SPORTS REPORT
And it’s time to turn the page on another season of high school football in the Lowco. It was a devastating Friday night for teams from the Lowco in round 2 of the South Carolina High School League playoffs, but an area SCISA power salvaged the weekend by capturing a state title Saturday afternoon.
Four teams hit the road to rep the Lowco on Friday night, and none of them survived the trip.
The Hilton Head Seahawks traded punches with perennial power South Florence early on, and it was a 28-21 game at halftime, but the Seahawks had no answer for Bruins speedster Jayden Sellers. The younger brother of Gamecocks QB LaNorris Sellers racked up 227 yards and four touchdowns on 12 carries and caught three passes for 105 yards and another score to help South Florence pull away for a 56-28 win and end the Seahawks’ sensational season.
It looked like the Hampton County Hurricanes would carry the Lowco banner into round 3 when Rafe Sullivan’s second field goal of the second half put the Canes on top 20-7 at Manning with 10 minutes left, but the Monarchs rallied to force overtime. Hampton got it first in overtime and scored on the first play for a 27-20 lead, but Manning punched it in from the 1 on fourth down, then rolled the dice and went for two, pushing into the end zone to eliminate the Canes with a 28-27 heartbreaker.
May River couldn’t get its ground game going in a 36-6 loss to North Augusta, and Cross clobbered Ridgeland 54-0, locking the Lowco out of the rest of the playoffs.
So that made the SCISA 1A championship game at Charleston Southern our football finale for the 2024 season, and the Thomas Heyward Rebels sent us off in style. Tony O’Banner capped off his tremendous junior season with 214 yards and two touchdowns on the ground, and Kiran Boggess and Josh Gibson hooked up for a score, while THA’s defense dominated like it has all season.
Beau Pinckney racked up 13 tackles, Donovan Robinson had 11 tackles, and Gibson picked off two passes as the Rebels walloped Williamsburg Academy 23-8 to avenge their only loss of the season and claim their fifth state title in seven years.
The Rebels weren’t the only state champs from the Lowco this weekend, though, because the Bluffton Bobcats swept the Class 4A cross country championships on Friday, sending longtime coach Dana House out with a rare double. Bluffton’s girls blazed to the title by a wide margin with three runners in the top 10 and five in the top 25, while the Bobcat boys edged rival Hilton Head by two points despite a runner-up finish from Seahawk senior JD Gilman.
That means it's officially basketball season in the Lowco, and the USCB Sand Sharks were in The Cove on Saturday for the first doubleheader of the season. The USCB women came up short in a tough matchup with Edward Waters, falling 63-56, but the men impressed in their home debut. D1 transfer Alejandro Ralat scored 17 points to lead five Sand Sharks in double digits and dished out eight assists to lead USCB to an 89-72 win to improve to 6-0 going into Tuesday’s showdown with Savannah State at Enmarket Arena.
Among the weekend highlights on the high school hoops scene, John Paul II swept a pair from Hilton Head Prep — look out for the JPII boys this season — and the boys from Bridges Prep and Whale Branch both won big with a head-to-head matchup looming Tuesday in the Earl Campbell Preseason Tournament in Seabrook.
We’ll talk more about all of this LOCAL sports news and set the stage for a busy holiday week when we’re live at 9:30pm tonight for the LowcoSports Lowdown. Tune in to the Lowco Media YouTube channel for all the LOCAL sports news you need.
Justin Jarrett, Lowco Sports
Last Night in the LowCo
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WHHI Daily News Anchor: Bob Stevens
November 2024
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