High School Friday Nights

Friday night was another playoff night for South Carolina High School League football. The battle to determine who lands on the campus of South Carolina State in Orangeburg for the Class A Division I and II championships has been decided. The final battles to determine who shows up the first weekend in December at Williams Brice Stadium in Columbia will be decided next Friday night.

Starting with Class A, Division II, VUI favorite Ware Shoals fell down in Williston Friday night to Williston-Elko. Any doubts about the strength of Williston-Elko, due its weak schedule, were debunked in how the W-E jumped out to a 24-0 lead over the Ware Shoals Hornets in route to a 44-20 victory. It was the second year in a row Ware Shoals dropped the so called upperstate title game to W-E. Williston-Elko gets a shot at revenge next Friday at noon when they face the team that beat them for the state championship last year, Scott's Branch.

In Class A, Division I, the Tanneyhill juggernaut called Chesterfield rolled on to Orangeburg with a win over Calhoun County. The legendary Gamecock quarterback's pupils will go up against Lamar in the second game of Friday after Thanksgiving doubleheader in Orangeburg.

The bigger schools will not determine their state champions until the weekend of December 4th-5th in Williams Brice Stadium. They will be playing semi-final matchups the Friday after Thanksgiving.

In Class AA, the Abbeville Panthers defated Batesburg-Leesville and were rewarded with a hundred mile plus road trip to Pageland-Central to fight for the so called "upperstate" crown of Class AA. The winner of that game will face the winner of the Manning at Dillon game in the Brice.

In Class AAA, the upstate/lower state definitions actually make some geographical sense. In the upperstate, Clinton will travel to D.W. Daniel and in the lowerstate, Marlboro County will travel to Myrtle Beach. The matchup between tne winners of those two games in Brice just might be most interesting game of the Weekend of Champions.

In Class AAAA, Division II, Berkeley defeated Greenwood, moving on to host Goose Creek in what should be a classic lowcountry showdown. In the other semi-final game, South Pointe travels to Northwestern in what should shape up to be a Rock Hill area classic in its own right.

In Class AAAA, Division I, or the Byrnes division as VUI calls it, the Byrnes Rebels rolled on, whipping Mauldin 69-28. Next week, the Rebels will host nearby team Spartanburg in a meeting that will certainly pack 'em in the house.

Also, Gaffney made sure that the division would be an all upstate affair, handing the living legend John Mckissick's Summerville team a 35-28 loss to earn a trip to Dorman in the other semi final matchup.

Though Ware Shoals lost, it was another great Friday night for South Carolina High School Football. (We always root for those little teams) Forget shopping. If you want some real bang for your entertainment dollar, go out and watch one of the high school football matchups next Friday. VUI does not see a turkey among them.