Sports Report for Friday, 12-6-2024

2024 SCHSL Football Brackets… I now have all the SCHSL football brackets for all classifications available… Look over in the Featured Sports Section for a posting with them or simply click here… Enjoy

Local Notes

Clinton HS

Red Devils Play for Upper State Championship… I think most of the sports fans in the area know that the Red Devils will be playing the Fairfield-Central Griffins tonight at 7:30 at Wilder Stadium for the Class AA Upper State Championship… Let’s look at the two teams from the stat point of view… All stats below come from MaxPreps
- Records: The Griffins come into the game with a 12-1 record, losing only their opening game to Ridge View 42-18… The Red Devils are 12-2 losing to Woodruff 40-36 in the opening game of the season and to Daniel 37-12 in September.
- Points Per Game: The Griffins are averaging 43.5 points per game while giving up 12.9 points per game… They were ranked #3 in the last SC Media Prep Football Poll… The Red Devils are averaging 41.3 points per game while giving up 19.9 points per game and were ranked #4 in the last SC Media Prep Football Poll
- Rushing and Passing: The Griffins are averaging 154.7 yards per game rushing and 121.8 yards per game passing… The Red Devils are averaging 340.1 yards per game and 94.3 yards per game passing… The Griffins have 60 rushing TDs while the Red Devils have 54… The Griffins have 14 passing TDs while the Red Devils have 12.
- Rushing Leaders: The leading rusher for the Griffins is #2 Tydarion Grier who is averaging 152.5 yards per game and has scored 35 rushing TDs… Javen Cook has come on to be the leading rusher for the Red Devils averaging 136.6 yards per game and has scored 21 rushing TDs.
- Passing Leaders: Number 3 Kadden Diggs and #11 Ford Davis have split the quarterback duties for the Griffins… Diggs has completed 51 of 79 pass attempts for 655 yards and 3 TDs while being intercepted 3 times… Davis is 32 of 52 for 517 yards with 6 TDs and 5 interceptions… Tushawn Richardson is 61 of 112 for 1059 yards with 12 TDs and 2 interceptions.
- Receiving: The three main receivers for the Griffins are #13 Jayden with 11 receptions for 323 yards and 2 TDs, #15 Jalen Squirewell with 15 receptions for 309 yards and 2 TDs and #19 TyQuarius Shannon who has 11 receptions for just 181 yards but 5 of them were for TDs… For the Red Devils Devin Swindler has 20 catches for 422 yards and 6 TDs while Chris Boyd has 15 receptions for 296 yards and 3 TDs.
- Interview with Coach Fountain… Earlier this week I did an interview with Coach Corey Fountain where we talked a little bit about last week’s game with Batesburg-Leesville and also about tonight’s game… If you want to hear that interview click here.
- Bottom Line… The Red Devils face a very tough opponent tonight and they really need a full house of Red Devil fans to cheer them on… Please come out if you can and cheer them on to another win! Another win puts them in the championship game next Thursday down in Orangeburg. 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 Fairfield-Central Griffins this Friday Night at 7:30 pm in third 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 gate, 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 and no locally issued passes will be accepted… Everyone entering must have a ticket… All of this is per SCHSL rules and regulations… Gates will open at 6:30 pm… Go Big Red.!

Laurens HS

Wrestling… Good luck to the Raider wrestling team as they participate in the Fury Invitational tomorrow… Click here for a little more information.

Laurens Academy

Basketball at Home Today… The 4 Crusader basketball teams will be hosting Spartanburg Christian today starting with middle school girls’ action at 4:00 pm.

Thornwell

Basketball… The schedules I have shows that both teams will be headed to Dixie tonight for their first region games… Go Big Dogs!

Middle School Basketball… All games start at 5:00 pm unless otherwise noted with girls’ game first followed by boys’ game… Note: coaches very often change schedule without telling me… To see the season master schedule click here… NOTE…Dixie and Thornwell do NOT have middle school girls teams this season so the 5:00 pm start will be for the boys’ game… Games results from last night:

Sanders at Dixie (Wednesday)… The sanders boys traveled to Dixie on Wednesday and all I can tell you is that Sanders won 44-34… Dixie does not have a girl’s team this season.
GCO at Whitmire… All I can tell you here is that the GCO Tigers lost both games at Whitmire yesterday.
Ware Shoals at Hickory Tavern… These games were postponed due to a scheduling conflict.
Laurens MS at Thornwell … No one sent me the scores… If you see the coaches, please ask them to do so in the future.
Sanders at Dixie… The boys’ defeated Dixie boys 44-34 Wednesday night. Dixie does not have a girls’ team.

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 next meeting which is the Annual Awards Banquet will be on Wednesday, January 8^th at The Ridge… The featured speaker for the January 8th Annual Awards Banquet will be former Clemson football great Brian Mance… Mance was named the 2023 South Carolina Football Hall of Fame “Humanitarian of the Year…”The TD Club will recognize its All-County team selection as well as 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 Laurens County Touchdown Club last meeting was on Thursday, 11-21-24. In addition to honoring the three latest Players of the Week and hearing from the local high school and college coaches, it was the annual Clemson-Carolina Meeting. The guest speakers were Don Munson the Voice of the Clemson Tigers and Chet Tucker Sideline Reporter for the Gamecocks. Click here to see a video of that meeting followed by a few pictures taken at the meeting. .

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: Basketball…. Also you can click on the following to see their schedule on MaxPreps: Varsity Girls and Varsity Boys.… You can also click here to see the master basketball schedule for the Crusade teams. .
Thornwell: To see the Thornwell varsity basketball schedules and results click on one of the following: Varsity Girls, Boys… Also Master Schedule that includes middle school games 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… In the polls the number in parenthesis (?) indicates their rank in the last poll if it is different from the present one.

College Football Playoff Rankings….The latest College Football Rankings came out on 12-3-24 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, Texas (3), Penn State (4), Notre Dame (5) and Georgia (7) moved into the #5 spot… Spots 6 – 10 are held by Ohio State (2), Tennessee (8), SMU (9), Indiana (10) and Boise State (11)… Spots 11 and 12 are occupied by Alabama (13) and Miami (6)… South Carolina checked in at #14 (15) and Clemson dropped to #17 down from #12… To see the list of the entire top 25 in the in the Playoff Rankings click here… NOTE: There is a lot more about possible seeding’s and what the playoffs may look like in this posting.

FBS AP Poll… The latest FBS AP Poll (11-30-24) did have some changes in the top 5 this week … Ranking last week in (parenthesis) if a change… In order they are Oregon, Texas, Penn State (4), Notre Dame (5) and Georgia (6)… Spots 6-10 are occupied, Tennessee (7), Ohio State (2), SMU (9), Indiana (10) and Boise State (11)… Clemson checks in at #18 while South Carolina moved up to 13 this week after the 17-14 win over Clemson … To see the entire top 25 AP Poll click here
FCS Coaches Poll… The FCS Coaches Poll (11-24-24) still has Montana State at #1 and South Dakota 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 at #18 with Harvard…To see the entire FCS Coaches Poll click here.
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.

College Basketball… In the polls the number in parenthesis (?) indicates their rank in the last poll if it is different from the present one… If there is a score given or game(s) click on it to see details on the game(s).

Men

DI AP Poll… The latest AP Top 25 Poll (12-2-24) still has Kansas as #1 but there were changes after that… Auburn (4), Tennessee (7), Kentucky (8) and Marquette (10) round out the top 5… To see the remainder of the top 25 click here.
DI Scores… To see the scores foe last night and also for the previous couple of days click here… You can also look ahead to the next few days to see who will be playing.
Standings by Conference… To see the conference standings for each of the DI conferences, click here… It’s a long list so if you want to see say the SEC standings, you have to scroll down a good bit.

Women

DI AP Poll… The latest AP Top 25 Poll (12-1-24) has some changes in the top 5… UCLA is still #1, UConn, South Carolina (4), Texas (5) and LSU (7) …To see the remainder of the top 25 click here.
DI Scores… To see the scores foe last night and also for the previous couple of days click here… You can also look ahead to the next few days to see who will be playing.
Standings by Conference… To see the conference standings for each of the DI conferences, click here… It’s a long list so if you want to see say the SEC standings, you have to scroll down a good bit.

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,

This & That:

25^th Anniversary Reindeer Run, Sat. Dec. 14… On Saturday December 14^th, 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. 22^nd … 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.