Week 5 Game Balls: Defensive Edition, Midlands Area

<p style="font-weight: 400;">The Midlands area had so many outstanding performances this past weekend, we had to break them out into defensive and offensive Game Ball editions. First up, we will look at the defense. Later today, Game Balls for the offensive side will be published.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Mark Brown</strong>, Hammond - Brown led the Hammond defense in a 42-0 shutout of Laurence Manning. The senior linebacker contributed 12 tackles, three tackles for loss, a sack and two quarterback pressures.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Kaleb Caldwell</strong>, North Central - Caldwell was a standout and on special teams in north Central’s 36-14 victory over Battery Creek. Caldwell, a defensive back, intercepted three passes and added a blocked block that resulted in a touchdown.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="202743" first="Zyeir" last="Gamble"]</strong>, Sumter - The junior defensive back intercepted three passes in a 33-14 victory over St. James. He ran two of the interceptions back for touchdowns.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="153240" first="Mondell" last="Hutto"]</strong>/<strong>[player_tooltip player_id="202737" first="David" last="Wilson"]</strong>, Spring Valley - These two dominated in a hard-hitting 14-7 win over South Pointe. Hutto, a defensive end, registered 17 tackles, three tackles for loss, five sacks and a quarterback pressure. Wilson was just as good. The linebacker tied Hutto with a team-high 17 tackles to go along with four tackles for loss, dour sacks and six quarterback pressures.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Amah-Dre Leaphart</strong>, Batesburg-Leesville – Leaphart is put here for his play on both sides of the ball. He had six total tackles and two for a loss on defense. On offense, he ran for 171 yards and two touchdowns in a 33-18 victory over Dreher.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="89338" first="Xzavier" last="McLeod"]</strong>, Camden – The highly-touted junior came up with four tackles, a tackle for loss, a fumble recovery, a forced fumble and two pass break-ups in a 11-6 win over Lake City.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="200693" first="Tyler" last="Robinson"]</strong>/<strong>Malik Heyward</strong>, A.C. Flora - The Falcons defensive back combination was instrumental in helping A.C. Flora to a 50-28 victory over Chapin. They each had two interceptions as the Falcons forced six turnovers. Robinson added three tackles while Heyward contributed two.</p>