South Florence is making its third straight title game appearance

By Dennis Brunson

Hssr.com Associate Editor

Florence –
South Florence High The school is playing in its third straight AAAA football state championship game. Bruins head coach
Drew Marlowe said that this is the most unexpected of the three.

Two years ago, SFHS was led by the current
South Carolina quarterback
LaNorris Salesmen and went 15-0 en route to his first state title. Last year, South Florence carried a 14-0 record into the title game before losing to
The west side 34-32.

On Friday, the Bruins will try to keep Westside from winning two in a row as they battle in a rematch at
South Carolina State The university’s Oliver C. Dawson Stadium in Orangeburg begins at 19.36

“They’re all a little different,” said Marlowe, whose team brings an 11-3 record into the contest. “This one is a lot different than the ones we’ve had in the past. At the beginning of the year, if you had told me we’d be playing for a state championship, I wouldn’t have believed you. We’ve really improved throughout the year . They’ve shown the most growth of any team I’ve ever coached.”

Marlowe said an inexperienced team had to grow up quickly because of the early schedule.

“Last year we graduated 29 seniors, had five guys that were 4-year starters,” Marlowe said. “We didn’t necessarily play a lot of freshmen or sophomores, we just had a lot of guys who hadn’t played a lot of football. Two of our first three games were against Summerville and Northwestern, and both are still playing (Summerville for the AAAAA Division I title, Northwestern for the AAAAA Division II title. It was a big learning experience for us. It was a game where they honestly kicked us in the ass.”

The Bruins like to run the football offensively with a powerful running game. They have a 2-back set that has senior
Zion
Gilbert and senior
Three Leonards. Gilbert has rushed for 952 yards and nine touchdowns on 113 carries. Leonard has 1,287 yards and 15 touchdowns on 120 carries.

Junior quarterback
Messiah Jackson has carried the ball 92 times for 324 yards and nine more scores.

They run behind a line that has seniors
Jayden Granger
at left tackle, senior
Barry McLaughlin at left guard, senior
EJ King at center, senior
Tyler Cockfield
at right guard and junior
Josiah Mason at right tackle.

Also playing major roles in the blocking scheme is the junior tight end
Ethan Cash and junior H-Back
Bruce Thompson.

Even though the main focus of the offense is the run game, that doesn’t mean SFHS can’t move it through the air. Jackson has completed 124 of 211 passes for 1,933 yards and 27 touchdowns against eight interceptions.

He has two excellent wide receivers to throw it to in the senior year
Jayden Sellers and senior
Lennix Valarie. Sellers, who has signed to join brother LaNorris at USC, has 52 catches for 888 yards and 11 touchdowns. Valarie has 40 catches for 785 yards and 11 touchdowns.

Sellers also has 472 rushing yards and 10 scores on 54 carries.

The defense is led by senior 5-star recruit
Amare Adams at one end. The
Clemson signee has 73 tackles, 13 tackles for loss, five quarterback sacks and five QB hurries.

Senior
Jeremiah Mitchell and junior
Brendan Williams sharing time at noseguard while junior
Marquez McKithen is the other end. Mitchell has 22 tackles and two TFLs, Williams has 24 tackles and one TFL, and McKithen has 21 tackles and two TFLs.

Senior
Cameron Coe and another student
Terry Gordon are the outside linebackers while juniors
Willie Kennedy is on the will and a first-year student
Warnell Prew
at Mike’s. Coe has 85 tackles, three sacks and six TFLs, Gordon has 84 tackles, four sacks and 13 TFLs, Kennedy has a team-high 108 tackles with four TFLs and Prew has 77 tackles and three TFLs.

The cornerbacks are juniors
Will Wilson and senior Avon Rosado while the strong safety is a junior
Amare Reaves and the free safety is a junior
Gerkeimn Hall
is the free security. Wilson has 42 tackles, Rosado has 62 tackles and two TFLs, Reaves has 51 tackles and one TFL, and Hall has 52 tackles and a team-high four interceptions.

Senior
Evan Holland
is the kicker for extra points and field goals. He has connected on 65 of 68 PAT attempts. Junior
Bryson
Brockington is snapper while junior
Ben Tyner
is the owner.

Coe and Jackson share punting duties with Tyner serving as the snapper.

Sellers returns both kickoffs and punts. He is averaging 26.2 yards per carry. return on nine punt returns, taking three of them back for touchdowns. Leonard and freshmen
Semaj Parker return kickoffs and Reaves returns punts.

Jackson improved tremendously in the offseason and put in the work in January to be a great QB and leader for us working hard every Saturday in January until the season started. Emergence of
Lennix Valerie who played in only 4 games last year is healthy this year. These two guys push hard and show dedication to playing their best.

I really think Jayden didn’t play last year 7-7 over the summer. Lead recipient spring and summer. His confidence has grown with big body receiver 6-3, 175 go et it and good ball skills. He plays with energy and a lot of toughness this year.

This year we have had some outstanding plays on the offensive line. Early and broke up was not able to play all five from the beginning of the year. We also got great play from our tight ends and our H-backs who believe in hard physical running of the football.

TRre and Zion are a blessing in many ways, they seem to be very successful, pull for each other and feed off each other, pull each other and work stronger together.

This team has improved a lot. Been really good, really blessed. Especially young in defence. They struggled early until the last few weeks. The freshman middle linebacker is one of nine guys who started the very first varsity game this year. These players grew and developed as the season progressed. they started playing to win and not to lose, that seems to be how they turned it around this season. Coach Marlowe told HSSR that he is proud of how these guys stuck with it and worked through the early games to get better.

The absolute hardest challenge this job is to be aggressive in defense and maintain ball control in attack.

This South Florence team brings plenty of experience and one of the best leaders to the state title game, not because of being a great football player. It is about their hard work and team development. This is a great example of what the whole team wants to be.