Week 9 Preview: Midlands Area

<p style="font-weight: 400;">High School football is in the final stretch with two weeks remaining in the regular season. Teams are jockeying for playoff position and several games tonight could decide things. Here is a look at the top games across the Midlands area.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Irmo (4-2, 3-0) at Westwood (3-4, 2-1)</strong></p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Irmo can clinch the Region 4-4A championship and No. 1 seed with a win. Quarterback <strong>Izayah Whiteside</strong> has thrown for over 1,500 yards with his top wide receiver being <strong>Dearee Rogers</strong>. <strong>Erick Tucker</strong> is the leading rusher for the Yellow Jackets. Westwood quarterback <strong>Camren Brown</strong> has thrown for 1,047 yards and 12 scores. His top wide receiver is <strong>Noah Jennings</strong>, who has 662 yards and eight touchdowns. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="92206" first="Julian" last="Milligan"]</strong> has been the workhorse on the ground with 703 yards rushing and nine scores.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Lexington (6-1, 2-0) at Dutch Fork (7-0, 3-0)</strong></p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Dutch Fork is closing out its region slate this week and can claim another title with a win. The Silver Foxes have not punted in five full games, and they look to keep that streak alive against the Wildcats. QB <strong>Davin Patterson</strong>, RB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="91136" first="Jarvis" last="Green"]</strong> and WR <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="61070" first="Antonio" last="Williams"]</strong> are the three leading playmakers on offense. The Wildcats were off last week but will turn to RBs <strong>Tyler Walker</strong> and <strong>Keshawn Gladden</strong> along with QB <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="208887" first="Taiden" last="Mines"]</strong> to try and keep the ball away from the Silver Foxes.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Spring Valley (5-3, 2-1) at Blythewood (3-4, 0-2)</strong></p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">Spring Valley looks to secure the No. 2 seed from Region 4-4A with a win. They can’t have a letdown after losing to Northwestern last week. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="59480" first="DeQuandre" last="Smith"]</strong> threw for 335 yards in that loss with <strong>Jack Aldighieri </strong>catching seven passes for 153 yards and a score. The Bengals have lost three in a row and need to find some offense. LB <strong>Myles Cotton</strong> set the school record for tackles, but RB <strong>Desmond Boatwright</strong> must help the defense.</p> <p style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Strom Thurmond (4-2, 2-1) at Gilbert (6-2, 2-1)</strong></p> <p style="font-weight: 400;">The loser of this contest will be out of the running for the Region 5-3A title. There was a 4-way logjam at the top coming into this week. Orangeburg-Wilkinson won on Thursday night to hold a half game lead coming into tonight. The winner of this one will keep pace. Gilbert RBs <strong>Alias Graham-Woodbury</strong> and Jaden<strong> Allen-Hendrix</strong> will have to find a way against a Rebels defense that has allowed just 40 points over the last five games. RB <strong>Chris Barnes</strong> leads the Strom Thurmond offense.</p>