College Preview Show… If you have been listening to the Raider football broadcast here on Real Radio WLBG, you know that as part of the Friday Night Insiders we bring you the Phil Kornblut and Sports Talk Media’s College Preview Show… Well since the Raiders just missed out on the playoffs and there is no Raider broadcast tonight, I thought I would make that available to you here on my Sports Report… If you click here you can hear that audio…Enjoy!
Local Notes
Clinton HS
- Red Devils at Home Tonight… The Clinton Red Devils start what I hope will be a long run in the SCHS:L Class AA playoffs tonight as they host the Pelion Panthers at Wilder Stadium at 7:30… The Red Devils finished the regular season with a 7-2 record and first in their region with a 4-0 record… The Panthers finished the season with a 2-8 record and fifth in their region with a 1-4 record… They are averaging 12.9 points per game while giving up 35.2 points per game… The Red Devils are averaging 40 points per game while giving up 27.8 points per game… If you would like to see the Panthers schedule and results for this season, click here.
- Coach Fountain Comments… This week I talked with Coach Fountain about the game last week with Liberty and the game tonight with the Panthers… He wants to stress that at this point in the season everyone is 0-0 and the Red Devils cannot take the Panthers lightly as they have nothing to lose and could try anything…If you would like to hear my interview with him, click here.
- AA Bracket… If you would like to see the entire Class AA Playoff Bracket click here…. One last ting… Go Big Red!
- Ticket Information for Friday’s Football Game… As most of you already know the Red Devil football team will be hosting the Pelion Panthers this Friday Night at 7:30 pm in the first round of the Class AA Playoffs… Ticket price for this game will be $10 and that price is set by the SCHSL… Tickets can be purchased at the game, but you can also purchase them ahead of time by clicking here… Another reminder is that only SCHSL passes will be accepted at the gate an no locally issued passes will be accepted… Everyone entering must have a ticket… all of this is per SCHSL rules and regulations… Go Big Red.
Laurens HS
- Riopel and Edwards Sign at LDHS… Wednesday (11-13-24) at LDHS Emily Riopel and Bennett Edwards both signed letters of intent to continue their education and athletic careers at two different institutions of higher learning… To see a video interview done with them after the signing and some pictures at its end, click here…. Good Luck to both of them as they finish their careers at LDHS in the
- Emily is a senior wrestler for the Raiders and signed to attend Randolph College in Lynchburg, Virginia for the Wildcats… Emily has been wrestling for 6 years has won a state championship at her weight class and finished as a runner-up last year… She has also has been very active in wrestling outside of LDHS and has picked up many awards there.
- Bennett is a senior baseball player for the Raiders where he has been a catcher for the last several years… He will continue his education and baseball career playing for the Georgia Southern Eagles down in Statesboro, Georgia… He has been a key part of the success of the Green Boys at the catching position and has often been allowed to call the pitches for the Raiders… He also has been involved with travel ball where he has done very well.
- Raider Football at 54… They have now been playing football at Laurens District 55 High School for 54 years… For you old timers out there as well as the relatively newcomers have you ever wondered how many games the Raiders have won in those 54 years? Who have been the head coaches and their records at LDHS? When were they region champs? State Champs? Well if you want to know the answer to those questions and others, Doug Holiday has been compiling such information and has sent me a document with all sorts of information about Raider football history… If you would like to see that document, click here… Thanks to Doug for this information.
- 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.
Laurens Academy
- Crusaders on the Road… As a reminder, the Laurens Academy Crusaders took a 56-22 win over the Cross School Stingrays last Friday night at Todd Kirk Field in the opening round of the SCISA 8-Man Football Playoffs… That win allowed them to advance to tonight semi-final game against the Jefferson Davis Academy Raiders down in Blackville… The Crusaders are going to find the Raiders a much tougher team as they are 12-1 on the season and are averaging 413 points per game while giving up only 11 points per game… The Crusaders are 38.4 points per game while giving up 29.5 points per game… If you would lie to see the Jeff Davis schedule and scores this season, click here… If you do that, you will note they have played 3 common opponents and both the Raiders and the Cysaders each defeated those 3 opponents by similar margins.
- Coach Doolittle Comments… Yesterday I was able to sit down and talk with Coach Jolly Doolittle about last week’s one-sided win against the Stingrays and tonight’s game against the Raiders… He agreed that yes the Crusaders took a big win against the Stingrays but that was last week and the Raiders will be tougher team and they will need to pay that well or even better this week… They must stop the Raiders dominating ground game and find a way to get past their stingy defense… If you would like to hear that interview click here… I hope that a large number of Crusader fans will follow them down tonight because if the Crusaders win tonight, they advance to the SCSA 8-Man Football Championship Game next Friday against the winner of the Wardlaw vs. Richard Winn game tonight at a location yet to be determined by SCISA… Go Crusaders!
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… The next meeting will be on Thursday, Nov. 21st.
S.C. Prep Football Media Poll… Here are the rankings for the S.C. Prep Football Media Poll released Tuesday, Nov. 12… This is the final poll of the season… First-place votes and the team records are in parentheses.
- CLASS 5A: 1. Dutch Fork (17) (9-0), 2. Northwestern (1) (10-0), 3. Summerville (10-0), 4. Sumter (10-0), 5. Irmo (9-1), 6. Gaffney (8-1) ↑ 1, 7. Spartanburg (7-2), 8. JL Mann (8-2), 9. TL Hanna (8-2) and 10. Greenwood (8-2)… Others receiving votes: River Bluff and Dorman,
- Clover CLASS 4A: 1. Westside (18) (9-0), 2. Daniel (8-1), 3. South Pointe (8-2), 4. Hartsville (8-1-1), 5. North Augusta (9-1), 6. South Florence (7-3), 7. Wren (7-2), 8. Bishop England (8-2), 9. Hilton Head Island (8-2) 10. (tie) Seneca (8-2) and 10. (tie) May River (7-2)… Others receiving votes: Camden, Gray Collegiate, AC Flora and Greer
- CLASS 3A: 1. Belton-Honea Path (13) (9-1), 2. Mountain View Prep (5) (9-0), 3. Loris (9-1), 4. Dillon (8-2), 5. Woodruff (8-1), 6. Oceanside Collegiate (6-3), 7. Powdersville (7-3), 8. Newberry (6-3), 9. Orangeburg-Wilkinson (7-3) and 10. Swansea (7-3)… Others receiving votes: Christ Church, Waccamaw, Keenan and Crescent
- CLASS 2A: 1. Batesburg-Leesville (18) (10-0), 2. Barnwell (9-1), 3. Fairfield Central (9-1,) 4. Clinton (8-2), 5. Saluda (8-1), 6. Manning (9-1), 7. Philip Simmons (8-2), 8. Hampton County (7-2), 9. (tie) Strom Thurmond (6-3) and. (tie) Central (8-2)… Others receiving votes: Cheraw and Timberland.
- CLASS A: 1. Abbeville (15) (8-1), 2. Lewisville (3) (9-1), 3. Lake View (8-1), 4. Hunter-Kinard-Tyler (8-1), 5. Bamberg-Ehrhardt (7-2), 6. Cross (8-2), 7. Blackville-Hilda (8-2), 8. Lamar (7-3), 9. Hannah-Pamplico (7-2) and 10. Branchville (8-2)… Others receiving votes: Dixie, Lee Central and Ridgeland.
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….The latest College Football Rankings came out on 11-9-24 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, Texas, Penn State and Indiana… Spots 6 – 10 are held by BYU Tennessee, Notre Dame, Miami and Alabama…. Spots 11 and 12 are occupied by Ole Miss and Georgia… To see the list of the entire top 25 in the in the Playoff Rankings click here… Clemson is #20 on this list and south Carolina is #21… Not much chance of them getting into the top 12 unless a lot of teams above them fall apart.
- 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.