rebels on Senior night.
Fairfield Central 61, Eau Claire 0
The Griffins scored more than 60 points for the second straight week and third time this season.
Quarterback Cam McMillon was 8-of-9 passing for 299 yards and three touchdowns. TyDarion Grier caught four passes for 185 yards and two TDs and Jai Boyd had two catches for 99 yards, a TD.
Northside Christian 32, Palmetto Christian 8
Sam Burks and Matt Diaz each rushed for two touchdowns in the Crusaders’ victory.
Diaz finished with 78 yards rushing. Quarterback Jefferson McCallum was 13-of-14 passing for 154 yards.
Batesburg-Leesville 55, Pelion 7
The Panthers scored a season-high in points for their second straight victory.
Porter-Gaud 28, Cardinal Newman 24
The Cyclones scored with about two minutes left to hand the Cardinals a road loss.
Quarterback Duncan Skehan threw for 142 yards and two scores, including a 91-yarder to Logan Busenlehner, in the loss for CN.
AJ Reyes rushed for 140 yards and a TD.
