First Round Game Balls: Greenville, Pickens, and Anderson

One week is in the books, and the SCHSL playoff field has been cut in half. Here’s a look at players in the Spartanburg, Cherokee, and Laurens area who turned in first round performances worthy of Prep Redzone game balls. Greenville’s [player_tooltip player_id="102962" first="Prometheus" last="Franklin II"] threw 10 passes and completed 8 in the Red Raiders’ first-round blowout win. Five of them were touchdowns. Franklin tossed scores of 32, 50, 17, 40, and 20 yards to lead Greenville to the second round and a huge matchup with A.C. Flora. In a one-point thriller against Broome, Powdersville LB [player_tooltip player_id="89333" first="Jalen" last="Rambert"] used his talents on both sides of the ball to help the Patriots stay undefeated. Powdersville’s leader on the defensive side of the ball, Rambert had two carries on offense for the Patriots on Friday. Both were touchdowns, and he later provided a crucial two-point conversion that proved to be the game-winner. Westside gutted out a gritty 24-21 over Greer, thanks in large part to the talents of <strong>Hunter Puckett</strong> and [player_tooltip player_id="59489" first="Amir" last="Dendy"]. Puckett rushed for 150 yards on 22 carries, while Dendy had 131 yards on 14 attempts. Puckett scored an early TD and had one in the fourth quarter to Give Westside a lead. After Greer rallied to re-take the advantage, Dendy’s fourth-quarter score gave the Rams the lead for good. In T.L. Hanna’s overtime win over Dorman, <strong>Walt Smith</strong> came up huge for the Yellow Jackets. He carried the ball 15 times for 116 yards, including a touchdown with just under five minutes to play that pulled T.L. Hanna to within two points, allowing them to tie the game and send it to overtime. Hillcrest’s <strong>Bennett Judy</strong> continued his stellar season in the Rams’ win over Riverside. Judy rushed for 37 yards, passed for 281, and accounted for 6 total touchdowns.