Sports Talk Media Network Morning Sportscast and Sports Talk Media High School Football Recap… To listen to these bonus sports broadcast, click here to go to the Between the Lines posting where the latest of these can be heard.

Sports Talk College Preview for This Weekend…Each week Sports Talk Media out of Columbia does a College Preview Sports Cast fir each weekend… During the Raider football season it was part of the Friday Night Insiders pregame program… If you wish to listen to this week’s version, click here.

Clemson – Carolina

• Gamecocks Host Tigers Tomorrow…Unless you are just coming out of a long coma or getting back to earth after being abducted by aliens, you are aware that the biggest college football game of the season takes place at 7:30 pm tomorrow night at Williams Brice Stadium when the University of South Carolina Gamecocks play host to the Clemson Tigers for the 120^th meeting between these two schools…  I’m not going to go into all the hype other than to mention to you that Clemson is about a 7 point favorite to pull out a win with rabid Gamecock fans doing all they can do to make the Tigers life miserable on the field… Also there will be the additional hype of visiting politicians like former president Donald Trump that could be a distraction and I am surely not going to touch on the political aspects of the game… By the way the game can be seen on the SEC Network or you can stream it live on the ESPN app.
• Future of the Rivalry… College football is going through a lot of changes and both the ACC and SEC will have new conference members getting on board next season to further complicate the scheduling of this hallowed game… So what does the future hold for this rivalry game?  There is an article in the state Newspaper concerning just that question this past Tuesday… In the article officials from both Carolina and Clemson talk about this and they are dedicated to see that it happens but there may have to be some changes in where in the season the game is played… To see / read that article click here.

High School Football Games Around the State Tonight (11-24-23) Night & Brackets (click on class to see the playoff bracket)… Upper state contest listed first.

• Class AAAAA… JL Mann (11-2)  at Dutch Fork ((8-5) … Summerville (13-0) at White Knoll (13-0)
• Class AAAA… Greenville (10-3) at Westside (12-1) …. Irmo (13-0) at South Florence (13-0)
• Class AAA… BHP (13-0) at Daniel (13-0) …. Camden (10-3) at Brookland-Cayce (11-2)
• Class AA…  Abbeville (12-1) at Gray Colligate (13-3) …  Hampton County (12-1) at Oceanside Colligate (10-2)
• Class A… St. Joseph’s (11-2) at Christ Church (11-2) … Johnsonville (10-2) at Bamberg-Ehrhardt (12-1)

High School Football Scores, Schedules and Standings

• Thanks to scfootballstats.com you can now see last weekend’s scores for all games by classification on Saturday or Sunday and possibly Monday… After that you will see the weeks schedule by classification… You can also see the standings in each region by classification… To see this information, click here.

SCHSL Notes

• Football Finals Moved to SC STATE… Recently it was announced that this year’s State Championship games will be played at Oliver C. Dawson Stadium on the Campus of SC State University in Orangeburg… To read the press release about this move click here… With that being said the dates and times of the five championship games have also been announced and are as follows:
  • November 30: Class 2A – 7 pm
    December 1: Class 1A – 2 pm and Class 5A – 8 pm
    December 2: Class 4A – 12 pm and Class 3A – 7 pm

Local Sports Schedule: [Read more…]

Sports Talk Media Network Morning Sportscast and Sports Talk Media High School Football Recap… To listen to these bonus sports broadcast, click here to go to the Between the Lines posting where the latest of these can be heard.

Laurens HS

• Boys Basketball: Laurens 61 – Spartanburg Christian Academy 36… The Raider boys’ basketball finished their participation in the 2023 Sports Impact Invitational Tournament yesterday at noon on a positive note as they took a 61-36 win over the host SCA Warriors… The Raiders started fast taking a 17-12 lead over the Warriors at the end of the first quarter and led 36-23 at the half… The Raider put the game away in the third quarter outscoring the Warriors 15-5 and then cruising on to the 61-36 win… The Raiders only had one player scoring in double-digits and that was Jaylen Simpson who finished with 12 points… Others scoring for the Raiders included  E’Myus Young with 7 points while TyJ Jones, Travija Austin, Nigere Brown and Zakarion Simpson all scored 6 points each… Tylan Fowler scored 5 point and scoring 4 points each you had Mason Aiken, Martineze Shaw and Nick Danciu… Rounding out the scoring or the Raiders, Tyon Bailey scored 1 point… The Raiders are now 1-2 on the young season.

• Smith Out as Head Coach of Raider Football… Yesterday the news came out that Coach Daryl Smith will not be back at the helm of the Raider football program next season…Smith had just completed his fourth season leading the Raiders after having served as the defensive coordinator under Chris Liner… His teams compiled a 14-23 record as head coach at Laurens and went 1-2 in playoff appearances… In a quote from WSPA TV, Smith commented “The success on the field was not at the level that we all wanted this year…However, I am extremely proud of how our players conducted themselves on the field, in the classroom, and in the community. We had an outstanding coaching staff that loved the players and worked extremely hard to help them become better… I am grateful for the time I was able to spend with these players and coaches… I wish the program the best.”… Athletic Director Tommy Spires said yesterday that the job opening will be published on appropriate websites the first week in December and that there was no specific time frame for naming a new coach…My thanks to Coach Smith for his help in the past and my best wished to Coach Smith and his family on whatever life has in store for them in the future!

Laurens Academy… The Crusaders hosted the Greenwood Christian Hawks in their home opener last Tuesday night.

•  Girls: Crusaders 65 – Hawks 29… In varsity girls action the Crusaders took a 65-29 win… The Crusaders only led 16-12at the end of the first 8 minutes of play but after that they stepped up the defense and held the Hawks to 8 points or less in each of the 3 remaining quarters while they never scored less than 11 in a quarter… Olivia Huck had a game-high 24 points to lead the Crusaders with Rylee Ballard and Madisyn Graham each scoring in double-digits also with 10 points each… Gracie Hall and Hannah Erwin each scored 6 points with Sadie Bruyere and Emily Suttles scoring 4 points each…Rounding out the scoring for the Crusaders EK Moore scored 1 point… The Crusaders are now 1-1 on the season.
• Boys: Hawks 50 – Crusaders 32… The news is not as good where the varsity boys are concerned as the Hawks took a 50-32 win over the Crusaders… No details on the game were reported to me and if I get them, I’ll pass them along… The Crusader boys are 0-2 on the very young season.

Upstate High School Football Scores From Last Friday (11-17-23) Night & Brackets (click on class to see the playoff bracket)

• Class AAAAA… Dutch Fork 35 – Gaffney 10 and JL Mann 21 – Hillcrest 13
• Class AAAA… Greenville 42 – Northwestern 21 and Westside 68 – Midland Valley 53
• Class AAA… Daniel 49 – Chester 20 and BHP 27 – Clinton 24
• Class AA…  Abbeville 16 – Silver Bluff 6 and Gray Colligate 35 – Strom Thurmond 31
• Class A… Christ Church 27 – Blackville-Hilda 7 and St Josephs 27 – Southside Christian 14

High School Football Scores, Schedules and Standings

• Thanks to scfootballstats.com you can now see last weekend’s scores for all games by classification on Saturday or Sunday and possibly Monday… After that you will see the weeks schedule by classification… You can also see the standings in each region by classification… To see this information, click here.

Sports Talk High School Football Recap

• To hear a recap of playoff football games around the state last Friday (11-17-23) produced by Sports Talk Media, click here.

SCHSL Notes

• Football Finals Moved to SC STATE… Recently it was announced that this year’s State Championship games will be played at Oliver C. Dawson Stadium on the Campus of SC State University in Orangeburg… To read the press release about this move click here… With that being said the dates and times of the five championship games have also been announced and are as follows:
  • November 30: Class 2A – 7 pm
    December 1: Class 1A – 2 pm and Class 5A – 8 pm
    December 2: Class 4A – 12 pm and Class 3A – 7 pm

Local Sports Schedule: [Read more…]

Sports Talk Media Network Morning Sportscast and Sports Talk Media High School Football Recap… To listen to these bonus sports broadcast, click here to go to the Between the Lines posting where the latest of these can be heard.

Clinton HS

• Girls Basketball: Clinton 37 – Chapman 21…  Last night in the Championship game of the Clinton Tipoff Tournament the Lady Red Devils took a 37-21 win over the Lady Panthers of Chapman HS… Both teams had beaten their opponents Monday night by substantial margins where they scored in the 50 point range but last night was more of a defensive battle… The Panthers actually had ab8-5 lead after 8 minutes of play but the Red Devils came back using their defense to create turnovers and shot better from the free-throw line in the second quarter to take 18-10 lead at the half and then went on to take the win… Bryanna Belton was the only Red Devil in double digits as she scored 11 points…  Also scoring for the Red Devils  Mylayja Thompson scored 8 points, Nah’shia Wright &  Zakalia Redd 5 and Ry’Daijia Mars &  Mckenziee Clark 2 points each…  The team is now 2-0 on the young season.

• Boyd Named TD Club Player of the Week Yesterday the Laurens County Touchdown Club announced that Clinton’s Chris Boyd has been named the Player of the Week for his performance in last Friday nights Red Devil loss to BHP 27-24 in hard fought game… He is a sophomore who plays on special teams and also at defensive back… He had 13.5 tackles for the Red Devil defense; one tackle for loss; one caused fumble and one interception against the Bears… Clinton High School Head Coach Corey Fountain stated, “Chris is only a sophomore but played like a veteran against BHP…  He got better every week in the way he prepared as the season went on and it showed in his play on Friday nights…  We look forward to seeing him continue to work and make things happen next season…  The future is bright for Chris Boyd.”… He will be honored at the December 13^th meeting of the TD Club which is their Annual Awards Banquet to be held at The Ridge starting at 7:00 pm… The TD Club will recognize its All-County team selection as well as the Coach of the Year; Player of the Year and the Lakeland’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes Character award winners from each High School as well as Presbyterian College… The featured speaker will be Todd Summers, Sports Anchor for WSPA… Congratulations to Chris!

Laurens HS

• Smith Out as Head Coach of Raider Football… Yesterday the news came out that Coach Daryl Smith will not be back at the helm of the Raider football program next season…Smith had just completed his fourth season leading the Raiders after having served as the defensive coordinator under Chris Liner… His teams compiled a 14-23 record as head coach at Laurens and went 1-2 in playoff appearances… In a quote from WSPA TV, Smith commented ““The success on the field was not at the level that we all wanted this year…However, I am extremely proud of how our players conducted themselves on the field, in the classroom, and in the community. We had an outstanding coaching staff that loved the players and worked extremely hard to help them become better… I am grateful for the time I was able to spend with these players and coaches… I wish the program the best.”… Athletic Director Tommy Spires said yesterday that the job opening will be published on appropriate websites the first week in December and that there was no specific time frame for naming a new coach…My thanks to Coach Smith for his help in the past and my best wished to Coach Smith and his family on whatever life has in store for them in the future!
• Girls Basketball: Woodruff 40 – Raiders 32… The Lady Raider girls basketball team traveled back up to Woodruff HS last night to continue  their participation in the 2023 Coach Varner Tipoff Classic… The news is not what I would like to report as the Woodruff Wolverines took a 40-34 win over the Raiders to claim third place in the tournament… The Raiders got off to a slow start as Woodruff led 19-4 at the start of the second quarter… The Raiders fought back to close the gap to 21-15 Wolverines at the half… The Wolverines still led 29-21 going into the 4^th quarter where the Raiders tried to rally but fell short as the final was 40-34 woodruff… Zoe Dial led the Raiders with a game high 19 points scoring all of them in the 2^nd and 4^th quarter where the Raiders outscored the Wolverines… She was also named to the All-Tournament Team… Others scoring for the Raiders were Faith Jackson with 6 points and Shanayi Chinn, Keyoric Yeargin, Destiny Anderson and Taliyah Bullard each scored 2 points… Ty Jones rounded out the Raider scoring with 1 point… The team is 1-3 headed into the Thanksgiving break.
• Boys Basketball: Seneca 57 – Laurens 46… The Raider boys’ basketball team was back in action yesterday afternoon as they traveled back up to Spartanburg Christian Academy to take on the Seneca Bobcats in the 2023 Sports Impact Invitational…. The Bobcats managed to outscore the Raiders by small margins in the each quarter except the third (where they tied 13-13) and take a 57-46 win over the Raiders… The Raider fought all the way as they got to within three points a couple of times in the second half the last one coming 5:58 when E’Myus Young hit a bucket to make it 41-38 Bobcats, but the Raiders just could get the key basket to get “over the hump” or a turnover cost them… The Raiders had two players in double-digits as Martinez Shaw had a game-high 21 points while Mason Aiken finished with 11… Others scoring for the Raiders were TyJ Jones with 6 points, Niger Brown 3, Zakarion Simpson 3 and Travija Austin 1he Raiders will finish their participation in the tournament today at noon as they take on the host Spartanburg Christian Academy Warriors.

Laurens County Touchdown Club

• 11-16-23… The Laurens County Touchdown Club met on Thursday, 11-16-2023 at The Ridge on Exchange Drive… Most of the local coaches brought players and talked about recent games… Tushawan Richardson and Aumar Robinson both from Clinton High School were honored as the Club’s most recent Players of the Week… It was also the annual Clemson – Carolina meeting with features speakers Patrick DiMarco from USC and Danny Pearman of Clemson talking not only about the upcoming “State Championship Game” but also other things like NIL money and the transfer portal… The next meeting of the Touchdown Club will be the Annual Awards Banquet where the All-County Team, Player of the Yean and Coach of the Year are announced…. The meeting will be held on Wednesday, December 12^th at The Ridge on Exchange Drive in Laurens. … To see a video of that meeting click here.

Upstate High School Football Scores From Last Friday (11-17-23) Night & Brackets (click on class to see the playoff bracket)

• Class AAAAA… Dutch Fork 35 – Gaffney 10 and JL Mann 21 – Hillcrest 13
• Class AAAA… Greenville 42 – Northwestern 21 and Westside 68 – Midland Valley 53
• Class AAA… Daniel 49 – Chester 20 and BHP 27 – Clinton 24
• Class AA…  Abbeville 16 – Silver Bluff 6 and Gray Colligate 35 – Strom Thurmond 31
• Class A… Christ Church 27 – Blackville-Hilda 7 and St Josephs 27 – Southside Christian 14

 High School Football Scores, Schedules and Standings

• Thanks to scfootballstats.com you can now see last weekend’s scores for all games by classification on Saturday or Sunday and possibly Monday… After that you will see the weeks schedule by classification… You can also see the standings in each region by classification… To see this information, click here.

 Sports Talk High School Football Recap

• To hear a recap of playoff football games around the state last Friday (11-17-23) produced by Sports Talk Media, click here.

SCHSL Notes

• Football Finals Moved to SC STATE… Recently it was announced that this year’s State Championship games will be played at Oliver C. Dawson Stadium on the Campus of SC State University in Orangeburg… To read the press release about this move click here… With that being said the dates and times of the five championship games have also been announced and are as follows:
  • November 30: Class 2A – 7 pm
    December 1: Class 1A – 2 pm and Class 5A – 8 pm
    December 2: Class 4A – 12 pm and Class 3A – 7 pm

Local Sports Schedule: [Read more…]

Sports Talk Media Network Morning Sportscast and Sports Talk Media High School Football Recap… To listen to these bonus sports broadcast, click here to go to the Between the Lines posting where the latest of these can be heard.

Clinton HS

• Boyd Named TD Club Player of the Week Yesterday the Laurens County Touchdown Club announced that Clinton’s Chris Boyd has been named the Player of the Week for his performance in last Friday nights Red Devil loss to BHP 27-24 in hard fought game… He is a sophomore who plays on special teams and also at defensive back… He had 13.5 tackles for the Red Devil defense; one tackle for loss; one caused fumble and one interception against the Bears… Clinton High School Head Coach Corey Fountain stated, “Chris is only a sophomore but played like a veteran against B H P…  He got better every week in the way he prepared as the season went on and it showed in his play on Friday nights…  We look forward to seeing him continue to work and make things happen next season…  The future is bright for Chris Boyd.”… He will be honored at the December 13^th meeting of the TD Club which is their Annual Awards Banquet to be held at The Ridge starting at 7:00 pm… The TD Club will recognize its All-County team selection as well as the Coach of the Year; Player of the Year and the Lakeland’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes Character award winners from each High School as well as Presbyterian College… The featured speaker will be Todd Summers, Sports Anchor for WSPA… Congratulations to Chris!

• Girls Basketball: Clinton 53 – York …  The Lady Red Devil basketball team opened their season last night by taking a 53-11 win over the York Cougars in the second game of the Red Devil Tipoff Tournament at CHS… The Red Devils used a pressing defense to create turnovers and harass the Cougar shooters as they took a 14-2 lead at the end of the first quarter and Cruised to the win… The Red Devils had 2 players scoring in double digits and they were Bryanna Belton with 14 points and Zakalia Redd with 10… Others scoring for the Red Devils included Mylayja Thompson 7, Kemaria Shelton 6, Ry’Daijia Mars 6, Emma Patterson 3, Mckenzie Clark 3, and both Symiah Floyd and Nah’shia Wright finished with 2 points each… Up Next: The Red Devils will play tonight at 7:30 against the Chapman Panthers who defeated Batesburg-Leesville by about the same margin last night…Batesburg-Leesville and York will play a 6:00 pm.

Laurens HS

• Girls Basketball: Landrum 66 – Raiders 29… The Lady Raider girls basketball team traveled back up to Woodruff HS last night to continue  their participation in the 2023 Coach Varner Tipoff Classic… The news is not as good as it was for Saturday’s game which they won 62-33 over Greer Middle College as last night they fell to the Landrum Cardinals 66-29,,, The pulled away and took the 69-51 win… The Raiders simply had too many unforced turnovers and their free throw shooting failed them down the stretch… Martinez Shaw was the only Raider scoring in double-digits as he finished with 11 points… Other scoring for the Raiders included Mason Aiken with 9 points, Nick Danciu 7, Tylan Fowler 6, TyJ Jones 6, Zakarion Simpson 5, Jaylen Simpson 4, BJ Byrd 2 and E’myus Young 1… Up Next: The Raiders will be back in action today at 4:00pm as they take on the Seneca Bobcats who lost to the Mauldin Mavericks yesterday 85-64 …  To see the tournament bracket / schedule click here.

Laurens Academy

•  Up Next in Basketball: All the Crusader basketball teams are schedule to host Greenwood Christian today starting with middle school girls at 4:00 pm.

Laurens County Touchdown Club

• 11-16-23… The Laurens County Touchdown Club met on Thursday, 11-16-2023 at The Ridge Ridge on Exchange Drive.… Most of the local coaches brought players and talked about recent games… Tushawan Richardson and Aumar Robinson both from Clinton High School were honored as the Club’s most recent Players of the Week… It was also the annual Clemson – Carolina meeting with features speakers Patrick DiMarco from USC and Danny Pearman of Clemson talking not only about the upcoming “State Championship Game” but also other things like NIL money and the transfer portal… The next meeting of the Touchdown Club will be the Annual Awards Banquet where the All-County Team, Player of the Yean and Coach of the Year are announced…. The meeting will be held on Wednesday, December 12^th at The Ridge on Exchange Drive in Laurens … To see a video of that meeting click here.

Upstate High School Football Scores From Last Friday (11-17-23) Night & Brackets (click on class to see the playoff bracket)

• Class AAAAA… Dutch Fork 35 – Gaffney 10 and JL Mann 21 – Hillcrest 13
• Class AAAA… Greenville 42 – Northwestern 21 and Westside 68 – Midland Valley 53
• Class AAA… Daniel 49 – Chester 20 and BHP 27 – Clinton 24
• Class AA…  Abbeville 16 – Silver Bluff 6 and Gray Colligate 35 – Strom Thurmond 31
• Class A… Christ Church 27 – Blackville-Hilda 7 and St Josephs 27 – Southside Christian 14

 High School Football Scores, Schedules and Standings

• Thanks to scfootballstats.com you can now see last weekend’s scores for all games by classification on Saturday or Sunday and possibly Monday… After that you will see the weeks schedule by classification… You can also see the standings in each region by classification… To see this information, click here.

Sports Talk High School Football Recap

• To hear a recap of playoff football games around the state last Friday (11-17-23) produced by Sports Talk Media, click here.

SCHSL Notes

• Football Finals Moved to SC STATE… Recently it was announced that this year’s State Championship games will be played at Oliver C. Dawson Stadium on the Campus of SC State University in Orangeburg… To read the press release about this move click here… With that being said the dates and times of the five championship games have also been announced and are as follows:
  • November 30: Class 2A – 7 pm
    December 1: Class 1A – 2 pm and Class 5A – 8 pm
    December 2: Class 4A – 12 pm and Class 3A – 7 pm

Local Sports Schedule: All schedules subject to change right up to game time.

• School District 55: To see the sports schedule for this week at LDHS, click here.
• School District 56:  To see the sports schedule for this week at CHS and CMS, click here
• Laurens Academy: To see the varsity and middle school boys’ basketball l schedule click here… To see the varsity & middle school girls’ basketball schedule click here.
• Thornwell:  To see the Thornwell football schedule click here… To see the volleyball schedule click here… To see the cross country schedule click here.
• PC Sports Calendar… To see the PC athletics sports calendar, click here.

College Sports:

Football

• College Football Scores and Upcoming Games by Weeks… For those of you college football fans who are looking for a quick way to find scores for each week of the college football season and upcoming games listed by each week, I have made it easy for you… Just click here… This link will carry you to the NCAA website where college football game and scores are listed week by week… Once you get there, there are numerous ways you can filter the schedules and results on the site… You can filter by week, by paying division (FBS, FCS, DII and DII as well as by week, conference and other ways… I use it a lot and hope you will enjoy using it!

• FBS AP Rankings… The latest AP Ranking (11-12-23) for the FBS Division still has Georgia at #1 followed by Michigan, Ohio State, Florida State and Washington in the top 5… Spots 6-10 are occupied by Oregon, Texas, Alabama, Louisville (up from #11) and Oregon State which moved up from 12 to #10… To see the entire top 25 click here.
• FCS Coaches Poll… The latest FCS Coaches Poll (11-12-23) for college football still has South Dakota State ranked #1 Furman is still ranked #2 after their 37-3 win over VMI last Saturday… To see the entire top 25 in the Coaches Poll click here.
• College Football Playoff Rankings… The latest College Football Playoff rankings (11-11-23) had the #1 and #2 teams switch spots as Georgia is now #1 and Ohio State is #2… Michigan still is #3 and Florida State continues to hold down spot #4… All four of those schools are undefeated and Washington which is also undefeated checks in at #5… If you want to see the entire top 25 as ranked by the committee, click here.

Men’s Basketball

• DI AP Rankings… The latest AP Rankings (11-12-23) for D-I college men’s basketball have Kansas as # 1 followed by Purdue, Arizona, Marquette and UConn rounding out the top 5… All were undefeated at the time the poll was taken with records of 2-0…. If you would like to see the entire top 25 in the AP Poll click here.
• DI Scores… If you would like to keep up with the latest scores in men’s DI basketball click here… Once you get to this posting on the NCAA website you can go back and look at recent scores by date and you can also look ahead at the upcoming schedule… You can even filter by conference or top 25… Enjoy!

Women’s Basketball

• DI AP Rankings… The latest AP Rankings (11-13-23) for D-I college women’s basketball now has South Carolina at #1 after being #6 in the preseason poll… The balance of the top 5 are Iowa, UCLA, Utah and Colorado… If you would like to see the entire top 25 in the AP Poll click here.
• DI Scores… If you would like to keep up with the latest scores in women’s DI basketball click here… Once you get to this posting on the NCAA website you can go back and look at recent scores by date and you can also look ahead at the upcoming schedule… You can even filter by conference or top 25… Enjoy!

Pro Sports: For more information on the game(s) below, click on the scores. 

NFL

• Scores and Schedules… If you would like to see the upcoming schedule of NFL games or check on scores for each week in the NFL season, click here to go to the NFL website where you can filter by week of the season to check on any of that and more.
• Standings… If you would like to see the standings for all of the NFL teams in both the AFC and NFC listed by division, click here.

NBA

• Scores… To see the latest scores in the NBA and games up next, click here
• Standings… To see the current standing and records in each of the NBA Conferences click here.

This & That: 

• 2023 Laurens YMCA Reindeer Run… The 24^th annual Laurens YMCA Reindeer run 5k and Fun Run will be held Saturday, Dec. 9^th… The cost to register for the 5K is $30 until Nov 19^th and $35 after that date…That is also the date you must register by to be guaranteed to get a race shirt… The Fun Run (ages 1-12) cost is $5 and again you must pay for a race shirt separately by Nov.19^th in the Fun Run… All proceeds go to support the Youth Scholarship Program and prizes will be awarded for the top two finishers male and female… Discounts for teams are also being offered… For more information call the Y at 984-2626… If you click here it will take you to the YMCA website where there is more information on the Reindeer Run and links to online registration.

• Laurens County TD Next Meeting December 13^th… The Laurens County Touchdown Club kicked off the 2023 season on Thursday, November 16^th… The club meets bi-weekly at The Ridge (City of Laurens Parks and Recreation headquarters) at noon for a lunch… Each week the high school coaches will talk about their recent games and upcoming opponents… After the first meeting, there will also be quest speakers… To see a list of who those speakers are scheduled to be for each meeting click here… The TD Club will close out its season on Wednesday, December 13^th with its Post Season Awards Banquet… For more information on how to join the club or become a sponsor click here… To go to another part of our website where links to videos of this seasons past meetings, click here… See you there!

• Laurens County Sports Hall of Fame Accepting Nominations for Class of 2024… The Laurens County Sports Hall of Fame is now accepting nominations until December 15^th for the class of 2024… It was created in 2017 to honor the men and women that, through sports, have brought pride and honor to Laurens County… To see the press release about this which list the criteria for this award click here… To learn more about the Laurens County Sports Hall of Fame including those who have already been inducted, go to their website by clicking here… To go directly to their nominating form, click here…. Remember nominations must be in by December 15^th.

If you have any comments, suggestions, or want to report scores, please contact me via email at: sports@wlbg.com or text me at 864-981-3470.

Sports Talk Media Network Morning Sportscast and Sports Talk Media High School Football Recap… To listen to these bonus sports broadcast, click here to go to the Between the Lines posting where the latest of these can be heard.

Clinton HS

• BHP 27 – Clinton 24… By now most of you know that the undefeated Bears of BHP took a 27-24 win up at BHP last Friday night to end the Red Devils season… If you were not there you missed a good one as two very good team went at each other like two heavy weight fighters neither one wanting to give up after being hit by a punch.
  • First Quarter… The Bears struck first as their all-everything running back Marquise Henderson scored on the Bears first play from scrimmage on a 40 yd. run to make it 7-0 with 10:06 left in the 1^st quarter… Neither team could hit a knockout punch in the remainder of the quarter
  • Second Quarter… Clinton scored on a 1 yd. run by Tray Cook with 11:43 left in the 2^nd quarter to cap a 65 yd. drive with Tushawn Richardson setting up the TD with a 27 yd. run to the BHP 1… Chris Boyd then picked off a BHP pass and Richardson connected with Zay Johnson on a 51 yd. pass that got down to the BHP 1… Again Tray Cook carried it in to make it 14-7 Red Devils… The Bears then added a 22 yd. field goal with 13 seconds left in the half to make it 14-10 Red Devils at the half.
  • Third Quarter…The Bears scored on the opening drive of the 3^rd quarter when M. Henderson carried it in from 32 yds. out to make it 17-14 Bears… The Red Devils then drove down the field and when the drive stalled at the BHP 9 yd. line, Keegan Fortman kicked a 26 yd. field goal to tie the game 17-17 with 1:14 left in the quarter.
  • Fourth Quarter… BHP then started a drive in the 3^rd quarter that ended at the Clinton 11 yd. line and they kicked a 28 yd. field goal to go up 20-17… after that score, the BHP defense scored when they intercepted a T. Richardson pass and carried it to the house with 3:33 left in the game to make it 27-17 Bears… The Red Devils certainly did not roll over at that point as T. Richardson led them back down the field and they score on a 29 yd. TD pass to Zay Johnson with 3:33 left in the game and Keegan Fortman was once again good on the PAT to make it 27-24 Bears… The Bears were then able to run out the clock and take the win.
  • Final Stats and Comments… If you would like to see the complete stat package on the game including a play-by-play accounting of the game click here… Coach Fountain was quick to point out after the game that the Red Devils had lost to a very good football team and that he was very proud of the way the team battled… He has every right to be as the JV team went undefeated this season and though they lose some seniors the future looks bright for the Red Devils next season… GO Big Red!

• Girls Basketball Starts Tonight…  The Red Devil girls’ basketball team will open their season tonight as they host the Red Devil Tipoff Tournament… I’m not sure who the first two teams are that will be playing at 6:00 pm but I can tell you that the Red Devils are scheduled to host the York Cougars tonight at 7:30… Go Big Red!

Laurens HS

• Girls Basketball: Raiders 62 – Blazers 33… The Lady Raider girls basketball team traveled to Woodruff HS Saturday morning to start their participation in the 2023 Coach Varner Tipoff Classic… Good news for Raider fans as the team started the season taking a 62-33 win over the Blazers of Greer Middle College… The game stayed close in the first half as the Raiders only led 26-20 at the half… The Raiders came out and played tough defense in the 3^rd quarter as they held the Blazers to just 2 points while they scored 12 to take a 38-22 lead into the 4^th quarter and were never really threatened after that… Junior Zoe Young Zoe Young used her height and aggressiveness going to the basket as she led the team with 20 points… Faith Jackson finished with 14 points, Keyoric Yeargin 11, Ty Jones 9, Taliya Ballard 4 and both Destiny Anderson and Mi’Angel Pitts both finished with 2 points each…. Up Next… The Raiders return to action tonight at 6:00 pm taking on Landrum in winners’ bracket game AT 6:00 PM AT Woodruff HS.

• Boys Basketball…The Raider boys’ basketball team will take to the court on today at 4:00 pm as they take on Dorman in the first game of the 2023 Impact Sports Invitational at Spartanburg Christian Academy… Tipoff is scheduled for 4:00 pm and this will be an excellent test for Coach Armond Flood and the Raiders at the start of the season… To see the tournament bracket / schedule click here… Good luck to the Raiders!

Laurens Academy… The Laurens Academy Crusaders opened up their season last Friday night traveling over to Anderson to take on the New Covenant Cavaliers.

• Girls: Cavaliers 52 – Crusaders 28… The Crusader girls’ team opened their season on a down note as they fell to the Cavaliers 52-38… The Cavaliers led 19-4 after one quarter of play and 32-8 at the half and then went on to the 52-28 win… They were led in scoring by Addison Caney who scored 12 points while the leading scorer for the Crusaders was Olivia Huck with 10 points… Others scoring for the Crusaders were Rylee Ballard with 6 points, Hanna Ervin and Emily Suttles with 4 points each and finally both Sadie Bruyere and Maddison Graham had 2 points each.
• Boys: Cavaliers 36 – Crusaders 25… The boys’ game was closer but I still have to report that the Crusaders fell by a score of 36-25… They trailed 23-14 at the half and then came out in the 3^rd quarter and outscored the Cavaliers 7-2 to make the score 25-21 Cavaliers going into the final 8 minutes of play but could get no closer… The Cavaliers Zane Fulmer led all scorers with 20 points… The leading scorer for the Crusaders was Garrett Murphy who finished with 10 points… Others scoring for the Crusaders were Brayden Burke & Jarred Willard 4 points each… Evan Asalone & Garrison Vaughn 3 points each and Buddy Baker finished with 4 points.
• MS Boys: Cavaliers 43 – Crusaders 24… In middle school boys’ action, the Cavilers took a 43-24 win over the Crusaders… The Cavaliers Chris Williams led all scorers with 18 points while Michael Straight led the Crusaders with 10 points.
• MS Girls: No score reported.
• Up Next: All the Crusader basketball teams are schedule to host Greenwood Christian tomorrow starting with middle school girls at 4:00 pm.

Upstate High School Football Scores From Last Friday (11-17-23) Night & Brackets (click on class to see the playoff bracket)

• Class AAAAA… Dutch Fork 35 – Gaffney 10 and JL Mann 21 – Hillcrest 13
• Class AAAA… Greenville 42 – Northwestern 21 and Westside 68 – Midland Valley 53
• Class AAA… Daniel 49 – Chester 20 and BHP 27 – Clinton 24
• Class AA…  Abbeville 16 – Silver Bluff 6 and Gray Colligate 35 – Strom Thurmond 31
• Class A… Christ Church 27 – Blackville-Hilda 7 and St Josephs 27 – Southside Christian 14

High School Football Scores, Schedules and Standings

• Thanks to scfootballstats.com you can now see last weekend’s scores for all games by classification on Saturday or Sunday and possibly Monday… After that you will see the weeks schedule by classification… You can also see the standings in each region by classification… To see this information, click here.

Sports Talk High School Football Recap

• To hear a recap of playoff football games around the state last Friday (11-17-23) produced by Sports Talk Media, click here.

SCHSL Notes

• SCHSL Executive Committee Voter to use Multiplier Rule… Yesterday the SCHSL executive committee voted on a plan which passes 12-4 to try to restore competitive balance to the league’s sports especially among schools in the lower A and AA classifications… They voted to take each student who lives outside a school’s attendance zone and multiple them by 3 for enrollment purposes thus inflating the school’s attendance figures and possibly raising them up a classification or two for athletics… This is in response to the fact that some private and charter schools are drawing in students from outside their attendance zone and thus possible getting an unfair advantage in quality of players… Gray Colligate is one school in the Columbia area that has run into the problem of other schools in their region not playing them because of this… Thus out-of-zone multiplier will apply to all schools in the SCHSL nit just private and charter schools… Lou Bezak with the State Newspaper has written an article about this, and it has more information in it you most likely will be interested in… To see that article click here.

• SCHSL Taking Suggestions on Competitive Balance… A lot has been said around the state about the apparent fact that charter schools and private school seem to have a competitive edge and are having greater success especially in the lower classification… In the case of Gray Colligate in Columbia, some schools have decided to forfeit their games with the school in multiple sports… The SCHSL has formed a competitive balance committee to look into this and they will be reporting to the leagues executive committee on this matter soon… Lou Bezak has written an interesting article in the State Newspaper about some of the suggestion s that may come out of this committee and be reported to the executive committee… If you would like to read this article, click here… These ideas could affect schools like Thornwell, Calhoun Falls, Christ Church, Southside Christian and St Joseph’s in our area should they come to pass.

• Football Finals Moved to SC STATE… Recently it was announced that this year’s State Championship games will be played at Oliver C. Dawson Stadium on the Campus of SC State University in Orangeburg… To read the press release about this move click here… With that being said the dates and times of the five championship games have also been announced and are as follows:
  • November 30: Class 2A – 7 pm
    December 1: Class 1A – 2 pm and Class 5A – 8 pm
    December 2: Class 4A – 12 pm and Class 3A – 7 pm

Local Sports Schedule: [Read more…]

Sports Talk Media Network Morning Sportscast and Sports Talk Media High School Football Recap… To listen to these bonus sports broadcast, click here to go to the Between the Lines posting where the latest of these can be heard.

 Local Notes

Clinton HS

• Clinton at BHP…The Clinton Red Devils will be on the road for the first time in the playoffs tonight as they travel to BHP to take on the Bears…The Bears come into the contest with a perfect 12-0 record having finished first in their region…. They are coming off a 44-28 win over Pendleton last Friday night at home.
  • The Bears are averaging 52.1 points per game and giving up 18.2 points per game… The Red Devils are averaging 40.6 points per game and giving up 16.8 points per game.
  • BHP and Clinton have had 4 common opponents…. They are Emerald, Laurens, Palmetto and Woodruff… They both defeated all 4 schools by similar margins… If you would like to see the schedule for both teams in a side-by-side comparison, click here.
  • The Red Devil offense will need to find a way to neutralize the Bears Shrine Bowl linebacker Omari Jackson who is very good at putting pressure on the opponents quarterback.
  • Offensively, the Bears running back Marquise Henderson is averaging 162.3 yds. per game and has 32 rushing TDs on the season… Their quarterback Noah Thomas is completing 69.2% of his passes for an average of 127 yds. per game and has thrown 22 TD passes… Wide receiver Quay Alexander has 57 receptions this season averaging 64.3 yds. per game and has caught 8 TD passes.
  • For more information on the Bears click not only on the link mentioned above (click here) but also click here for more BHP stats.
• Ticket Information… Tickets can be purchased at the gate tonight for $10 CASH ONLY… You can also skip the line at the ticket booth and purchase your tickets online… In order to do that, click here… The gates will open at 6:00 pm… Also remember that only SCHSL passes will be accepted… One last note, GO BIG RED!

Other Upper State Playoff Games Tonight

• Class AAAAA: Gaffney at Dutch Fork and Hillcrest at JL Mann
• Class AAAA: Greenville at Northwestern and Westside at Midland Valley
• Class AAA: Chester at Daniel… To see the Class AAA bracket click here.
• Class AA: Silver Bluff at Abbeville and Strom Thurmond at Gray Collegiate
• Class A: Blackville Hilda at Christ Church and St Josephs at Southside Christian

High School Football Scores, Schedules and Standings

• Thanks to scfootballstats.com you can now see last weekend’s scores for all games by classification on Saturday or Sunday and possibly Monday… After that you will see the weeks schedule by classification… You can also see the standings in each region by classification… To see this information, click here.

Laurens HS

• Raider Girls Basketball Team Starts Play in Varner Tipoff Classic… The basketball season is upon us as evidenced by the fact that the Laurens Raider girls varsity basketball game will start their participation in the 2023 Coach Varner Tipoff Classic at Woodruff HS tomorrow… The Raiders will open play at 10:00 am against Greer Middle College… They will continue play next week either at Woodruff HS or at the Woodruff Activity Center depending on whether they will or lose… To see the schedule for the tournament click here… Good luck to Coach Michael Cade and the Raiders.
• Raider Boys Basketball Starts Monday… The Raider boys’ basketball team will take to the court on Monday at 4:00 pm as they take on Dorman in the first game of the 2023 Impact Sports Invitational at Spartanburg Christian Academy… Tipoff is scheduled for 4:00 pm and this will be an excellent test for Coach Armond Flood and the Raiders at the start of the season… To see the tournament bracket / schedule click here… Good luck to the Raiders.

SCHSL Notes

• SCHSL Executive Committee Voter to use Multiplier Rule… Yesterday the SCHSL executive committee voted on a plan which passes 12-4 to try to restore competitive balance to the leagues sports especially among schools in the lower A and AA classifications… They voted to take each student who lives outside a school’s attendance zone and multiple them by 3 for enrollment purposes thus inflating the school’s attendance figures and possibly raising them up a classification or two for athletics… This is in response to the fact that some private and charter schools are drawing in students from outside their attendance zone and thus possible getting an unfair advantage in quality of players… Gray Colligate is one school in the Columbia area that has run into the problem of other schools in their region not playing them because of this… Thus out-of-zone multiplier will apply to all schools in the SCHSL nit just private and charter schools… Lou Bezak with the State Newspaper has written an article about this and it has more information in it you most likely will be interested in… To see that article click here.

• SCHSL Taking Suggestions on Competitive Balance… A lot has been said around the state about the apparent fact that charter schools and private school seem to have a competitive edge and are having greater success especially in the lower classification… In the case of Gray Colligate in Columbia, some schools have decided to forfeit their games with the school in multiple sports… The SCHSL has formed a competitive balance committee to look into this and they will be reporting to the leagues executive committee on this matter soon… Lou Bezak has written an interesting article in the State Newspaper about some of the suggestion s that may come out of this committee and be reported to the executive committee… If you would like to read this article, click here… These ideas could affect schools like Thornwell, Calhoun Falls, Christ Church, Southside Christian and St Joseph’s in our area should they come to pass.

•  Football Finals Moved to SC STATE… Recently it was announced that this year’s State Championship games will be played at Oliver C. Dawson Stadium on the Campus of SC State University in Orangeburg… To read the press release about this move click here… With that being said the dates and times of the five championship games have also been announced and are as follows:
  • November 30: Class 2A – 7 pm
    December 1: Class 1A – 2 pm and Class 5A – 8 pm
    December 2: Class 4A – 12 pm and Class 3A – 7 pm

Local Sports Schedule: [Read more…]

Sports Talk Media Network Morning Sportscast and Sports Talk Media High School Football Recap… To listen to these bonus sports broadcast, click here to go to the Between the Lines posting where the latest of these can be heard.

SCHSL Notes

• SCHSL Executive Committee Voter to use Multiplier Rule… Yesterday the SCHSL executive committee voted on a plan which passes 12-4 to try to restore competitive balance to the league’s sports especially among schools in the lower A and AA classifications… They voted to take each student who lives outside a school’s attendance zone and multiple them by 3 for enrollment purposes thus inflating the school’s attendance figures and possibly raising them up a classification or two for athletics… This is in response to the fact that some private and charter schools are drawing in students from outside their attendance zone and thus possible getting an unfair advantage in quality of players… Gray Colligate is one school in the Columbia area that has run into the problem of other schools in their region not playing them because of this… Thus out-of-zone multiplier will apply to all schools in the SCHSL nit just private and charter schools… Lou Bezak with the State Newspaper has written an article about this, and it has more information in it you most likely will be interested in… To see that article click here.

• SCHSL Taking Suggestions on Competitive Balance… A lot has been said around the state about the apparent fact that charter schools and private school seem to have a competitive edge and are having greater success especially in the lower classification… In the case of Gray Colligate in Columbia, some schools have decided to forfeit their games with the school in multiple sports… The SCHSL has formed a competitive balance committee to look into this and they will be reporting to the leagues executive committee on this matter soon… Lou Bezak has written an interesting article in the State Newspaper about some of the suggestion s that may come out of this committee and be reported to the executive committee… If you would like to read this article, click here… These ideas could affect schools like Thornwell, Calhoun Falls, Christ Church, Southside Christian and St Joseph’s in our area should they come to pass.

•  Football Finals Moved to SC STATE… Recently it was announced that this year State Championship game will be played at Oliver C. Dawson Stadium on the Campus of SC State University in Orangeburg… To read the press release about this move click here… With that being said the dates and times of the five championship games have also been announced and are as follows:
  • November 30: Class 2A – 7 pm
    December 1: Class 1A – 2 pm and Class 5A – 8 pm
    December 2: Class 4A – 12 pm and Class 3A – 7 pm

Local Notes

Laurens HS

• Raiders Place 9 on All-Region Team… After the last team in Class AAAA Region 2 Greer was eliminated from the playoffs last Friday night when they lost to Greenville 26-21, the All-Region2- AAAA Team, Player of the year and Coach of the Year were released… The Raiders placed 9 players on that team.
  • Offense… On offense the Raiders have 5 players…. They are quarterback Nick Danciu (12), wide receivers Josh Goodwin (11) & Nick Fowler (12), offensive linemen Myles ray (12) and Daniel (Chevis) Baker (12).
  • Defense… On defense the Raiders have 3 players… They are defensive lineman Malik Jackson (12), linebacker Ja’Mauri Williams (11) and defensive back Javaye Suber (11).
  • Special Teams… The Raiders also had one player to make it on special teams and that is Brock Franklin (10) who made it as a kicker.
  • Other Information / Awards… The Region Player of the Year is Greer quarterback Chris Hall and the Coach of the Year is Will Young of Greer… If you would like to see a complete listing of the Region 2-AAAA All-Region Team, click here… Congratulations to these fine young men!

High School Football Scores, Schedules and Standings

• Thanks to scfootballstats.com you can now see last weekend’s scores for all games by classification on Saturday or Sunday and possibly Monday… After that you will see the weeks schedule by classification… You can also see the standings in each region by classification… To see this information, click here.

Sports Talk High School Football Recap

• To hear a recap of playoff football games around the state last Friday (11-10-23) produced by Sports Talk Media, click here.

Local Sports Schedule: [Read more…]

Sports Talk Media Network Morning Sportscast and Sports Talk Media High School Football Recap… To listen to these bonus sports broadcast, click here to go to the Between the Lines posting where the latest of these can be heard.

SCHSL Taking Suggestions on Competitive Balance… A lot has been said around the state about the apparent fact that charter schools and private school seem to have a competitive edge and are having greater success especially in the lower classification… In the case of Gray Colligate in Columbia, some schools have decided to forfeit their games with the school in multiple sports… The SCHSL has formed a competitive balance committee to look into this and they will be reporting to the leagues executive committee on this matter soon… Lou Bezak has written an interesting article in the State Newspaper about some of the suggestion s that may come out of this committee and be reported to the executive committee… If you would like to read this article, click here… These ideas could affect schools like Thornwell, Calhoun Falls, Christ Church, Southside Christian and St Joseph’s in our area should they come to pass.

Local Notes

Clinton HS

• Aumar Robinson Named TD Club Player of the Week… Yesterday the Laurens County Touchdown Club announced that Clinton senior defensive end Aumar Robinson has been name the Player of the Week for his performance in the Red Devils 38-7 win over Broome last Friday night in second round action of the SCHSL Class AAA Playoffs… He had 5.5 tackles for the Red Devil defense; three tackles for loss; three quarterback sacks and two quarterback hurries holding Broome to seven points after coming into the contest scoring over 40 points per game… Coach Corey Fountain stated, “Aumar was our leading Devil defensive player Friday night.  He has matured as a person and a player…  Aumar has worked tremendously hard in the weight room and on the practice field to become a starter on defense…  He spent every day on the scout team the past three years trying to wreak havoc on the starting defense…  I’m sure at times he may have gotten frustrated but he kept coming to practice giving everything he had to give every day…  It has been awesome to see him transition into the starting rotation this year.” He will be honored this Thursday when the TD Club meets at noon at The Ridge on exchange Drive… It will be the annual Clemson – South Carolina meting with former USC football great, former NFL player and Pro Bowler Patrick DiMarco speaking for the Gamecocks and former Clemson University football great and current assistant coach of the Tigers, Coach Danny Pearman speaking for the Tigers.

• Girls Tennis Team Region Awards… As a reminder, the Lady Red Devil tennis team finished their region schedule undefeated and thus won the region… They did lose out in the playoff to BHP… Recently the All-Region Awards were released and as you might expect the Red Devils were prominent among those awards… Chandler Dailey, Libby Dailey, Kimora Wesley and Carley MacMillan were named to the All-Region Team… Chandley Dailey was also named the Player of the Year… As you might expect, Coach Clovis Simmons was also named the Region Coach of the Year… If you would like to see other who made the All-Region Team and the order of finish for each region team, click here… Congratulations to these outstanding young ladies and Coach Simmons… GO BIG RED!

• Red Devil Boys Cross Country Finishes 6^th at State Meet… Last Friday the Red Devil boys cross country team was one of 16 teams competing fort eh SCHSL Class AAA State Championship… The Red Devils had their highest finish ever as they finished 6^th with Wren winning the Championship… The team was led by junior William Reid who finished with a time of 16:50 putting him in 12th place and earned him a spot on the All-State Team… If you would like to see not only how the other Red Devil runners did but also comments from Coach Lee Atkinson and the order of finish and score of all 16 teams, click here… Congratulations to the Red Devils on the fine season and showing in the State Meet!   GO BIG RED!

Laurens HS

• Raiders Place 9 on All-Region Team… After the last team in Class AAAA Region 2 Greer was eliminated from the playoffs last Friday night when they lost to Greenville 26-21, the All-Region2- AAAA Team, Player of the year and Coach of the Year were released… The Raiders placed 9 players on that team.
  • Offense… On offense the Raiders have 5 players…. They are quarterback Nick Danciu (12), wide receivers Josh Goodwin (11) & Nick Fowler (12), offensive linemen Myles ray (12) and Daniel (Chevis) Baker (12).
  • Defense… On defense the Raiders have 3 players… They are defensive lineman Malik Jackson (12), linebacker Ja’Mauri Williams (11) and defensive back Javaye Suber (11).
  • Special Teams… The Raiders also had one player to make it on special teams and that is Brock Franklin (10) who made it as a kicker.
  • Other Information / Awards… The Region Player of the Year is Greer quarterback Chris Hall and the Coach of the Year is Will Young of Greer… If you would like to see a complete listing of the Region 2-AAAA All-Region Team, click here… Congratulations to these fine young men!

• Two Raiders Finish Well at State AAAA Meet… Also last Friday the SCHSL State Class AAAA Championship Meet was held… The Raiders did not qualify as a team for the meet but two Raiders Cody Patterson and Hunter Power did qualify individually for the meet and finished well… There were 118 runners in the boys’ portion of the meet and sophomore Cody Patterson finished 24^th overall with a time of 17:16 while freshman Hunter Power finished 27^th overall with a time of 17:18… By the way, these times were the season’s best time for both runners…If you would like to see how the other runners in the meet did and the order of finish for the 16 teams who qualified for the meet, click here.

High School Football Scores, Schedules and Standings

• Thanks to scfootballstats.com you can now see last weekend’s scores for all games by classification on Saturday or Sunday and possibly Monday… After that you will see the weeks schedule by classification… You can also see the standings in each region by classification… To see this information, click here.

Sports Talk High School Football Recap

• To hear a recap of playoff football games around the state last Friday (11-10-23) produced by Sports Talk Media, click here.

Local Sports Schedule: [Read more…]

Sports Talk Media Network Morning Sportscast and Sports Talk Media High School Football Recap… To listen to these bonus sports broadcast, click here to go to the Between the Lines posting where the latest of these can be heard.

SCHSL Taking Suggestions on Competitive Balance… A lot has been said around the state about the apparent fact that charter schools and private school seem to have a competitive edge and are having greater success especially in the lower classification… In the case of Gray Colligate in Columbia, some schools have decided to forfeit their games with the school in multiple sports… The SCHSL has formed a competitive balance committee to look into this and they will be reporting to the leagues executive committee on this matter soon… Lou Bezak has written an interesting article in the State Newspaper about some of the suggestions that may come out of this committee and be reported to the executive committee… If you would like to read this article, click here… These ideas could affect schools like Thornwell, Calhoun Falls, Christ Church, Southside Christian and St Joseph’s in our area should they come to pass.

Local Notes

Clinton HS

• Aumar Robinson Named TD Club Player of the Week… Yesterday the Laurens County Touchdown Club announced that Clinton senior defensive end Aumar Robinson has been name the Player of the Week for his performance in the Red Devils 38-7 win over Broome last Friday night in second round action of the SCHSL Class AAA Playoffs… He had 5.5 tackles for the Red Devil defense; three tackles for loss; three quarterback sacks and two quarterback hurries holding Broome to seven points after coming into the contest scoring over 40 points per game… Coach Corey Fountain stated, “Aumar was our leading Devil defensive player Friday night.  He has matured as a person and a player…  Aumar has worked tremendously hard in the weight room and on the practice field to become a starter on defense…  He spent every day on the scout team the past three years trying to wreak havoc on the starting defense…  I’m sure at times he may have gotten frustrated but he kept coming to practice giving everything he had to give every day…  It has been awesome to see him transition into the starting rotation this year.” He will be honored this Thursday when the TD Club meets at noon at The Ridge on exchange Drive… It will be the annual Clemson – South Carolina meting with former USC football great, former NFL player and Pro Bowler Patrick DiMarco speaking for the Gamecocks and former Clemson University football great and current assistant coach of the Tigers, Coach Danny Pearman speaking for the Tigers.

• Girls Tennis Team Region Awards… As a reminder, the lady Red Devil tennis team finished their region schedule undefeated and thus won the region… They did lose out in the playoff to BHP… Recently the All-Region Awards were released and as you might expect the Red Devils were prominent among those awards… Chandler Dailey, Libby Dailey, Kimora Wesley and Carley MacMillan were named to the All-Region Team… Chandley Dailey was also named the Player of the Year… As you might expect, Coach Clovis Simmons was also named the Region Coach of the Year… If you would like to see other who made the All-Region Team and the order of finish for each region team, click here… Congratulations to these outstanding young ladies and Coach Simmons… GO BIG RED!

• Red Devil Boys Cross Country Finishes 6^th at State Meet… Last Friday the Red Devil boys cross country team was one of 16 teams competing fort eh SCHSL Class AAA State Championship… The Red Devils had their highest finish ever as they finished 6^th with Wren winning the Championship… The team was led by junior William Reid who finished with a time of 16:50 putting him in 12th place and earned him a spot on the All-State Team… If you would like to see not only how the other Red Devil runners did but also comments from Coach Lee Atkinson and the order of finish and score of all 16 teams, click here… Congratulations to the Red Devils on the fine season and showing in the State Meet!   GO BIG RED!

Laurens HS

• Two Raiders Finish Well at State AAAA Meet… Also last Friday the SCHSL State Class AAAA Championship Meet was held… The Raiders did not qualify as a team for the meet but two Raiders Cody Patterson and Hunter Power did qualify individually for the meet and finished well… There were 118 runners in the boys’ portion of the meet and sophomore Cody Patterson finished 24^th overall with a time of 17:16 while freshman Hunter Power finished 27^th overall with a time of 17:18… By the way, these times were the season’s best time for both runners…If you would like to see how the other runners in the meet did and the order of finish for the 16 teams who qualified for the meet, click here.

High School Football Scores, Schedules and Standings

• Thanks to scfootballstats.com you can now see last weekend’s scores for all games by classification on Saturday or Sunday and possibly Monday… After that you will see the weeks schedule by classification… You can also see the standings in each region by classification… To see this information, click here.

Sports Talk High School Football Recap

• To hear a recap of playoff football games around the state last Friday (11-10-23) produced by Sports Talk Media, click here.

Local Sports Schedule: [Read more…]

Sports Talk Media Network Morning Sportscast and Sports Talk Media High School Football Recap… To listen to these bonus sports broadcast, click here to go to the Between the Lines posting where the latest of these can be heard.

SCHSL Taking Suggestions on Competitive Balance… A lot has been said around the state about the apparent fact that charter schools and private school seem to have a competitive edge and are having greater success especially in the lower classification… In the case of Gray Colligate in Columbia, some schools have decided to forfeit their games with the school in multiple sports… The SCHSL has formed a competitive balance committee to look into this and they will be reporting to the leagues executive committee on this matter soon… Lou Bezak has written an interesting article in the State Newspaper about some of the suggestions that may come out of this committee and be reported to the executive committee… If you would like to read this article, click here… These ideas could affect schools like Thornwell, Calhoun Falls, Christ Church, Southside Christian and St Joseph’s in our area should they come to pass.

Local Notes

Clinton HS

• Clinton 38 – Broome 7… The Red Devils got the ball first in the playoff game last Friday night at Wilder Stadium against the Brome Centurions and after picking up just 14 yds. were forced to punt… That would be the last time Luke Kuykendall would punt as the Red Devils would score the next 6 times they had the ball and roll to a 38-7 win over the Centurions… The Red Devil defense held the Centurions to minus – 6 yards rushing and 235 yds. passing for a total of 229 yds. of offense while the Red Devils rushed for 181 yds. and 155 passing to give them a total of 336 yds. of offense…The Centurions had been averaging 43 points per game and giving up just 20 points per game, so the Red Devil offense and defense shredded those averages… The Centurions only score came in the opening drive of the third quarter on a 74 yd. pass from their quarterback Kamajay Brackett-Brannon competed a 74 yd. TD pass to Brayden Simpson.
  • Second Quarter…The Red Devils first score came with 11:12 left in the 2^nd quarter on a 7 yd. run with Keegan Fortman adding the PAT… Clinton scored again after Tushawn Richardson completed a 42 yd. pass to Zay Johnson which put the ball at the Broome 4 yd. line… Tray Cook carries it in from there and Fortman’s PAT making it 14-0 with 5:50 left in the half… Clinton scored again with 3 seconds left in the half when Richardson carried it in from the 6 yd. line to cap a 69 yd. drive… Fortman’s PPAT made it 21-0 Clinton at the half.
  • Third Quarter… The third quarter started with Broome getting their only TD on a 74 yd. pass as mentioned above… Clinton then drove 55 yds. with Zane McClendon scoring from the 1 yd. line and Fortman’s PAT was good to make it 28-7 Red Devils with 9:34 left in the quarter… After the Red Devil defense forced the Centurions 3 and out, the Red Devils drove to the Broome 8 where the drive stalled and Fortman kicked a 25 yd. field goal to make it 31-7 Red Devils with 4:11 left in the quarter.
  • Fourth Quarter… Early in the fourth quarter Broome drove down to the Red Devil 3 yd. line but a couple of penalties on the Centurions plus their quarterback being tackled for a loss on a couple of plays caused them to turn the ball over on downs at the Clinton 42 yd. line… Clinton scored 8 plays later when Richardson carried it in from the 3 and Fortman’s PAT made it 38-7 Red Devils with 5:35 left in the game… Broome was able to get to the Clinton 30 yd. line with seconds left in the game but missed a 47 yd. field goal attempt.
  • Summary… Tushawn Richardson finished the night with just 18 yds. rushing but scored 2 TDs (he went 10-14 passing for 155 yds… Tray Cook finished with 85 yd. rushing and 1 TD, DJ Clark had 1 TD and 44 yds. rushing and finally Zane McClendon had 28 yds. rushing and 1 TD… Kadon Crawford caught 6 passes for 102 yds. to be the leading receiver… Click here to see the complete stat package and play-by-play accounting of the game.
  • Next… The Red Devils will travel to BHP to take on the undefeated Bears in round 3 of the playoffs this Friday night at 7:30… GO BIG RED!

Laurens Academy

• Madison Sherman Signs… Last Thursday at Laurens Academy in front of family, friends, teammates and others, Madison Sherman signed a letter of intent to continue her education and volleyball career up at North Greenville University playing for another set of Crusaders… Coach Todd Kirk told all present of the work and dedication both on the court and off the court it took for her to get to this point… He also thanked the family for their tremendous support of her… She has been a significant part of the Crusader volleyball team and helped them to win the last two SCISA Class A Volleyball Championships… She has received numerous awards through her career that was capped off by her being named to and playing for the SCISA North Class A Volleyball All-Star team which lost only to a Class AAAA All-Star Team by just a couple of points… Click here to see a video interview done with her after the signing followed by a few pictures… Congratulations to Madison!

Other Area Football Scores Last Friday of Local Interest

• Class AAAAA
  • Dutch Fork 31 – TL Hanna 28
  • Gaffney 24 – Clover 12
  • JL Mann 17 – Spartanburg 7
  • Hillcrest 27 –  Byrnes 24
• Class AAAA
  • Greenville 26 – Greer 21
  • Northwestern 56 – Greenwood 7
  • Westside 49 – York 13
• Class AAA
  • Daniel 35 – Wren 21
  • Chester 58 – Chapman 24
  • BHP 44 – Pendleton 28.
• Class AA
  •  Abbeville 41 – Newberry 28
  • Strom Thurmond 53 – Keenan 20
  • Gray Colligate 62 – Chesnee 14
• Class A
  • Christ Church 43 – McBee 21
  • Southside Christian 21 – Calhoun County 7
  • St Josephs 7 – Lewisville 0

High School Football Scores, Schedules and Standings

• Thanks to scfootballstats.com you can now see last weekend’s scores for all games by classification on Saturday or Sunday and possibly Monday… After that you will see the weeks schedule by classification… You can also see the standings in each region by classification… To see this information, click here.

Sports Talk High School Football Recap

• To hear a recap of playoff football games around the state last Friday (11-10-23) produced by Sports Talk Media, click here.

Local Sports Schedule: [Read more…]

Sports Talk Media Network Morning Sportscast and Sports Talk Media High School Football Recap… To listen to these bonus sports broadcast, click here to go to the Between the Lines posting where the latest of these can be heard.

SCHSL Taking Suggestions on Competitive Balance… A lot has been said around the state about the apparent fact that charter schools and private school seem to have a competitive edge and are having greater success especially in the lower classification… In the case of Gray Colligate in Columbia, some schools have decided to forfeit their games with the school in multiple sports… The SCHSL has formed a competitive balance committee to look into this and they will be reporting to the leagues executive committee on this matter soon… Lou Bezak has written an interesting article in the State Newspaper about some of the suggestions that may come out of this committee and be reported to the executive committee… If you would like to read this article, click here… These ideas could affect schools like Thornwell, Calhoun Falls, Christ Church, Southside Christian and St Joseph’s in our area should they come to pass.

Local Notes

Clinton HS

• Broome at Clinton Tonight… The Red Devils are the only high school still playing and they are set to host the Broome Centurions tonight at 7:30 in Wilder Stadium… Both teams enter the contest with a 9-2 record and faced 3 common opponents this season… Both lost to Chapman (Broome 38-35 and Clinton 22-21) but both defeated Union County and Woodruff by similar margins… If you want to see a side-by-side comparison of the two teams that includes their schedules and results, click here… Go Big Red!
• Ticket Reminder… As per SCHSL Rules, the cost of tickets tonight will be $10… You can purchase tickets at the gate (cash only) or you can purchase them online and if you wish to do that click here… Also remember that only SCHSL passes will be accepted, anyone over the age of 6 must have a ticket to enter the game and the parking pass that came with season tickets will still be honored but you must purchase a ticket to get in.
• Cross Country… I want to wish the Red Devil boys’ cross country team Good Luck as they participate in the State Class AAA Meet this weekend… Go Big Red!

Laurens HS

•  Boys Cross Country… Two member of the Raider boys’ crops country team qualified for the State Class AAAA Championship Meet this weekend… They are Cody Patterson and Hunter Power… Good Luck to them also… Go Raiders!

Laurens Academy

• Madison Sherman Signs… Yesterday at Laurens Academy in front of family, friends, teammates and others, Madison Sherman signed a letter of intent to continue her education and volleyball career up at North Greenville University playing for another set of Crusaders… Coach Todd Kirk told all present of the work and dedication both on the court and off the court it took for her to get to this point… He also thanked the family for their tremendous support of her… She has been a significant part of the Crusader volleyball team and helped them to win the last two SCISA Class A Volleyball Championships… She has received numerous awards through her career that was capped off by her being named to and playing for the SCISA North Class A Volleyball All-Star team which lost only to a Class AAAA All-Star Team by just a couple of points… Click here to see a video interview done with her after the signing followed by a few pictures… Congratulations to Madison!

Other Area Football Games Tonight of Local Interest

• Class AAAAA
  • Dutch Fork @ TL Hanna
  • Gaffney @ Clover
  • Spartanburg @ JL Mann
  • Hillcrest @ Byrnes
• Class AAAA
  • Greenville @ Greer
  • Greenwood @ Northwestern
  • York @ Westside
• Class AAA
  • Wren @ Daniel
  • Chester @ Chapman
  • Pendleton @ BHP… The winner of this game will play the winner of the Broome @ Clinton game.
• Class AA
  •  Newberry @ Abbeville
  • Keenan @ Strom Thurmond
  • Chesnee @ Gray Colligate
• Class A
  • McBee @ Christ Church
  • Southside Christian @ Calhoun County
  • St Joseph’s @ Lewisville

High School Football Scores, Schedules and Standings

• Thanks to scfootballstats.com you can now see last weekend’s scores for all games by classification on Saturday or Sunday and possibly Monday… After that you will see the weeks schedule by classification… You can also see the standings in each region by classification… To see this information, click here.

Sports Talk High School Football Recap

• To hear a recap of playoff football games around the state last weekend produced by Sports Talk Media, click here.

Local Sports Schedule: [Read more…]

Sports Talk Media Network Morning Sportscast and Sports Talk Media High School Football Recap… To listen to these bonus sports broadcast, click here to go to the Between the Lines posting where the latest of these can be heard.

SCHSL Taking Suggestions on Competitive Balance… A lot has been said around the state about the apparent fact that charter schools and private school seem to have a competitive edge and are having greater success especially in the lower classification… In the case of Gray Colligate in Columbia, some schools have decided to forfeit their games with the school in multiple sports… The SCHSL has formed a competitive balance committee to look into this and they will be reporting to the leagues executive committee on this matter soon… Lou Bezak has written an interesting article in the State Newspaper about some of the suggestions that may come out of this committee and be reported to the executive committee… If you would like to read this article, click here… These ideas could affect schools like Thornwell, Calhoun Falls, Christ Church, Southside Christian and St Joseph’s in our area should they come to pass.

Local Notes

Clinton HS

• Cross Country Participates in Class AAA Qualifier… Last Friday the Red Devil cross country teams participated in the Class AAA qualifier at the PD Johnson Farm down in Newberry
  • Boys Finish Third… Where the Red Devil boys’ team is concerned, there is good news as they finished third in the meet thus qualifying for the AAA State Championship Meet this Friday back in Newberry again… The Red finished with a score of 85 behind Travelers Rest (52) and Waccamaw (72)… The Red Devils had 4 runners who finished in the top 20 overall… They are William Reid 3^rd (16:40), Sam Gearheart 10^th (17:34), Hayden Stinson 18^th (18:03) and Gage Dominic 19^th (18:06)… If you would like more details on the meet including how other Red Devil runners did. click here
  • Girls Fall Short… The news is not quite as good where the Lady Red Devils are concerned as they finished 13^th in their group and therefore did not qualify as a team or individually for the State Meet this Friday… The Red Devils were led by Skyler Collins who finished the course in 23:43 and Marissa Brewer in 25:46… To see how the other teams finished and how the other runners did for the Lady Red Devils click here…. Congratulations to the boys and girls team for their participation in the meet!

Laurens HS

Competition Cheer… The Raiders had a completive cheer team this season and in order to be on that you also had to do sideline cheer as per SCHSL rules… A few notes on the team:

• Four Raiders Make All-Region Team… Four members of the Raider team made the 2023 All-Region 2 AAA Team… They are Jakelya Butler, Kyler Ross, Mary Frances Kennedy and Marley Benson.
• Patterson Coach of the Year… Also Erin Patterson was named the 2023 Region 2AAAA Coach of the Year in Competitive Cheer… Congratulations to Coach Patterson and these 4 young ladies on these honors in the teams’ first year of existence!

Boys Cross Country

• Patterson Makes All-Region Team…  Yesterday I reported that Cody Patterson and Hunter Power are members of the Raider cross country team that qualified for the State Championship Meet this coming weekend…. Today I can also tell you that Cody Patterson was named to The Region 2-AAAA All-Region Cross Country Team…Congratulations to Cody!

Girls Golf

• Bryson Named to All-Region Team… The Raider girls’ golf team had one of its members make the All-Region team this season… That player is Bryson Crawford… Congratulations to Bryson!

Girls Tennis

• Little and Todd Pickup Region Honors… The Raiders also placed a player on the 2023 All-Region 2 AAAA Tennis Team… That player is Kelsie Little… Also the Raiders tennis coach Lynn Todd was named as the Region 2 AAAA Girls Tennis Coach of the Year… Congratulations to Kelsie and Coach Todd!

Laurens County TD Club… The Laurens County Touchdown Club met last Thursday at noon at The Ridge… In addition to the local coaches talking about recent games and upcoming playoff games, the featured speaker will be former Clemson University and Pittsburgh Steeler great Levon Kirkland.  Kirkland currently is the Vice President of Development for the South Carolina Football Hall of Fame… To see a video of this meeting click here.

High School Football Scores, Schedules and Standings

• Thanks to scfootballstats.com you can now see last weekend’s scores for all games by classification on Saturday or Sunday and possibly Monday… After that you will see the weeks schedule by classification… You can also see the standings in each region by classification… To see this information, click here.

Sports Talk High School Football Recap

• To hear a recap of playoff football games around the state last weekend produced by Sports Talk Media, click here.

Area Varsity Football Results from 11-3-23… To see a recap of are football results from last Friday night click here.

Local Sports Schedule: [Read more…]

Sports Talk Media Network Morning Sportscast and Sports Talk Media High School Football Recap… To listen to these bonus sports broadcast, click here to go to the Between the Lines posting where the latest of these can be heard.

SCHSL Taking Suggestions on Competitive Balance… A lot has been said around the state about the apparent fact that charter schools and private school seem to have a competitive edge and are having greater success especially in the lower classification… In the case of Gray Colligate in Columbia, some schools have decided to forfeit their games with the school in multiple sports… The SCHSL has formed a competitive balance committee to look into this and they will be reporting to the leagues executive committee on this matter soon… Lou Bezak has written an interesting article in the State Newspaper about some of the suggestions that may come out of this committee and be reported to the executive committee… If you would like to read this article, click here… These ideas could affect schools like Thornwell, Calhoun Falls, Christ Church, Southside Christian and St Joseph’s in our area should they come to pass.

Local Notes

Clinton HS

• Cross Country Participates in Class AAA Qualifier… Last Friday the Red Devil cross country teams participated in the Class AAA qualifier at the PD Johnson Farm down in Newberry
  • Boys Finish Third… Where the Red Devil boys’ team is concerned, there is good news as they finished third in the meet thus qualifying for the AAA State Championship Meet this Friday back in Newberry again… The Red finished with a score of 85 behind Travelers Rest (52) and Waccamaw (72)… The Red Devils had 4 runners who finished in the top 20 overall… They are William Reid 3^rd (16:40), Sam Gearheart 10^th (17:34), Hayden Stinson 18^th (18:03) and Gage Dominic 19^th (18:06)… If you would like more details on the meet including how other Red Devil runners did. click here
  • Girls Fall Short… The news is not quite as good where the Lady Red Devils are concerned as they finished 13^th in their group and therefore did not qualify as a team or individually for the State Meet this Friday… The Red Devils were led by Skyler Collins who finished the course in 23:43 and Marissa Brewer in 25:46… To see how the other teams finished and how the other runners did for the Lady Red Devils click here…. Congratulations to the boys’ and girls’ team for their participation in the meet!

 Laurens HS

• Boys Cross Country
  • Two Raiders Qualify for Cross Country Championship Meet… The Raider boys’ cross country team was also in action last Friday in the State AAAA Qualifier also held in Newberry… As a team, the Raiders finished 9^th in their group just missing the mark to qualify as a team to qualify for the State AAAA Championship Meet this weekend… However, the Raiders had two runners finish in the top 20 thus qualifying individually for the State AAAA Championship Meet… They are Cody Patterson who finished 18^th with a time of 17:20 and Hunter Power who finished 19^th with a season best time of 17:22… If you would like to see how the other Raider runners did, click here… Congratulations to Cody and to Hunter!

• JV Football Takes Region Crown… The Raider JV football team finished its season with a 4-5 overall record after getting off to a very slow start… The team started to peak just about the time that they started their region schedule which they finished with a 3-1 record thus winning the Region Championship… They defeated Eastside 42-28, Wade Hampton 28-18 and Greer 21-20… Their only region loss was to Riverside by a score of 34-21… Congratulations to the team on a strong finish.

 Laurens County TD Club… The Laurens County Touchdown Club met last Thursday at noon at The Ridge… In addition to the local coaches talking about recent games and upcoming playoff games, the featured speaker will be former Clemson University and Pittsburgh Steeler great Levon Kirkland.  Kirkland currently is the Vice President of Development for the South Carolina Football Hall of Fame… To see a video of this meeting click here.

High School Football Scores, Schedules and Standings

• Thanks to scfootballstats.com you can now see last weekend’s scores for all games by classification on Saturday or Sunday and possibly Monday… After that you will see the weeks schedule by classification… You can also see the standings in each region by classification… To see this information, click here.

Sports Talk High School Football Recap

• To hear a recap of playoff football games around the state last weekend produced by Sports Talk Media, click here.

Area Varsity Football Results from 11-3-23… To see a recap of are football results from last Friday night click here.

Local Sports Schedule: All schedules subject to change right up to game time.

• School District 55: To see the sports schedule for this week at LDHS, click here.
• School District 56:  To see the sports schedule for this week at CHS and CMS, click here
• Laurens Academy: To see the varsity and middle school boys’ basketball l schedule click here… To see the varsity & middle school girls’ basketball schedule click here.
• Thornwell:  To see the Thornwell football schedule click here… To see the volleyball schedule click here… To see the cross country schedule click here.
• PC Sports Calendar… To see the PC athletics sports calendar, click here.

College Sports:

• College Football Scores and Upcoming Games by Weeks… For those of you college football fans who are looking for a quick way to find scores for each week of the college football season and upcoming games listed by each week, I have made it easy for you… Just click here… This link will carry you to the NCAA website where college football game and scores are listed week by week… Once you get there, there are numerous ways you can filter the schedules and results on the site… You can filter by week, by paying division (FBS, FCS, DII and DII as well as by week, conference and other ways… I use it a lot and hope you will enjoy using it!

• FBS AP Rankings… The latest AP Ranking (11-4-23) for the FBS Division still has Georgia at #1 followed by Michigan, Ohio State, Florida State and Washington in the top 5… Spots 6-10 are occupied by Oregon, Texas, Alabama, Penn State and Ole Miss which moved up from 11 to #10… To see the entire top 25 click here.
• FCS Coaches Poll… The latest FCS Coaches Poll (11-5-23) for college football still has South Dakota State ranked #1 Furman as #2 after their come-from-behind 17-14 win over Chattanooga last Saturday … That means that Furman moved up a spot and now is #2…To see the entire top 25 in the Coaches Poll click here.
• College Football Playoff Rankings… The latest College Football Playoff rankings were released on Oct. 28th… They are a little different from the AP Rankings… Ohio State comes in at #1 while Georgia comes in at #2… Michigan is #3 and Florida State #4… All four of those schools are undefeated and Washington which is also undefeated checks in at #5… That means that if the season were over and the committee that does the rankings still had theses 4 teams in the same order, Ohio State would take on Florida State in one semifinal game while Georgia and Michigan would battle in the other one… Of course we have a ways to go before the season ends and this is all subject to change… If you want to see the entire top 25 as ranked by the committee, click here.

Pro Sports: For more information on the game(s) below, click on the scores. 

 NASCAR

• Ross Chastain wins Final Cup Series Race of the Season / Blaney Takes Championship… Ross Chastain won the final race of the NASCAR Cup Series last Sunday out in Phoenix while Ryan Blaney finished second…  I doubt that Blaney felt too bad about finishing second as he won his first NASCAR Cup Series Championship of his career… This was the first time in 10 years of the elimination playoff format, the NASCAR Cup Series champion failed to win the title race… Click here for more information on the race including a link to the final order of finish for each of the drivers.

• Playoff Standings… As mentioned above, Ryan Blaney finished first in the driver standings thus picking up his first NASCAR Cup Series Championship of his career… Kyle Larson finished second, William Byron third and Christopher Bell fourth… To see the complete standings for the playoffs, click here.

This & That:

• Chamber of Commerce Oyster Roast… The Laurens County Chamber of Commerce Oyster Roast will be Thursday Nov. 9^th with the food being served at 5:30… Tickets to this event are $55 each and I hope it is not too late to get your tickets as this event usually sells out early… To find out if tickets are still available I suggest you call Marlene Owing at 864-833-2716 or email her at mowings@laurenscounty.org and do it TODAY… To see the flyer on this event for more information, click here.

• 2023 Laurens YMCA Reindeer Run… The 24^th annual Laurens YMCA Reindeer run 5k and Fun Run will be held Saturday, Dec. 9^th… The cost to register for the 5K is $30 until Nov 19^th and $35 after that date…That is also the date you must register by to be guaranteed to get a race shirt… The Fun Run (ages 1-12) cost is $5 and again you must pay for a race shirt separately by Nov.19^th in the Fun Run… All proceeds go to support the Youth Scholarship Program and prizes will be awarded for the top two finishers male and female… Discounts for teams are also being offered… For more information call the Y at 984-2626… If you click here it will take you to the YMCA website where there is more information on the Reindeer Run and links to online registration.

• Youth Basketball Registration at The Ridge… Youth basketball registration is now open for boys and girls ages 7-12 for basketball through the City of Laurens Parks and Recreation Department… There will be both a boys and a girls division… The cost is only $60 and registration will close on Friday, Nov. 17^th with skill evaluation on Monday, Nov. 20^th… For more information call them at 681-7275 and registration will soon be available online at www.laurensrecreation.com.

• Laurens County TD Next Meeting November 16^th… The Laurens County Touchdown Club kicked off the 2023 season on Thursday, November 16^th… The club meets bi-weekly at The Ridge (City of Laurens Parks and Recreation headquarters) at noon for a lunch… Each week the high school coaches will talk about their recent games and upcoming opponents… After the first meeting, there will also be quest speakers… To see a list of who those speakers are scheduled to be for each meeting click here… The TD Club will close out its season on Wednesday, December 6^th with its Post Season Awards Banquet… For more information on how to join the club or become a sponsor click here… To go to another part of our website where links to videos of this seasons past meetings, click here… See you there!

If you have any comments, suggestions, or want to report scores, please contact me via email at: sports@wlbg.com or text me at 864-981-3470.

Sports Talk Media Network Morning Sportscast and Sports Talk Media High School Football Recap… To listen to these bonus sports broadcast, click here to go to the Between the Lines posting where the latest of these can be heard.

Local Notes

Clinton HS

• Crawford Selected Touchdown Club Player of the Week… For the third time this season Clinton High School’s Kadon Crawford has been chosen as the Laurens County Touchdown Club’s Player of the Week… The Red Devil senior wide receiver and linebacker was chosen for his performance in last Friday’s 42-18 win over Palmetto in the first round of the SCHSL Class AAA Playoffs… Crawford made 6 tackles with 1 tackle for loss against the Mustangs… Crawford also caused a fumble and rushed the quarterback all night from his linebacker position… Offensively Crawford scored 3 touchdowns on the night, 1 rushing and 2 receiving. Crawford had 85 yards of total offense … Clinton Head Football Coach Corey Fountain says, “Kadon Crawford is a hard-working blue-collar kid, who gives you everything he has when he is playing, on both sides of the ball. Kadon is a vocal leader as well and he leads by example… There is not a kid on the team that is more competitive than Kadon Crawford.”… The Touchdown Club will honor Kadon on Nov. 16^th at their annual Carolina – Clemson meeting…By the way, Clinton now advances to the 2nd round to play Broome High School this Friday night in 2nd Round playoff action at Wilder Stadium and Richardson Field in Clinton.

Laurens HS

• JV Football Takes Region Crown… The Raider JV football team finished its season with a 4-5 overall record after getting off to a very slow start… The team started to peak just about the time that they started their region schedule which they finished with a 3-1 record thus winning the Region Championship… They defeated Eastside 42-28, Wade Hampton 28-18 and Greer 21-20… Their only region loss was to Riverside by a score of 34-21… Congratulations to the team on a strong finish.

Scores From Other Playoff Games of Interest 11-3-23

• Teams in Clinton’s Region
  • Wren 49 – Woodruff 32
  • Chester 42 – Powdersville 34
  • BHP 63 – Emerald 7
• Teams in Laurens Region
  • Greer 29 – Indian Land 28
  • York 26 – Riverside 17
  • South Pointe 49 – Eastside 7
• Other Team That Might Be of Local Interest
  • Calhoun County 62 – Whitmire 0
  • Abbeville 46 – Columbia 6
  • Newberry 24 – Saluda 15
  • Strom Thurmond 49 – Landrum 7
  • Keenan 24 – Ninety Six 21
  • Greenwood 17 –  North Augusta  16
  • TL Hanna 53 – Fort Mill 9
  • Lexington at Gaffney
  • Byrnes 44 – Dorman 17
  • Hillcrest 37 – Nation Ford 29
  • Spartanburg 31- Rock Hill 7

Laurens County TD Club… The Laurens County Touchdown Club met last Thursday at noon at The Ridge… In addition to the local coaches talking about recent games and upcoming playoff games, the featured speaker will be former Clemson University and Pittsburgh Steeler great Levon Kirkland.  Kirkland currently is the Vice President of Development for the South Carolina Football Hall of Fame… To see a video of this meeting click here… Brett Young and Tushawan Richardson were also honored as the club’s two most recent Players of the Week… They are pictured here with Mr. Kirkland, congratulations to them!

High School Football Scores, Schedules and Standings

• Thanks to scfootballstats.com you can now see last weekend’s scores for all games by classification on Saturday or Sunday and possibly Monday… After that you will see the weeks schedule by classification… You can also see the standings in each region by classification… To see this information, click here.

 Sports Talk High School Football Recap

• To hear a recap of playoff football games around the state last weekend produced by Sports Talk Media, click here.

 Area Varsity Football Results from 11-3-23… To see a recap of are football results from last Friday night click here.

Local Sports Schedule: All schedules subject to change right up to game time.

• School District 55: To see the sports schedule for this week at LDHS, click here.
• School District 56:  To see the sports schedule for this week at CHS and CMS, click here
• Laurens Academy: To see the varsity and middle school boys’ basketball l schedule click here… To see the varsity & middle school girls’ basketball schedule click here.
• Thornwell:  To see the Thornwell football schedule click here… To see the volleyball schedule click here… To see the cross country schedule click here.
• PC Sports Calendar… To see the PC athletics sports calendar, click here.

College Sports:

• College Football Scores and Upcoming Games by Weeks… For those of you college football fans who are looking for a quick way to find scores for each week of the college football season and upcoming games listed by each week, I have made it easy for you… Just click here… This link will carry you to the NCAA website where college football game and scores are listed week by week… Once you get there, there are numerous ways you can filter the schedules and results on the site… You can filter by week, by paying division (FBS, FCS, DII and DII as well as by week, conference and other ways… I use it a lot and hope you will enjoy using it!

• FBS AP Rankings… The latest AP Ranking (11-4-23) for the FBS Division still has Georgia at #1 followed by Michigan, Ohio State, Florida State and Washington in the top 5… Spots 6-10 are occupied by Oregon, Texas, Alabama, Penn State and Ole Miss which moved up from 11 to #10… To see the entire top 25 click here.
• FCS Coaches Poll… The latest FCS Coaches Poll (11-5-23) for college football still has South Dakota State ranked #1 Furman as #2 after their come-from-behind 17-14 win over Chattanooga last Saturday … That means that Furman moved up a spot and now is #2…To see the entire top 25 in the Coaches Poll click here.
• College Football Playoff Rankings… The latest College Football Playoff rankings were released on Oct. 28th… They are a little different from the AP Rankings… Ohio State comes in at #1 while Georgia comes in at #2… Michigan is #3 and Florida State #4… All four of those schools are undefeated and Washington which is also undefeated checks in at #5… That means that if the season were over and the committee that does the rankings still had theses 4 teams in the same order, Ohio State would take on Florida State in one semifinal game while Georgia and Michigan would battle in the other one… Of course we have a ways to go before the season ends and this is all subject to change… If you want to see the entire top 25 as ranked by the committee, click here.

Pro Sports: For more information on the game(s) below, click on the scores. 

 NASCAR

• Ross Chastain wins Final Cup Series Race of the Season / Blaney Takes Championship… Ross Chastain won the final race of the NASCAR Cup Series last Sunday out in Phoenix while Ryan Blaney finished second…  I doubt that Blaney felt too bad about finishing second as he won his first NASCAR Cup Series Championship of his career… This was the first time in 10 years of the elimination playoff format, the NASCAR Cup Series champion failed to win the title race… Click here for more information on the race including a link to the final order of finish for each of the drivers.

• Playoff Standings… As mentioned above, Ryan Blaney finished first in the driver standings thus picking up his first NASCAR Cup Series Championship of his career… Kyle Larson finished second, William Byron third and Christopher Bell fourth… To see the complete standings for the playoffs, click here.

This & That:

• Chamber of Commerce Oyster Roast… The Laurens County Chamber of Commerce Oyster Roast will be Thursday Nov. 9^th with the food being served at 5:30… Tickets to this event are $55 each and I hope it is not too late to get your tickets as this event usually sells out early… To find out if tickets are still available I suggest you call Marlene Owing at 864-833-2716 or email her at mowings@laurenscounty.org and do it TODAY… To see the flyer on this event for more information, click here.

• 2023 Laurens YMCA Reindeer Run… The 24^th annual Laurens YMCA Reindeer run 5k and Fun Run will be held Saturday, Dec. 9^th… The cost to register for the 5K is $30 until Nov 19^th and $35 after that date…That is also the date you must register by to be guaranteed to get a race shirt… The Fun Run (ages 1-12) cost is $5 and again you must pay for a race shirt separately by Nov.19^th in the Fun Run… All proceeds go to support the Youth Scholarship Program and prizes will be awarded for the top two finishers male and female… Discounts for teams are also being offered… For more information call the Y at 984-2626… If you click here it will take you to the YMCA website where there is more information on the Reindeer Run and links to online registration.

• Youth Basketball Registration at The Ridge… Youth basketball registration is now open for boys and girls ages 7-12 for basketball through the City of Laurens Parks and Recreation Department… There will be both a boys and a girls division… The cost is only $60 and registration will close on Friday, Nov. 17^th with skill evaluation on Monday, Nov. 20^th… For more information call them at 681-7275 and registration will soon be available online at www.laurensrecreation.com.

• Laurens County TD Next Meeting November 16^th… The Laurens County Touchdown Club kicked off the 2023 season on Thursday, November 16^th… The club meets bi-weekly at The Ridge (City of Laurens Parks and Recreation headquarters) at noon for a lunch… Each week the high school coaches will talk about their recent games and upcoming opponents… After the first meeting, there will also be quest speakers… To see a list of who those speakers are scheduled to be for each meeting click here… The TD Club will close out its season on Wednesday, December 6^th with its Post Season Awards Banquet… For more information on how to join the club or become a sponsor click here… To go to another part of our website where links to videos of this seasons past meetings, click here… See you there!

If you have any comments, suggestions, or want to report scores, please contact me via email at: sports@wlbg.com or text me at 864-981-3470.

Sports Talk Media Network Morning Sportscast and Sports Talk Media High School Football Recap… To listen to these bonus sports broadcast, click here to go to the Between the Lines posting where the latest of these can be heard.

Local Notes

Area Varsity Football Games Results From Last Friday

• Holly Hill 69 – Laurens Academy 22…  The Crusaders traveled down to Holly Hill to take on the Raiders last Friday night and the Raiders led 62-8 at the half and then went on to take a 69-22 win over the Crusaders… The Raiders came into the game as the defending 3-time SCISA 8-Man Champion and they showed why they are ranked #1 in 8-Man football again this season… The Crusaders had 267 yds. of total offense with 195 of them coming through the air…  Jared Willard completed 16 of 36 passes for those yards and threw 3 TDs… I’ll try to find out who they were to today… Caleb Hardy caught 5 passes for 108 yds. and Nathan Bell was the leading rusher with 9 carries for 47 yds… For more stats on the game click here… The Crusaders finish the season with a 3-8 record under first year head coach Jolly Doolittle.

• Clinton 42 – Palmetto 18… The Red Devils overcame a slow start last Friday night as they trailed 6-0 early and only led 14-12 at the half to go on to take a 42-18 win over the Palmetto Mustangs at Wilder Stadium… The Red Devils finished the game with 400 total yards of offense while the Mustangs had 287 yds… Clinton had 279 yds. rushing while the Mustangs had 261 yds. passing… The Mustang quarterback Brook Jansen had 3 TD passes to account for their scoring but he also threw 2 interceptions one to Mikevious Byrd and the other to Keleja Byrd for a forty yd. pick-six in 4^th quarter for the Red Devils final TD… In the first half Kadon Crawford scored both the Red Devil TDS one rushing (15 yds.) and the other on a 22 yd. pass from Tushawan Richardson… Richardson had 3 more TD passes in the big second half another one to Kadon Crawford (11 yds.) and two to Zay Johnson 26 and 19 yds. long… Tray Cook was the leading rusher for the Red Devils 79 yds. and DJ Clark was close behind with 77… For complete stats on this game including a play-by-play accounting of the game, click here… The Red Devils will host Broome this Friday night who defeated Seneca 42-35.

• Northwestern 57 – Laurens 0… The Laurens Raiders traveled over to Rock Hill last Friday to take on the 9-1 Northwestern Trojans in first round action of the Class AAAA Playoffs… The Trojans only loss was in their first game of the season where they lost 42-35 to the top ranked school in North Carolina… The Raiders quickly found out that the Trojans were the real deal as they rolled a 22-0 lead at the end of the 1^st quarter and 50 -0 at the half in route to a 57-0 win…  The Raider won the toss and elected to receive and did pick up one first down before punting… The Trojans only took 5 plays to score when their quarterback Finley Polk threw the first of 3 TDS in the game… After that, it was pretty much all Trojans as they rolled up 365 yds. of total offense to the Raiders 21… The Trojans had 234 yds. rushing Zilon Arnold leading their attack with 89 yds. and 2 TDs… Their Shrine Bowl running back Turbo Richards finished with 79 yds. and 1 TD… One bright spot for the Raider is that Javaye Suber had another interception in the 2^nd quarter but the Raiders could not cash in on that turnover… The Raiders showed heart and never stopped competing but the Trojans were just too strong a team… Click here to see the basic stats on the game and check back later for more information on the game… The Raider finish the season 2-9 overall and 2-2 in region play (fourth)… Northwestern will host Greenwood this Friday night that avenged an earlier regular season loss to North Augusta by defeating them 17-16 Friday night.

Laurens County TD Club… The Laurens County Touchdown Club met last Thursday at noon at The Ridge… In addition to the local coaches talking about recent games and upcoming playoff games, the featured speaker will be former Clemson University and Pittsburgh Steeler great Levon Kirkland.  Kirkland currently is the Vice President of Development for the South Carolina Football Hall of Fame… If you check back tomorrow you will find a video of the meeting including all of his comments… Brett Young and Tushawan Richardson were also honored as the club’s two most recent Players of the Week… They are pictured here with Mr. Kirkland, congratulations to them!

High School Football Scores, Schedules and Standings

• Thanks to scfootballstats.com you can now see last weekend’s scores for all games by classification on Saturday or Sunday and possibly Monday… After that you will see the weeks schedule by classification… You can also see the standings in each region by classification… To see this information, click here.

 Sports Talk High School Football Recap

• To hear a recap of playoff football games around the state last weekend produced by Sports Talk Media, click here.

Local Sports Schedule: [Read more…]

Sports Talk Media Network Morning Sportscast and Sports Talk Media High School Football Recap… To listen to these bonus sports broadcast, click here to go to the Between the Lines posting where the latest of these can be heard.

Local Notes

Note About Football Playoff Tickets… If you are planning on going to a SCHSL playoff game (Clinton & Laurens) a couple of things you need to know… Only SCHSL passes will be accepted (no school employee of booster club passes accepted) and the cost of the ticket will be $10 as per SCHSL rules… Everyone 6 or older must have a ticket to enter.

• Clinton… Tickets can be purchased at the gate but due to the crowd I would suggest you purchase them online and to do that click here… They will be honoring season ticket holders parking pass, but you must purchase a ticket to enter.
• Laurens… Northwestern plays at the District 3 Stadium whose address is 211 South Cherry Rd., Rock Hill, SC… Tickets can be purchased at the gate, but you can also purchase them online to avoid the line at the ticket booth… Click here to do that… I’m sure the Raiders would love to see a large number of fans make the trip over to cheer them on but if you can’t make it, you can hear it live on 860AM, 104.1 FM and the internet at www.wlbg.com… Our coverage will begin about 6:05 pm with the Friday Night Insiders program.

Area Varsity Football Games Tonight

• Laurens Academy at Holly Hill…  The 3-7 Crusaders hit the road tonight and travel down to Holly Hill to take on the 9-1 Raiders… The Raiders are an old foe that the Crusaders have often played in the playoffs… The Raiders who lost a regular season game for the first time in three years have also won the SCISA 8-Man Championship for the last 3 years… They are averaging 42.2 points per game while giving up 16.6 points per game… If you would like to see their schedule and results click here… Good luck to the Crusaders against Holly Hill tonight.

• Palmetto at Clinton… The 8-2 Red Devils will host the 3-7 Palmetto Mustangs tonight at Wilder Stadium in first round action of the SCHSL Class AAA playoffs… The Mustangs finished 4^th in their region behind BHP (10-0), Wren (5-5) and Powdersville (5-5)… They are averaging 15.9 points per game while giving up 31.6 points per game… If you would like to see a side-by-side comparison between the Red Devils and the Mustangs that includes both their schedules and results plus other information, click here…. Go Big Red!

• Laurens at Northwestern… The 2-8 Laurens Raiders will be on the road tonight traveling over to Rock Hill to take on the 9-1 Trojans of Northwestern… The Trojans lost only the first game of their season to Providence Day out of North Carolina 42-35… They are currently ranked #2 in the latest S.C. Prep Football Media Poll that came out earlier this week…They are averaging 53.4 points per game while giving up only 16.7 points per game… They have a Shrine Bowl running back in the person of Turbo Richards who is a Boston College commit and a North-South All-Star lineman by the name of Vance Ventry… If you would like to see a side-by-side comparison between the Raiders and the Trojans that includes both their schedules and results plus other information, click here… The Raiders would like to see a large group of fans follow them over to District 3 Stadium located at 211 South Cherry Rd in Rock Hill to cheer them on but if you can’t make it, you can hear it live on 860AM, 104.1 FM and the internet at www.wlbg.com… Our coverage will begin about 6:05 pm with the Friday Night Insiders program… Go Raiders!

Other Playoff Games of Interest Tonight

• Teams in Clinton’s Region
  • Woodruff at Wren
  • Powdersville at Chester
  • Emerald at BHP
• Teams in Laurens Region
  • Indian land at Greer
  • York at Riverside
  • Eastside at South Pointe
• Other Team that might Be of Local Interest
  • Whitmire at Calhoun County
  • Columbia at Abbeville
  • Saluda at Newberry
  • Landrum at Strom Thurmond
  • Keenan at Ninety Six
  • Greenwood at North Augusta
  • Fort Mill at TL Hanna
  • Lexington at Gaffney
  • Dorman at Byrnes
  • Hillcrest at Nation Ford
  • Spartanburg at Rock Hill was played last night with Spartanburg winning 31-7

Laurens County TD Club… The Laurens County Touchdown Club met yesterday at noon at The Ridge… In addition to the local coaches talking about recent games and upcoming playoff games, the featured speaker will be former Clemson University and Pittsburgh Steeler great Levon Kirkland.  Kirkland currently is the Vice President of Development for the South Carolina Football Hall of Fame… If you check back early next week you will find a video of the meeting including all of his comments… Brett Young and Tushawan Richardson were also honored as the club’s two most recent Players of the Week… They are pictured here with Mr. Kirkland, congratulations to them!

High School Football Scores, Schedules and Standings

• Thanks to scfootballstats.com you can now see last weekend’s scores for all games by classification on Saturday or Sunday and possibly Monday… After that you will see the weeks schedule by classification… You can also see the standings in each region by classification… To see this information, click here.

 Broadcast Schedule: Below is a list of dates, times and teams that we plan on broadcasting live on Real Radio WLBG… And as usual you can hear it live on 860AM, 104.1 FM and the internet at www.wlbg.com… If it is a varsity football game, coverage will begin about 6:05 pm with the Friday Night Insiders program.

• Friday, 11-2-23, Laurens at Northwestern in first round action of the Class AAAA Playoffs, 7:30

Local Sports Schedule: [Read more…]

Sports Talk Media Network Morning Sportscast and Sports Talk Media High School Football Recap… To listen to these bonus sports broadcast, click here to go to the Between the Lines posting where the latest of these can be heard.

Local Notes 

Note About Football Playoff Tickets… If you are planning on going to a SCHSL playoff game (Clinton & Laurens) a couple of things you need to know… Only SCHSL passes will be accepted (no school employee of booster club passes accepted) and the cost of the ticket will be $10 as per SCHSL rules… Everyone 6 or older must have a ticket to enter.

• Clinton… Tickets can be purchased at the gate but due to the crowd I would suggest you purchase them online and to do that click here… They will be honoring season ticket holders parking pass but you must purchase a ticket to enter.
• Laurens… I hope to have more specific information tomorrow.

Laurens Academy

• Volleyball Postseason Note… Last Saturday 3 of the Crusader volleyball team players participate in the SCISA North-South All-Star Matches as members of the Class A North All-Star Team down in Sumter at Wilson Hall… They were Campbell Sherman, Olivia Suttles and Madison Sherman… Laurens Academy’s Coach Shannon McGee was also a coach for the team… She reports that all three players performed well in the matches and that the Class A north team defeated the South A team, the North AA team and the South AAA team and only lost to the South AAAA team by a couple of points… Congratulations to these three Crusaders and Coach McGee on making the Class A North All-Star Team and their performance in the matches.

S.C. Prep Football Media Poll… Here are the rankings for the S.C. Prep Football Media Poll released Monday, Oct. 30… First-place votes and the team’s record are in parentheses… This is the final poll of the regular season.

• CLASS 5A: 1. Summerville (16) (10-0), 2. TL Hanna (9-1), 3. Byrnes (9-1), 4. White Knoll (10-0), 5. Clover (8-2), 6. JL Mann (8-2), 7. Gaffney (7-3), 8. Ashley Ridge (8-2), 9 Hillcrest (8-2) and 10. Fort Dorchester (6-3)… Others receiving votes: Dutch Fork, Lexington, Sumter
• CLASS 4A: 1. South Florence (15) (10-0), 2. Northwestern (1) (9-1), 3. Irmo (10-0), 4. James Island (10-0), 5. Midland Valley (10-0), 6. Westside (9-1), 7. Lucy Beckham (8-1), 8. South Pointe (7-3), 9. North Augusta (7-3) and 10. Hartsville (7-3)… Others receiving votes: Ridge View, Myrtle Beach, Greenville
• CLASS 3A: 1. Daniel (16) (10-0), 2. Belton-Honea Path (10-0), 3. Dillon (9-1), 4. Chapman (9-1), 5. Crestwood (9-1), 6. Clinton (8-2), 7. Chester (8-2), 8. Brookland-Cayce (8-2), 9. Gilbert (9-1) and 10. Broome (8-2)… Others receiving votes: Hanahan, Philip Simmons, Pendleton, Loris
• CLASS 2A: 1. Abbeville (10) (9-1), 2. Gray Collegiate (6) (10-3), 3. Hampton County (9-1), 4. Oceanside Collegiate (7-2), 5. (tie) Marion (9-1) 5. (tie) Strom Thurmond (8-2), 7. Fairfield Central (8-2), 8. Silver Bluff (7-3), 9. Ninety-Six (8-2) and 10. Woodland (7-2)…  Others receiving votes: Andrew Jackson, Saluda, Barnwell
• CLASS A:  1. Lewisville (16) (9-1), 2. Christ Church (8-2), 3. Bamberg-Ehrhardt (9-1), 4. Calhoun County (9-1), 5. Southside Christian (6-3), 6. St. Joe’s (8-2), 7. Hunter-Kinard-Tyler (9-1), 8. Whale Branch (7-1), 9. Lamar (7-2) and 10. Latta… (9-1) Others receiving votes: Blackville-Hilda, Cross, Lake View

 Local Varsity Football Results from Friday Night 10-27-23… If you would like to go back and check out the quick synopsis of local varsity football results from last Friday night (10-27-23), click here.

High School Football Recap… To hear a recap of high school football around the state last Friday night from Sports Talk Media click here.

High School Football Scores, Schedules and Standings

• Thanks to scfootballstats.com you can now see last weekend’s scores for all games by classification on Saturday or Sunday and possibly Monday… After that you will see the weeks schedule by classification… You can also see the standings in each region by classification… To see this information, click here.

Broadcast Schedule: Below is a list of dates, times and teams that we plan on broadcasting live on Real Radio WLBG… And as usual you can hear it live on 860AM, 104.1 FM and the internet at www.wlbg.com… If it is a varsity football game, coverage will begin about 6:05 pm with the Friday Night Insiders program.

• Friday, 11-2-23, Laurens at Northwestern in first round action of the Class AAAA Playoffs, 7:30

Local Sports Schedule: [Read more…]

Sports Talk Media Network Morning Sportscast and Sports Talk Media High School Football Recap… To listen to these bonus sports broadcast, click here to go to the Between the Lines posting where the latest of these can be heard.

Local Notes

Clinton HS

• Tushawan Richardson TD Club Player of the Week… Monday it was announced that Clinton junior quarterback Tushawan Richardson has been selected as the Laurens County Touchdown Club Player of the Week for his performance in the Red Devils 51-13 win over the Emerald Vikings last Friday night in Greenwood…. He completed six passes on eight attempts for 157 yards and 3 TDs passes with a long TD pass of 50 yards and was not sacked… Richardson also rushed for 23 yards with his longest being 13 yards and averaged 7.7 per yard carry… Clinton High School Head Coach Corey Fountain stated, “Many players have talent; however, not many players have a growth mindset that drives them to work, learn, and push themselves every day to get better… Tushawan is that player that has the talent and growth mindset…  He always keeps a cool head and is looking for ways to get the ball down the field to his receivers…  He has the ability to extend plays and make things happen when things don’t go as planned…  I am really excited to see what the future holds for him.”… He will be honored at this week’s TD Club meeting at The Ridge starting at noon… The featured speaker will be former Clemson University and Pittsburgh Steeler great Levon Kirkland.  Kirkland currently is the Vice President of Development for the South Carolina Football Hall of Fame.

• JV Football Update: Clinton 44 – Emerald 7… Last Friday I told you that the Red Devil JV football team finished its season defeating the Emerald Vikings at Wilder Stadium by a score of 44-7 thus finishing the season 10-0…At that time I did not have any scoring details, but I do now… The Red Devils scored 24 points in the first quarter and led 30-0 at the half… They led 36-0 going into the final quarter of play and did not allow the Vikings to score until the fourth quarter… Owen Glenn had 2 passing TDs one to KJ Vance and the other to Amari Grant… Vance also had a rushing TD as did Angelo Cromer… Cromer also had a fumble recovery for a TD… Jaden Glenn also got into the action blocking a punt…Coach Glenn stated afterwards “We have had a great season again due to the hard work of our kids and coaches of our program… We are only laying the foundation on the JV level… Our kids got better each week and it showed throughout the season… Super proud of our kids! #GBR #GATA”… Congratulations to the Red Devils on another undefeated season!

S.C. Prep Football Media Poll… Here are the rankings for the S.C. Prep Football Media Poll released Monday, Oct. 30… First-place votes and the team’s record are in parentheses… This is the final poll of the regular season.

• CLASS 5A: 1. Summerville (16) (10-0), 2. TL Hanna (9-1), 3. Byrnes (9-1), 4. White Knoll (10-0), 5. Clover (8-2), 6. JL Mann (8-2), 7. Gaffney (7-3), 8. Ashley Ridge (8-2), 9 Hillcrest (8-2) and 10. Fort Dorchester (6-3)… Others receiving votes: Dutch Fork, Lexington, Sumter
• CLASS 4A: 1. South Florence (15) (10-0), 2. Northwestern (1) (9-1), 3. Irmo (10-0), 4. James Island (10-0), 5. Midland Valley (10-0), 6. Westside (9-1), 7. Lucy Beckham (8-1), 8. South Pointe (7-3), 9. North Augusta (7-3) and 10. Hartsville (7-3)… Others receiving votes: Ridge View, Myrtle Beach, Greenville
• CLASS 3A: 1. Daniel (16) (10-0), 2. Belton-Honea Path (10-0), 3. Dillon (9-1), 4. Chapman (9-1), 5. Crestwood (9-1), 6. Clinton (8-2), 7. Chester (8-2), 8. Brookland-Cayce (8-2), 9. Gilbert (9-1) and 10. Broome (8-2)… Others receiving votes: Hanahan, Philip Simmons, Pendleton, Loris
• CLASS 2A: 1. Abbeville (10) (9-1), 2. Gray Collegiate (6) (10-3), 3. Hampton County (9-1), 4. Oceanside Collegiate (7-2), 5. (tie) Marion (9-1) 5. (tie) Strom Thurmond (8-2), 7. Fairfield Central (8-2), 8. Silver Bluff (7-3), 9. Ninety-Six (8-2) and 10. Woodland (7-2)…  Others receiving votes: Andrew Jackson, Saluda, Barnwell
• CLASS A:  1. Lewisville (16) (9-1), 2. Christ Church (8-2), 3. Bamberg-Ehrhardt (9-1), 4. Calhoun County (9-1), 5. Southside Christian (6-3), 6. St. Joe’s (8-2), 7. Hunter-Kinard-Tyler (9-1), 8. Whale Branch (7-1), 9. Lamar (7-2) and 10. Latta… (9-1) Others receiving votes: Blackville-Hilda, Cross, Lake View

Local Varsity Football Results from Friday Night 10-27-23… If you would like to go back and check out the quick synopsis of local varsity football results from last Friday night (10-27-23), click here.

High School Football Recap… To hear a recap of high school football around the state last Friday night from Sports Talk Media click here.

High School Football Scores, Schedules and Standings

• Thanks to scfootballstats.com you can now see last weekend’s scores for all games by classification on Saturday or Sunday and possibly Monday… After that you will see the weeks schedule by classification… You can also see the standings in each region by classification… To see this information, click here.

Broadcast Schedule: Below is a list of dates, times and teams that we plan on broadcasting live on Real Radio WLBG… And as usual you can hear it live on 860AM, 104.1 FM and the internet at www.wlbg.com… If it is a varsity football game, coverage will begin about 6:05 pm with the Friday Night Insiders program.

• Friday, 11-2-23, Laurens at Northwestern in first round action of the Class AAAA Playoffs, 7:30

Local Sports Schedule: [Read more…]

Sports Talk Media Network Morning Sportscast and Sports Talk Media High School Football Recap… To listen to these bonus sports broadcast, click here to go to the Between the Lines posting where the latest of these can be heard.

Local Notes

Local Varsity Football Results From Last Friday Night

• Ware Shoals 64 – Thornwell 0… Last Friday night at Thornwell there was a battle of two teams that had 1 win each both trying to end their season on a positive note… When the final horn sounded the Ware Shoals Hornets had taken a 64-0 win over the Thornwell Saints… Coach Charlie Washington agreed that the difference was a bigger and more experienced Hornet team taking on the youth and inexperience of the Saints… The Hornets wasted little time getting on the scoreboard as Jayce Medlin y returned the opening kickoff for a TD and the 2-point conversion made it 8-o Hornets with just seconds off the clock… The Hornets led 24-0 at the end of the first quarter and 48-0 at the half… Medlin also closed out the Hornet scoring with an 18 yd. TD pass from Jayden Jonson… Between those two scores, Johnson completed a TD passes to Justice Lomax… The Hornets got a rushing TD from J. Johnson, 1 from Jasir Farhan and 4 from J. Lomax… Both teams finished their season last Friday as they did not make the playoffs.

•  Richards Winn 36 – Laurens Academy 8… The Laurens Academy Crusaders traveled to Richard Winn last Friday to take on the Eagles and the Eagles kept the Crusaders off the scoreboard until the fourth quarter as they took a 36-8 win over the Crusaders… The Crusaders offense suffered a setback in the second quarter when quarterback Ethan Collins was injured and had to leave the game thus disrupting the Crusaders normal offense… Collins completed 11 of 16 passes for 76 yards before leaving the game after that the Crusaders had only 1 more pass completion for 3 yards…. Garrett Murphy 114 of the Crusaders 170 yards rushing and scored the Crusaders only touchdown rushing late in the game… Jarred Willard had the 2-point conversion… To see some more Crusader stats in the game click here… The Crusaders will travel to Holly Hill to take on the 9-1 Raiders who are an old familiar foe for the Crusaders and also the defending SCISA 8-Man Football Champions… To see the SCIS 8-Man Football Playoff Bracket click here (be sure to scroll down past the first page).

• Clinton 51 – Emerald 13… With the region championship already in their hip-pocket, the Clinton Red Devils traveled to Emeralds last Friday night to take on the Vikings in a tune-up for the playoffs and cruised to a 51-13 win… The Red Devils were very careful not to let the Vikings catch them still celebrating the region win over Chester last week as they rolled up 336 yards of total offense to Emerald’s 154 scoring at least twice in each quarter except the last one…  Kadon Crawford led the Red Devils with 3 rushing TDs and 51 yards in 5 carries while Zane McClendon also had a rushing TD… Tyshuwan Richardson completed 3 TD passes in the game one to K. Crawford, one to DJ Clark and the other to Zay Johnson… To see the stat package and play-by-play accounting of the game click here… The Red Devils will now host the Palmetto Mustangs in the first round of the SCHSL Playoffs this Friday… To see the SCHSL Class AAA Football Bracket click here.

• Laurens to Face Northwestern… The Laurens Raiders were idle last Friday night as they had their bye week… After all the other region games were completed last Friday night the 2-8 Raiders finished fourth in the region and will travel to Northwestern this Friday to take on the Trojans… To see the SCHSL Class AAAA Football Bracket click here.

High School Football Recap… To hear a recap of high school football around the state last Friday night from Sports Talk Media click here.

 High School Football Scores, Schedules and Standings

• Thanks to scfootballstats.com you can now see last weekend’s scores for all games by classification on Saturday or Sunday and possibly Monday… After that you will see the weeks schedule by classification… You can also see the standings in each region by classification… To see this information, click here.

Broadcast Schedule: Below is a list of dates, times and teams that we plan on broadcasting live on Real Radio WLBG… And as usual you can hear it live on 860AM, 104.1 FM and the internet at www.wlbg.com… If it is a varsity football game, coverage will begin about 6:05 pm with the Friday Night Insiders program.

• Friday, 11-2-23, Laurens at Northwestern in first round action of the Class AAAA Playoffs, 7:30

Local Sports Schedule: All schedules subject to change right up to game time.

• School District 55: To see the sports schedule for this week at LDHS, click here.
• School District 56:  To see the sports schedule for this week at CHS and CMS, click here
• Laurens Academy: To see the varsity football schedule click here… To see the varsity & middle school volleyball schedules click here… To see the middle school football schedule click here.
• Thornwell:  To see the Thornwell football schedule click here… To see the volleyball schedule click here… To see the cross country schedule click here.
• PC Sports Calendar… To see the PC athletics sports calendar, click here.

College Sports:

• College Football Scores and Upcoming Games by Weeks… For those of you college football fans who are looking for a quick way to find scores for each week of the college football season and upcoming games listed by each week, I have made it easy for you… Just click here… This link will carry you to the NCAA website where college football game and scores are listed week by week… Once you get there, there are numerous ways you can filter the schedules and results on the site… You can filter by week, by paying division (FBS, FCS, DII and DII as well as by week, conference and other ways… I use it a lot and hope you will enjoy using it!

• FBS AP Rankings… The latest AP Ranking (10-22-23) for the FBS Division still has Georgia at #1 followed by Michigan by Ohio State, Florida State and Washington in the top 5… Spots 6-10 are occupied by Oklahoma, Texas, Oregon, Alabama and Penn State… To see the entire top 25 click here.
• FCS Coaches Poll… The latest FCS Coaches Poll (10-22-23) for college football still has South Dakota State ranked #1 with Montana State #2 … The only team from South Carolina in the top 25 is Furman which still holds down the #3 spot…To see the entire top 25 in the Coaches Poll click here.

Sports Talk Media Network Morning Sportscast and Sports Talk Media High School Football Recap… To listen to these bonus sports broadcast, click here to go to the Between the Lines posting where the latest of these can be heard.

Local Notes

Clinton HS

• Girls Tennis:  BHP 6 – Clinton 0 … The Lady Red Devil tennis team saw their season come to an end yesterday afternoon as the BHP Bears took a 6-0 win at BHP in third round action of the SCHSL Class AAA Tennis Tournament… BHP had finished #1 in their region just like the Red Devils did in theirs… Kimora Wesley came close to pulling out her match but fell a little short… If you want to see more details on this match click here….The Red Devils finish the season with a 13-2 overall record and were 6-0 in the region… Congratulations to the Lady Red Devils on a great season!   If you would like to see the SCHSL 2023 Class AAA Girls Tennis Bracket click here

Football Results From Last Night

• JV Football
  • Clinton 44 – Emerald 7… The Red Devils concluded their season last night with a 44-7 win over the Emerald Vikings at Wilder Stadium… I do not have any details at this time but if I get them later today U will come back and edit this to include them.
  • Laurens… The Raiders concluded their season last week with a 42-28 win over Eastside.
• Middle School… This will be the final week of games for all the schools except Clinton MS which has a game next week at Saluda… All games start at 5:00 pm unless noted differently.
  • Christ Church at Ware Shoals… no score reported.
  • Whitmire at Thornwell… no score reported
  • Gray Court-Owings 40 – Hickory Tavern 14…Last night at KC Hana Stadium the GCO Tigers defeated the HT Panthers to win the “Country Championship” by a score of 40-14… The Tigers scored on single plays the first 3 times they touched the ball to go up 24-0 at the half… The Panthers had to overcome their mistakes but kept fighting to the very end as they scored 14 points in the second half but it was just not enough… Scoring plays were:
    • GCO: 60 yd. pass play from Kaleb Gilchrist to Zaylen Washington at 2:05 in 1^st quarter, Washington added 2-point conversion… 8-0 GCO
    • GCO: HT fumbles kickoff and Z. Washington scoops and scores from about 12yds. out with 2:03 left in 1^st quarter… Elijah Cheeks adds 2-point conversion… 18-0 GCO
    • GCO: K. Gilchrist scores on 8r yd. with 1:02 left in half… AJ Mumford adds 2-point conversion… 24-0 GCO
    • HT:  Devin Still scores on 40 yd. pass from Kam Moore with 6:08 left in 3^rd quarter… Conversion failed… 24-6 GCO
    • GCO: K. Gilchrist scores on a 15 yd. pass from Elijah Cheeks with 51 seconds left in third quarter… E. Cheeks adds 2-point conversion… 32-6 GCO
    • HT: D. Still scores on 34 yd. pass play from K. Moore with 4:00 left in game… Samuel Parson makes 2-point conversion… 32-14 GCO
    • GCO: K. Gilchrist scores on a 44 yd. pass from Elijah Cheeks with 1:49 left in the game… 2-point conversion by Isia Fernandez… 40-14 GCO which was final score.

• • Sanders 32 – Laurens MS 8… In the second game last night at KC Hanna Stadium, the Sanders Yellow Jackets took 32-8 win over the Laurens MS Tigers to win the “City Championship”…Sanders but 16 points on the board before the Tigers scored and the scores was 16-8 sanders at the half… The Tigers did “shoot themselves in the foot” at times with costly penalties, fumbles and an interception that helped Sanders go on to the 32-8 win… Scoring plays were:
    • SMS: KB Richard-Blackwell scores on 47 yd. pass from Jaylin Bluford with 5:01 left in 1^st quarter… Richard-Blackwell adds 2-point conversion… 8-0 SMS
    • SMS: Richard-Blackwell scores on 34 yd. run with 5:10 left in 2^nd quarters… JJ Elmore-Bennett adds 2-point conversion… Drive started when Tay Hill intercepted a LMS pass… 16-0 SMS
    • LMS: Damajia Crooks scores on 25 yd. run with 1:35 left in the half… 2-point conversion added on a pass from Logan Bragg to Mason Young… 16-8 SMS which was halftime score.
    • SMS: JJ Elmore-Bennett scores on 41 yd. run with 1:46 left in 3^rd quarter… He also adds 2-point conversion…. 24-8 SMS
    • SMS: KB Richard-Blackwell scores on 25 yd. run and adds 2-point conversion with 4:22 left in the game… 32-8 Sanders which was the final score.

Area Varsity Football Games Tonight… These are all the final games of the regular season and will start at 7:30

• Ware Shoals at Thornwell… The 1-7 Thornwell Saints will end their season tonight hosting the 1-8 Ware Shoals Hornets… They both have played McCormick and Calhoun Falls Charter School this season and both lost in similar fashion to those common opponents… The Hornets are averaging 14.9 points per game while giving up 34.8 points per game… The Saints are averaging 7.3 points per game while giving up 45.8 points per game. In their first year of varsity football play…  If you would like to see the Ware Shoals schedule and results click here.
• Laurens Academy at Richard Winn… The 3-6 Crusaders will travel to Richard Winn tonight to take on the 8-1 Eagles… These two teams met in the second game of the season with the Eagles taking a 54-14 win at Todd Kirk Field… The Eagles are averaging 46.1 points per game while giving up 18.6 points per game while the Crusaders are averaging 22 points per game while giving up 28.9 points per game… Both these teams are not the same teams that meet earlier in the season and this is a good measurement on how much the Crusaders have improved over the season… If you would like to see the Eagles schedule and results for this season, click here… The Crusaders will make the SCISA playoffs and the brackets should be announced tomorrow… If they are, I’ll post something on www.wlbg,com about it.
• Clinton at Emerald… The 7-2 Red Devils who captured the Region crown last week, will be on the road to Emerald HS to take on the 1-8 Vikings…  The Vikings are averaging 21.7 points per game while giving up 33.1 points per game while the Red Devils are averaging 40.6 points per game while giving up 18.3 point per game… The Vikings only win was a 49-35 win over Union County…If you would like to see the Emerald schedule and results click here… The Red Devils will make the SCHSL playoffs and the brackets should be announced tomorrow… If they are, I’ll post something on www.wlbg,com about it.
• Raiders Have Bye Week… The Raiders finished their season last Friday and are off tonight.

 NOTE About Playoffs… Both SCISA and the SCHSL will release playoff brackets in the morning hopefully before noon… When they become available I will post them in the News section on our homepage.

Laurens HS

• Cross Country… Last Saturday the Raider cross country team traveled to Greer.to participate in the Region2- AAAA Championship… For more complete information on the boys’ portion of the meet, click here.
  • Boys: Raiders Finish Fourth…The Raiders finished 4^th at the meet behind Eastside, Riverside and Wade Hampton… The top 5 runners for the Raiders were as follows (time, name and overall finish):

• • Girls… The Raiders only had 3 female runners to compete and you need 5 to get a team score… Riverside won the meet… The 3 runners were (time, name and overall finish):

Thornwell

• Cross Country… The Thornwell cross country team traveled over to Donalds this past to participate in the Region 2-1A Championship.
• Boys… The Saints boys’ team finished 3^rd behind Dixie and Ware Shoals… Below is the time, name and overall finish of the Saints runners

• Girls… The Saints had only one female runner so that was not enough to qualify as a team… Dixie won the meet

County Varsity Football Results

• If you would like to see a quick recap of varsity football action last Friday night and a links to other information available on those games, click here.

 High School Football Scores, Schedules and Standings

• Thanks to scfootballstats.com you can now see last weekend’s scores for all games by classification on Saturday or Sunday and possibly Monday… After that you will see the weeks schedule by classification… You can also see the standings in each region by classification… To see this information, click here.

Broadcast Schedule: Below is a list of dates, times and teams that we plan on broadcasting live on Real Radio WLBG… And as usual you can hear it live on 860AM, 104.1 FM and the internet at www.wlbg.com… If it is a varsity football game, coverage will begin about 6:05 pm with the Friday Night Insiders program. [Read more…]