Round 3 Game Balls: Midlands Area

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Midlands area is down to three teams still alive for a SCHSL state championship so the opportunity to hand out game balls is getting smaller and smaller. But that didn't stop these guys from standing out and earning the final game balls of the season for the Midlands.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='202733' first='Carew' last='Bates'], QB, AC Flora</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The senior signal-caller is playing some of his best football in the postseason. He didn't throw it much in a 50-19 win over West Florence, but he made it count when he did. Bates was 9-of-12 for 154 yards and three touchdowns. He threw a 37-yard TD pass to <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='202725' first='Chris' last='Lofton']</strong> and added 16 and 8-yard jump balls to <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='409839' first='Jack' last='Purdy']</strong>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Rucker Brannon, LB, Hammond</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Talk about going out with a bang. Brannon helped Hammond to its sixth straight SCISA state championship and the fourth since he started playing on the varsity. In the 52-0 dismantling of Laurence Manning this past Friday, Brannon recorded two interceptions, one in which he returned for a score. Against SCISA competition this season, Rucker and his first-string teammates only allowed one touchdown.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Kyleke Mathis, ATH, Saluda</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Mathis scored the first two TDs of the game on runs of 2 and 41 yards to put Saluda on track to defeat Strom Thurmond 28-0 in third round action. He finished with 105 yards rushing on 14 carries. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='91136' first='Jarvis' last='Green'], RB, Dutch Fork</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Green only played a half but what a half it was. The senior had scoring runs of 54, 39 and 69 yards on his way to 191 yards rushing on just nine carries. He also added two receptions for 10 yards.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='202726' first='Markel' last='Townsend'], RB, AC Flora</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Townsend recorded his eighth 200-yard game of the season with a 206-yard, three touchdown effort in the 50-19 win over West Florence. He scored on runs of 17, 4 and 2 yards and sat out the fourth quarter.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->