By Thomas Grant Jr.
The Battle of Irmo is set.
When defending Class 5A champion Dutch Fork plays host to archrival and fellow unbeaten Irmo Friday night, more than just town and Lexington/Lexington School District Five bragging rights will be at stake.
There’s the Region 4-5A title and a guaranteed top seed in its respective division for the winner. The Silver Foxes (8-0, 4-0) currently lead the Division I Upper State bracket, while the Yellow Jackets (9-0, 4-0) sit atop the Lower State bracket in Division II.
Each team also looks to extend its respective winning streaks. Dutch Fork has won 15 consecutive games overall, while Irmo is riding a 21-game regular-season winning streak.
The Yellow Jackets moving up to Class 5A this year made possible the first matchup with the Yellow Jackets since 2019. Dutch Fork rolled to a 47-7 victory for its sixth straight win in the series.
“To set the record straight, Irmo would not play us,” Dutch Fork head coach Tom Knotts said. “I was always ask them every year to play. We should be playing. It’s a big rivalry and maybe we’re replacing Rock Hill as High School America here.
“We’ve got a lot of good players. Both teams. He’s got a lot of fabulous players. Coach Brand does a great job. We’re looking forward to it. Two undefeated teams all in the small town of Irmo, so we’ll see how it turns out.”
Coaches reunion
This marks the first head-to-head meeting between the two head coaches. Brand was an offensive coordinator under Knotts as national power Independence High School in Charlotte, NC before finding further success on his own at Chambers and Vance High Schools in North Carolina and now at Irmo.
“He’s as good as there is,” said Brand about Knotts. “I don’t know if you can get any insight on him because he finds a way to always kind of maneuver around what the defense does and maneuver around what the offense does. I am pretty sure this is not the only week they’ve been looking at a little bit of Irmo, but those guys will be prepared. One thing we know about that team, they’re going to play hard as all get off of him and they’re going to be as prepared as any team we’ve faced all year.”
Key matchups
Friday’s game will feature four players selected to both post-season All-Star Games. Irmo quarterback A.J. Brand, who surpassed 10,000 career total yards last week against Chapin, was selected to the Shrine Bowl having led an offense averaging 40 points per game.
“A.J’s the most dynamic player I think I’ve seen since I’ve been here,” Knotts said. “I’ve been in South Carolina 14 ½ years now. I don’t think I’ve seen anybody just that dynamic. I know in watching him in basketball too he’s a competitor. He’s a great athlete. He’s got a great, great move. A great jump cut. A great stick of his foot in the ground. He’s probably 220 pounds and he can run over you; he can run by you. He’s got a great stiff arm and he’s accurate when he throws it.”
Touchstone Energy Cooperatives All-Star Bowl teammate Ryan Love is among the offensive lineman responsible for blocking and protecting Brand. The challenge will be facing a defense which has posted eye-catching numbers:
- 31 total points allowed this season
- Fifth shutouts this season (25 since 2016)
- 27 of 32 scoreless quarters
- Holding teams to 167.9 points per game
- 26 sacks
“The challenge will be trying to find green grass for A.J.,” Brand said. “It is amazing how much grass they really cover. Brad does a good job with that defense. Tom does a good job with that team in general and they look always motivated to play and they are, for the most part, mistake-free and an assignment-oriented football team. It’s been tough trying to find some holes in that defense, but we feel like we’ve got a good defense also.”
Dutch Fork has two Shrine Bowl selections leading the defense. There’s linebacker Josh Smith, who announced his plans to sign with the University of South Carolina Tuesday and has a team-best 55 tackles to go with 12 sacks.
The other is defensive back Elgin Sessions, a West Virginia commit with two interceptions and eight pass breakups. This season has seen him locked up against some of the Palmetto State’s top receivers including University of South Carolina commit Jordon Gidron.
“He’s a good player,” said Irmo wide receiver Donovan Murph, who visited the Gamecocks this past weekend. “We’re both good players. I think it’s going to be a great matchup. It’s going to feed families. That’s what everybody comes to see. The best versus the best and its going to be great challenge for both of us.”
Brand is just as concerned about Dutch Fork’s offense. Quarterback Ethan Offing is coming off a career-best 417 yards and four touchdowns in the 41-14 win over River Bluff and targets Bickley Boykin and K.J. Smith and Touchstone Energy Cooperative All-Star Bowl running back Maurice Anderson are underrated, according to Brand.
“I don’t know everybody knows on a state basis how good they are,” he said. “But those guys can run catch. They run good routes and they do a great job of diagramming and trying to find ways to find grass and get those guys in open space. And the running back is as good as there is around. He’s a bull, goes downhill and I really like the quarterback, too. He does a good job of distributing the ball to his playmakers and kind of letting those guys make plays.
“They’re a really good football team. A really good football team and we know we have out work cut out for us.”
WACH Fox 57 will air the game as part of its Sonic Friday Night Rivals Game of the Week. It can be seen on Spectrum Cable channel 1250 or at www.wach.com.
S.C. PREP FOOTBALL MEDIA RANKINGS
Class 5A
1. Dutch Fork (15) (8-0)
2. Northwestern (1) (10-0)
3. Summerville (10-0)
4. Irmo (9-0)
5. Sumter (9-0)
6. Spartanburg (7-1)
7. Gaffney (7-1)
8. JL Mann (7-2) ↑ 1
9. TL Hanna (7-2)
10. Greenwood (7-2)
Others receiving votes: Hillcrest, Dorman, Clover, River Bluff
RPI RATINGS
Class 5A
Division I
(Upper State)
1.Dutch Fork, 8-0, 0.86398, 2. Spartanburg, 7-1, 0.76197, 3. River Bluff, 7-2, 0.69895, 4. JL Mann, 7-2, 0.67508, 5. Dorman, 6-3, 0.62036, 6. Clover, 7-3, 0.61893, 7. Lexington, 5-4, 0.595882, 8. Boiling Springs, 5-3, 0.56335, 9. Blythewood, 6-4, 0.56370, 10. Rock Hill, 5-5, 0.54581, 11. J.F. Byrnes, 4-5, 0.54255, 12. Mauldin, 2-7, 0.35300 13. Wade Hampton, 0-8, 0.21096
(Lower State)
1.Summerville, 10-0, 0.77742, 2. Sumter, 9-0, 0.75349, 3. Ridge View, 6-3, 0.64056, 4. Ashley Ridge, 7-3, 0.61842, 5. James Island, 6-3, 0.61337, 6. Carolina Forest, 5-3-1, 0.58531, 7. Fort Dorchester, 5-5, 0.51585, 8. Stratford, 4-5, 0.47463, 9. Wando, 5-5, 0.46604, 10. West Ashley, 4-6, 0.45999, 11. Cane Bay, 2-7, 0.36164, 12. Spring Valley, 0-9, 0.29078, 13. Stall, 0-8, 0.24439
Division II
(Upper State)
1.Northwestern, 10-0, 0.81007, 2. Gaffney, 7-1, 0.69433 3. TL Hanna, 7-2, 0.66099, 4. Greenwood, 7-2, 0.64891, 5. Hillcrest, 7-2, 0.61847, 6. Catawba Ridge, 7-3, 0.58371, 7. Riverside, 4-4, 0.52357, 8. Indian Land, 5-5, 0.48252, 9. Eastside, 4-4, 0.44713, 10. Woodmont, 3-6, 0.43356, 11. Nation Ford, 2-8, 0.38028, 12. Greenville, 1-8, 0.34853, 13. Easley, 1-8, 0.30387, 14. Fort Mill, 1-8, 0.29509
(Lower State)
1.Irmo, 9-0, 0.81206, 2. White Knoll, 5-4, 0.61561, 3. West Florence, 6-3, 0.60009, 4. Chapin, 4-5, 0.57090, 5. Berkeley, 5-4, 0.53771, 6. Goose Creek, 5-4, 0.52977, 7. Myrtle Beach, 4-4, 0.50912, 8. Westwood, 5-5, 0.50762, 9. Socastee, 4-5, 0.46390, 10. Lugoff-Elgin, 4-6, 0.45239, 11. Lucy Beckham, 4-6, 0.42940, 12. North Myrtle Beach, 3-4, 0.42128, 13. Conway, 1-8, 0.35036, 14. St. James, 0-9, 0.23213
Photos by GoFlashWin.com
