Lower State Championships Game Balls 

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The advantage of playing state semifinals at home was on full display Friday night around the Lower State.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Of the six games, the home team won all of them. Summerville, Irmo, South Florence, Oceanside Collegiate, Hampton County and Bamberg-Ehrhardt are all heading to Orangeburg for this week's state championships. And the following players more than did their part of make it happen.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Our Lower State round Game Balls are a collection of superb efforts at exactly the right time.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1196428' first='Jalen' last='McGraw']</strong> LB/RB, and <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='816740' first='Marcus' last='Cann']</strong> ATH, Bamberg-Ehrhardt</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Even with everything Cross brought to the table, it was McGraw and Cann who ultimately made sure their team was still playing next week. The senior two-way standout had a few nice runs throughout the game, when he had nine carries for 94 yards, and he excelled on defense to keep the Trojans' offense in check. He finished the night with 11 total tackles, three tackles for loss and a pair of sacks. Cann scored two touchdowns to go along with 148 rushing yards on 16 carries.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:acf/hudl {"name":"acf/hudl","data":{"embed_code":"u003ciframe src='https://www.hudl.com/embed/video/3/18292483/692b084a3f11789fee4cd745' width='640' height='360' frameborder='0' allowfullscreenu003eu003c/iframeu003e","_embed_code":"field_62daf7995fd8c"},"mode":"edit","alignText":"left","anchor":"acf-block-692c5a9fe8af2"} /--> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1165165' first='Jaylen' last='Singletary']</strong> ATH, Hampton County</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Singletary kept a season for the ages going by adding another five touchdowns rushing in the 43-22 win over Central. Singletary will enter Saturday's Class 2A state championship game against Strom Thurmond with 47 scores on the year, which is more than enough to place him into the Palmetto's Finest Record book. All but five of those scores have come on the ground, and that's where he did the bulk of his damage Friday. Against the Eagles, Singletary had 24 carries for 273 yards. It was his fifth 200-yard game of the year, and he now has 2,482 yards rushing on the year.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:acf/hudl {"name":"acf/hudl","data":{"embed_code":"u003ciframe src='https://www.hudl.com/embed/video/3/18598845/692b34173f11789fee4d29d6' width='640' height='360' frameborder='0' allowfullscreenu003eu003c/iframeu003e","_embed_code":"field_62daf7995fd8c"},"mode":"edit","alignText":"left","anchor":"acf-block-692c5a9fe8b1f"} /--> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1592182' first='Terence' last='Johnson']</strong> WR, <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1094944' first='Aiden' last='Manavian']</strong> QB, <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1771847' first='Jordan' last='Wright'] </strong>DB, <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1025774' first='Sawyer' last='Arnold']</strong> DL, and <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1824759' first='Rhys' last='Meredith']</strong> LB, Oceanside Collegiate</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>With a Loris team that entered Friday night averaging seven touchdowns a game, Oceanside's defense did what no one else has been able to so far in a 38-7 win. Meredith had another big tackle game, finished with 11 tackles and two tackles for loss. Wright sniffed out a trick play and picked off a pass downfield. And Arnold was in Gerald's grill throughout the evening, recording a pair of sacks and five quarterback pressures. As for the other side of the ball, that's where Manavian and Johnson again did their thing. The junior quarterback was 22-of-34 for 307 yards and two touchdowns. Johnson (pictured) hauled in one of those scores from 15 yards out, caught seven total passes for 138 yards and scored two more touchdowns on the ground en route to another 65 yards of offense with his legs. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:acf/hudl {"name":"acf/hudl","data":{"embed_code":"u003ciframe src='https://www.hudl.com/embed/video/3/26708729/692b034ae9186a4e3f03c015' width='640' height='360' frameborder='0' allowfullscreenu003eu003c/iframeu003e","_embed_code":"field_62daf7995fd8c"},"mode":"edit","alignText":"left","anchor":"acf-block-692c5a9fe8b41"} /--> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1820899' first='Josiah' last='Mason']</strong> (LT), <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1823529' first='Travis' last='Sansbury']</strong> (LG), <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1820912' first='Luke' last='Thayer']</strong> (C), <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1820914' first='Jerry' last='Genwright']</strong> (RG), <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1592650' first='Ethan' last='Cash']</strong> (LT), <strong>DJ James</strong> (TE), <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1823523' first='Bruce' last='Thompson']</strong> (HB), <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1166986' first='Messiah' last='Jackson']</strong> QB, <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1422638' first='Cam' last='James']</strong> RB, and <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1267265' first='Amare' last='Reaves']</strong> DB, South Florence</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Bruins wanted to control the clock against Gray Collegiate, and South's big guys up front did their job. Jackson rushed for 128 yards and five touchdowns on 15 carries. James finished with 184 yards on 16 carries. Neither of them nor back-up tailback Gabe McLaughlin were charged with a negative carry the entire game (Jackson did have one kneel down at the end of the first half). The Bruins also got another big night from Reaves. He returned a kickoff 88 yards for a score and recorded his eighth interception of the season in the first half.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:acf/hudl {"name":"acf/hudl","data":{"embed_code":"u003ciframe src='https://www.hudl.com/embed/video/3/19514949/692a76123f11789fee4b46f1' width='640' height='360' frameborder='0' allowfullscreenu003eu003c/iframeu003e","_embed_code":"field_62daf7995fd8c"},"mode":"edit","alignText":"left","anchor":"acf-block-692c5a9fe8b62"} /--> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='755890' first='Amire' last='White']</strong> RB, <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1422528' first='Maleek' last='Miller']</strong> ATH, <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1172366' first='Tyrone' last='Jennings']</strong> DL, and <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='755914' first='Jaiden' last='Bryant']</strong> DL, Irmo</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>It would be hard to call these Yellow Jackets Irmo's Big 4 - as this roster is loaded with all sorts of talent. But White, Miller, Jennings and Bryant all had monster nights in the 44-6 win over Berkeley before heading to the bench late. White finished with 142 yards on the ground and two touchdowns. Miller caught four passes for 43 yards, had five carries for 56 yards and two scores and a 74-yard punt return for a score. Jennings had three sacks to go along with eight overall tackles. And Bryant returned a fumble for a score, recorded a pair of sacks and ended his game with six total tackles.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:acf/hudl {"name":"acf/hudl","data":{"embed_code":"u003ciframe src='https://www.hudl.com/embed/video/3/18363206/692b31c084423567d990d08d' width='640' height='360' frameborder='0' allowfullscreenu003eu003c/iframeu003e","_embed_code":"field_62daf7995fd8c"},"mode":"edit","alignText":"left","anchor":"acf-block-692c5a9fe8b81"} /--> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1215391' first='Jayven' last='Williams']</strong> RB, and <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1267285' first='JT' last='Williams']</strong> LB, Summerville&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The two Williams spurred excellent collective efforts on their respective sides of the ball in the Green Wave's 45-16 thumping of James Island. The tailback followed his offensive line into open territory, rushing 21 times for 230 yards and four of the team's five rushing touchdowns on the night. The linebacker Williams put up 12 tackles and two tackles for loss in preventing James Island's offense from ever getting its own run game going and having to turn into a one-dimensional scheme. Consider this: The Trojans averaged 38 points per game in 2025. But in two games against Summerville, that average was 12.5.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->