Local Notes
Clinton HS
- Clinton 42 – Liberty 22…The Clinton Red Devils traveled up to Liberty last Friday night to take on another set of Red Devils for the region championship… When the final horn sounded Clinton had posted a 42-22 win to finish first in the region and have the opportunity to be the host team throughout the playoffs as long as they win… The Red Devils scored a TD the first at the end of all 3 possessions in the first half and led 22-7 at the half and then went on to the 42-22 win… Clinton which has been traditionally known as a long, time consuming drive team was more often than not last Friday as they only had the ball a total of 14:10 in the game while Liberty had the ball a little over 33 minutes.
- Clinton had 325 yards rushing to Liberty’s190… Javen Cook led Clinton in rushing with 114 yards in 7 carries and scored 3 TDs… Tushawan Richardson had 111 yards on 4 carries and scored 1 rushing TD… KJ Vance also had a rushing TD.
- Richardson also competed 3 of 4 passing attempts for 91 yards and 1 TD to Devin Swindler which was a 65 yard scoring strike…. Liberty’s Logan Smith went 7 for 13 for 120 yards and threw 1 TD also.
- Javen Cook also picked up 90 yards in kickoff returns to give him 204 all-purpose yards…Clinton never punted but did give up a safety late in the game.
- To see the complete stat package including a play-by-play recounting of the game, click here.
- Updated: JV Football: Clinton 34 – Liberty 12… The Red Devil JV football team closed out its season last Thursday night with a 34-12 win over the Liberty Red Devils at Wilder Stadium… When I mentioned this last Friday I did not know any details other than the final score… I do have a few more details now.
- Clinton led 20-6 at the half and then outscored Liberty 14-6 in the second half to take the 34-12 win.
- Angel Vargas had 2 rushing TDs for Clinton while Emanuel Lagroon and Bryland James each had 1 rushing TD.
- Grayson Watkins completed a TD pass to Braylin Swindles to help Clinton take the win.
- Coach Glenn commented after the game “Our kids played extremely well and grew throughout the year… I am proud of our kids and coaches… We have a bright future in Red Devil Country! #GBR
- The team finished the season with an 8-1 overall record and went 4-0 in region play… I agree with Coach Glenn the future does look bright for the Red Devils!
Laurens HS
- Fountain Inn 35 – Laurens 14…… The Raiders finished their regular season last Friday at home hosting the Fountain Inn Fury… The Raiders led 14-6 going into the fourth quarter but the Fury scored 29 unanswered points in the final quarter to defeat the Raiders 35-14…
- The Raiders scored with 6:07 left in the first half on a 5 yard run by Will Thompson with Brock Franklin adding the PAT to make it 7-0 Raiders… The Fury drove down the field on their next possession but missed a 37 yard field goal that may have been partially blocked.
- The Raiders were unable to move the ball on the first possession of the second half and had to punt…The Fury then went down the field and scored but had the PAT blocked by Demayjah Watts to make the score 7-6 Raiders with 6:35 left in the third quarter.
- The Raiders responded going down the field and scoring on a 6 yard run by Denari Lee-Jackson and again Franklin added the PAT to make it 14-6 Raiders with 1:04 left in the third quarter.
- The Fury drove down and scored with 11:08 left in the game on a 30 yard run and added a 2-point conversion to tie the score… After that it was all Fury.
- The Fury then scored the last 21 points of the game once on a pick-six and the other two shortly after 2 more interceptions of Raider passes.
- The Fury had 430 total yards of offense with 81 of them passing and 349 rushing… The Raiders had 233 yards of total offense with 98 coming through the air and 135 on the ground.
- To see the complete stat package for the game which includes a play-by-play accounting of the game click here.
- The Raiders finish the season 1-9 overall and 1-4 in region play… The Raiders had 5 of their 10 opponents ranked in the top 10 of their class at the time they played them and 8 of them have made the playoffs… Not making excuses but that is a tough schedule.
- Updated JV Football: Laurens 29 – Fountain Inn 0… The Raider JV football team closed out its season last Thursday night as they travel to Fountain Inn to take on the Fury… Good news for Raiders fans as the team took a 29-0 win over the Fury … The following information was provided by Coach Jawon Stevens… “The defense DOMINATED!! They held Ft Inn to minimal yards with our starters in… They were able to move the ball in the 4th Quarter, but the defense forced a turnover… Nasir Sanders had a pick (an interception)… Everyone made plays to contribute to the effort on defense. .. We played solid all night on offense! We had several explosive plays… Had a couple touchdowns called back, but they didn’t panic… Buddy Cheeks lead the offense at the QB spot with timely runs when passing plays broke down… He was great reading the Zone (defense) and making the correct decisions… Finding the endzone were BJ Hill, Isai Fernandez, Crooks and AJ Mumford… Two-point conversions (were made) by Buddy and JJ Bennett….Kevy Velasco handles kickoffs and punts… His kicks gave the coverage teams time to get down the field all night… Good kicks all night on a wet surface… Khamarius Moore came in and led the final scoring drive at quarterback… Fun night to see this crew finish the season with a shutout victory! ”… Congratulation to the JV team on a winning season and especially on improving as the season went along after a rocky start!
- Fall Ticketing Information and Other Need to Know Venue Information… The Raiders have released information concerning tickets and other rules and regulations you need to know about before you go to any athletic events on campus this fall… This information also includes a parking map… Please check this out to save you some problems before you go… Click here to see that information.
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Laurens Academy
- Murphy Chosen TD Clun Player of the Week…Monday the Laurens County
Touchdown Club announced that senior running back linebacker and team captain Garrett Murphy has been chosen as the club’s Player of the Week for his performance in the Crusaders 56-22 win over the Cross Stingrays at Laurens Academy last Friday night in the first round of the SCISA playoffs… He rushed for 141 yards on six carries and two touchdowns… Murphy also had one catch for 66 yards and a touchdown… Defensively, Murphy had four total tackles and one forced fumble… Head Coach Jolly Doolittle stated, “Garrett is everything a coach expects of a captain. He is a 360 degree leader. He is a great football player and an even better young man”… He will be honored on November 21st at the bi-monthly Touchdown Club meeting. The meeting will be at noon at The Ridge in Laurens. Player of the Week awards is presented by Farm Bureau Insurance of Laurens County in 2024…. Congratulations to Garrett!
- Crusaders 56 – Cross 22 … The Crusaders football team started it participation in the SCIS 8-Man Football Playoffs last Friday night taking on the Cross Stingrays out of Bluffton, SC… The Crusaders rolled out to a 42–0 lead at the end of the first quarter and then went on to take 56-22 win… I’m sure that there was a running clock and a lot of younger players got to play for the Crusaders or the score could have been more one-sided…
- In the passing department, the Crusaders Ethan Collins went 9-11 for 163 yards with no interceptions and 3 TDs… Elias Littleton also spent time at quarterback and he went 6-6 for 105 yards, no interceptions and 2 TDs… In total the Crusaders were 15-17 for 268 yards, no interceptions and 5 TD.
- Caleb Hardy caught 2 TD passes (4-87 yds.) while Eli Garrett, Riley Whitaker and Garrett Murphy each also caught a TD pass.
- Rushing the ball, the Crusaders had 185 yards on just 18 attempts with Garrett Murphy getting 141 of them on 6 carries and he scored 2 TDs.
- Defensively, Mason Cooper led the team in tackles with 8 while Spires McCameron had 6 to lead the Crusaders.
- To see more game stats for the Crusaders click here.
- The Crusaders will be on the road for a semi-finals game with the Jefferson Davis Raiders down in Blackville this Friday… More on this game latter in the week.
Laurens County Touchdown Club
- If you would like to see information about the Laurens County Touchdown Club such as how to join, meeting dates, sponsors and guest speakers click here.… The Club’s last meeting was Thursday, October 31st where in addition to honoring Clayton Lawson and Tushawan Richardson both of Clinton HS as the last two Players of the week the local coaches spoke and the featured speaker was Mr. Charlie Wentzky, Deputy Commissioner of the South Carolina High School League and staff member responsible for high school football operations within the state… His talk was very informative and timely when it comes to officiating even in the family… I strongly suggest you take the time to see the video of the meeting… To do that, click here
Sports Talk Media High School Football Recap… Each week during the football season Sports Talk Media produce a recap show of high school football results from around the state… If you would like to hear that show for last Friday night, click here… It’s usually about 5 minutes long and keeps you updated on football outside our area… Enjoy!
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.
Local Sports Schedules: 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: Click on each of the following to see their schedule: Varsity Football, Middle Scholl Football and Varsity /MS Volleyball…. Also you can click here to see varsity volleyball results. .
- Thornwell: To see the Thornwell varsity volleyball schedule and results click here
- PC Sports Calendar… To see the PC athletics sports calendar, click here.
College Sports: For any game mentioned below, click on the score for more details if available.
College Football
- College Football Playoff Rankings… NOTE: This is the same as last week as no update on this was done this past weekend. ..The first College Football Rankings came out Tuesday (11-5-24) and these are the rankings that will be used to seed the 12 teams that make the FBS Playoffs at the end of the year… They follow the AP Poll closely but not exactly… The first 5 teams in order are Oregon, Ohio State, Georgia, Miami and Texas… Spots 6 – 10 are held by Penn State, Tennessee, Indiana, BYU and Notre Dame… To see the list of the entire top 25 in the in the Playoff Rankings click here… If you go to that posting on the NCAA website and scroll down, you will find out more about how these rankings will be used to determine who makes it into the playoffs, and there are links there to explain just about anything you would want to know about the playoffs and playoff dates… Check it out, lot of information there!
- FBS AP Poll… The latest FBS AP Poll (11-10-24) had some changes in the top 10 this week… Oregon still remains at #1 while Ohio State moves up a notch to #2… The balance of the top 5 are all teams that moved up from the last poll… Texas goes from #5 to #3, Penn State jumps from #6 to #4 and Indiana moves up from #8 to #5… Spots 6-10 are occupied by (former spot): Tennessee (7), BYU (9), Notre Dame (10), Alabama (11) and Ole Miss (16)… Last week’s #2 Georgia dropped to #11, Clemson moves up 2 spots to #17 and South Carolina breaks into the poll at #25… To see the entire top 25 AP Poll click here
- FCS Coaches Poll… The FCS Coaches Poll (11-11-24) still has North Dakota State #1 and Montana State at #2 … In our general area, teams you often see on the schedule of some our local teams in the top 25 are Mercer at #9, SC State breaks into the poll at #23 and Chattanooga reenters the poll tied at #25 with Butler…To see the entire FCS Coaches Poll click here.
- HBCU Rankings… They now have a power ranking for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and South Carolina State still checks in at #2 there behind Jackson State… To see the top 21 in this ranking click here and be sure to scroll down or you miss information about each of the schools.
- FBS Football Scores… If you would like to see the scores for FBS schools this past week click here… Once you get there you can filter and sort several different ways and you can also click on the next week to see the FBS schedule.
- FCS Football Scores… If you would like to see the scores for FBS schools this past week click here… Once you get there you can filter and sort several different ways and you can also click on the next week to see the FBS schedule.
Pro Sports: For more information on the game(s) below, click on the scores at the start of the section.
NFL
- Schedules and Scores… For you diehard pro football fans out there if you want to check scores or schedules in the NFL click here… Once you go to this posting on the NFL site you can filter by the week you are interested in.
- Standings… If you are also curious about the NFL standings, click here,
NASCAR
- Joey Logano Wins Cup Title… This past Sunday, Joey Logano won the Cup Series Championship winning the race out in Phoenix… The is the third time that Logano has finished on top in his career… Before and during the race Logano and his team faced some challenges that to most would have been problems they might not have been able to overcome and take the win… Not to Logano, he expects to win every time he is behind the wheel… For more information about this race, click here.
- Playoffs…To see how the other 4 “final four” finished click here.
- Season Over… The NASCAR season is now over for 2024… If you would like to start planning for next year, click here to go to the 2025 schedule
This & That:
- Youth Basketball at The Ridge… Registration for youth basketball through the City of Laurens Parks and Recreation is now open… The cost is $60 and you register at the City of Laurens Parks and Recreation headquarters at The Ridge located at 301 exchange Drive…The age groupings include 7-8 year old coed, 9-12 girls, 9-10 boys and 11-12 boys… The deadline to enter is Friday, Nov. 22nd and there will be a skill evaluation on November 25th with practices staring Dec. 2nd… If you have any questions about the league, please email JPridgen@cityoflaurenssc.com or call 864-939-9137.
25th Anniversary Reindeer Run, Sat. Dec. 14… On Saturday December 14th, the Laurens Family YMCA will be holding its annual 5K Reiner Run and 1 Mile Fun Run… This is an annual event that helps to raise money for the YMCA’s Youth Scholarship Program… The 5K race will have 9 age groupings and prizes will be awarded for various finishers… For more information about this race and walk click here… There is a $5 discount if you register before Nov. 22nd … To register for the 5K race online, Click here … to register for the 1-Mile Fun Run, you must do that at the YMCA.. No online registration for the Fun Run.
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.