Lower State Week 4 Game Balls

Friday's slate of games was a mixture of region openers and some final non-region matchups.    Some of the individual performances were what any coach would love to see during the playoffs.    We saw teammates crushing it alongside each other, some fantasy football offensive numbers and a few showings that should let fans around the state know that certain players are ready to take that next big step.   Wrap it all together, and the Lower State was full of big Week 4 performances worthy of a Game Ball.    [player_tooltip player_id='1592342' first='Connor' last='Dantzler'] QB, and [player_tooltip player_id='874321' first='Raphael' last='Puiu'] WR, James Island    The senior and the sophomore spent another week keeping themselves on track for a couple of nice individual benchmarks for the 2025 season. Dantzler, the Trojans' starting quarterback, finished the <a href="https://prepredzone.com/2025/09/dantzler-james-island-defense-throttle-st-james/">63-7 win at St. James</a> with 347 passing yards and three touchdowns. Puiu, his favorite target, caught five of those passes for 168 yards and two scores. Dantzler is on pace for 3,000 passing yards this year while Puiu is in line for a 1,000-yard sophomore campaign.     [player_tooltip player_id='1656668' first='Khalid' last='Sherman'] RB, Loris    Sherman started the Lions' scoring in a 50-6 win over Socastee with a 7-yard run in the first quarter. But what he ignited 49 seconds into the second quarter was next level. His 76-yard touchdown run made the score 13-0. He added a third rushing touchdown - which came with 2:31 left in the same period - ran the tally up to 36-0 and Loris had no interest in looking back. The Lions dropped 43 of their points in the second and third quarters and led them to their fifth straight double-digit victory to start the season.     [player_tooltip player_id='1312448' first='Jovan' last='Howard'] and [player_tooltip player_id='1603902' first='Angelo' last='Rios'] RBs, Westwood   In the biggest game to date of Stephen Burris' tenure, Howard (pictured) and Rios gave their first-year head coach and Redhawk fans reason to celebrate a win over nearby rival Blythewood. Rios finished with 21 carries for 85 yards and four receptions for 86 yards and a score. Howard countered with 11 carries for 128 yards and a touchdown and four receptions of his own for 52 yards. Together, they accounted for 351 of Westwood's 423 yards of offense in the 20-17 victory.   [player_tooltip player_id='1734528' first='Toian' last='Nabriat'] WR, North Augusta    For as good as the Yellow Jackets' rushing attack is, opponents didn't want to start seeing this team be so adept through the air. Nabriat hauled in nine receptions for 146 yards and three touchdowns, a little more than half of the total passing yards North Augusta threw for in the 56-14 region-opening win at home against Gilbert.    [player_tooltip player_id='1094944' first='Aiden' last='Manavian'] QB, Oceanside Collegiate    Manavian has had some pretty good games this season in his quest for a third straight state championship ring. He went for 454 against Calvary Day and is completing north of 64 percent of his passes on the year. Against Dutch Fork, though, we saw some of Manavian's best. He finished the 24-20 win by going 17-of-24 for 285 yards and three touchdowns. [player_tooltip player_id='1592182' first='Terence' last='Johnson'] hauled in 112 yards and two touchdowns worth while [player_tooltip player_id='1823853' first='Anthony' last='Williams'] finished with a score and 104 yards of his own.    [player_tooltip player_id='1822035' first='Ashton' last='Kellermann'] WR, Philip Simmons   Kellermann is on quite the tear, and he kept up it in Friday's win against Whale Branch. He finished the game with eight receptions for 137 yards and two touchdowns. And despite not catching a pass against Beaufort a few weeks back, Kellermann will enter region play with 26 catches for 451 yards and five scores. The favorite target for quarterback [player_tooltip player_id='1821540' first='Hayes' last='Goddard'] has put up at least seven receptions and at least one touchdown in three of his four game    [player_tooltip player_id='1822225' first='Isaiah' last='Snodgrass'] RB, Hanahan    It took a few games to get there, but Snodgrass finally burst through on Friday and showed that Hanahan can still pound the rock this fall. The 6-foot, 180-pound junior had 26 carries for 181 yards and four rushing scores in the 49-20 win against Class 2A top-10 program Timberland. It was more rushing yards than Snodgrass (or any other Hawk tailback) had put up in the team's first four games combined.    [player_tooltip player_id='1346277' first='Lorenzo' last='Kitching'] ATH, North Charleston   Kitching sailed past 1,000 all-purpose yards on the year with the help of his monster performance against Stall. In the Cougars' win, Kitching's stat line was sort of absurd. He finished with 178 rushing yards (his second game with at least that many yards on the season) and two touchdowns. He also caught 168 yards worth of passes that he used to reach the end zone two more times.    Brandon Couser (LT), [player_tooltip player_id='1822928' first='Javon' last='Canty'] (LG), Cooper Ziegler (C), Zy'Quaz Kelly (RG) and Demarcus Norris (RT) OL, Sumter   The Gamecocks opened region play with a dominating 54-0 win at home against Spring Valley. Sumter's offensive line led that charge. Behind the big guys up front, a slew of ball carriers had 451 yards and seven rushing touchdowns, led by [player_tooltip player_id='1822003' first='Cayon' last='Gordon'] with 148, Cleveland Pinckney with 118 and [player_tooltip player_id='1817005' first='Reggie' last='Shannon'] with 62. Each of those three reached the end zone once, with Jamier Bey and [player_tooltip player_id='1818346' first='Edward' last='Tiller'] tacking on one of their own and quarterback [player_tooltip player_id='1603974' first='Franklin' last='Richardson'] putting up two more. Richardson was also sacked only one time all night while completing seven-of-nine pass attempts.    Brian McMillan QB, Bamberg-Ehrhardt   McMillan is going to have a hard time sniffing his 433-yard passing performance from Sept. 12 against Calhoun County. But that won't stop him from trying. The Raiders' first-year starting quarterback led an impressive blowout of Class 2A Woodland this time around by completing 15-of-17 passes for 240 yards and four touchdowns. Despite that Bamberg-Ehrhardt's defense stayed balanced, also rushing for 230 yards.    [player_tooltip player_id='1702476' first='Jonathon' last='Cottingham'] DL, and [player_tooltip player_id='1639657' first='Walker' last='Willcox'] LB, Trinity Collegiate   Willcox had another type of game that he's had all season, finishing the Titan's 35-13 win against Dillon Christian with 15 tackles, five tackles for loss and two pass break-ups. Add that to what Cottingham did from his spot at defensive tackle and Trinity has plenty of reason to think this defense can start to produce more collectively. Cottingham finished with 10 tackles, six tackles for loss, a sack and a pass break-up of his own from the middle of the line.    [player_tooltip player_id='1036777' first='Trevon' last='Williamson'] RB, Gray Collegiate   We've seen games like this from Williamson before, but he was still wearing a Gilbert jersey the last time he really went off. Now at Gray, the junior tailback was clearly the game plan Friday in the region opener against Midland Valley. He used his 41 carries to rush for 242 yards and a pair of touchdowns. It was more offensive touches than he got in his first few games for the Eagles combined, and we expect that now Gray is playing region foes, this could start looking like the workload norm for the rest of 2025.

Friday's slate of games was a mixture of region openers and some final non-region matchups.