Full highlights and reports from Friday's wins by region favorites Jefferson County, Burke County, and North Augusta; also more questions than answers from Thomson's win

Micah Lawson (69) and Jefferson County's offensive line came to play in Friday's win. 

The Warriors give credit where credit is due

Jefferson County coach J.B. Arnold and his star quarterback Jaden Jenkins, who rushed for 326 yards and 4 touchdowns in Friday's 38-28 win over Harlem, both gave credit after the game to the Warriors' offensive linemen and blocking backs for the team's impressive rushing performance.

"They did great the whole night. They gave me space to move around, and for the other running backs to move around, and score," Jenkins told AugBball's Rob Drew in a post game interview.  Arnold told an Augusta Chronicle reporter that Jenkins' eye popping numbers were the result of a "team effort" and that his offensive line played "lights out." The game's highlights directly below will prove those statements correct:



The Warriors improved to 3-2 overall and 3-0 in class 2A, region 4 action. Harlem fell to 3-2 overall and 2-1 in league play. The result sets up a second consecutive Friday in which the region's favorite travels to play another unbeaten-in-league-play team, this time Hephzibah (4-1, 3-0).

Even in Friday's loss, Harlem continued to show its progress, and the Bulldogs are positioned well to aim for a top 2 seed in the final region standings, which brings with it the chance to play at least one home playoff game. And Jefferson County's next opponent will also probably bring the best it has to offer and give the region's top team everything it wants to handle. But after Friday's rushing performance, I think the entire region has been put on notice that if you want to beat the Warriors you have to deal with the likes of Micah Lawson (pictured above), who stands 6 feet four inches tall and weighs 342 pounds, and the other 9 blockers who get out in front of Jenkins so he can work his magic.

Another region favorite, Burke County, runs over Effingham County for third straight win

After dropping its first two games by one point to top 10 teams each time, Burke County has rolled to three consecutive wins, the most recent being Friday's 31-14 win at home.

Samuel Hill (center-right) manhandles a defender at the line of scrimmage. Photo credit: Larry Smith

Like Jefferson County in our area's class 2A region, the Bears are the favorite when league play starts October 5th for class 4A, region 3. And like Jaden Jenkins has in Louisville, Leon Mcgee has the benefit of running behind a strong offensive line. One figure on that line you can't miss is Samuel Hill, a six foot four inch, 355 pounder who helped clear the space needed for Mcgee to tally up 3 touchdowns in Friday's win.

North Augusta's dominant showing propelled the Yellow Jackets into region play this Friday

Caree Collier prepares to pounce on Strom Thurmond's offense.

Keeping with the theme of region favorites, North Augusta finished gearing up for league play, which for them begins this Friday at home against Brookland-Cayce, with an impressive 27-3 road win over rival Strom Thurmond, which entered Friday ranked #7 in South Carolina's class 3A.

Hours after Friday's game ended I featured North Augusta's defense, which, if you can imagine it, is like a brick wall that comes flying into the opponent's backfield with speed and force. Here's a link to that breakdown if you missed it: http://augbball.blogspot.com/2018/09/reaction-to-friday-night-north-augustas.html

The full game highlights directly below continue to paint that picture. They also feature 3 drives engineered by quarterback Tanner White, who upon transferring to North Augusta has brought with him a nice blend of running and throwing, and a knack for making timely plays, like he did on North Augusta's first score, a TD pass to Lonnie Lee on third-and-eight.

Thomson's win over Grovetown brings more questions than answers

Thomson and Grovetown entered this season with high hopes with the news of each team landing high profile transfers after both teams lasted a couple rounds into the state playoffs last season. But at the halfway point of this regular season, the Bulldogs (2-3) and the Warriors (1-4) both find themselves with losing records. Region play won't begin for either team for at least two weeks. But both teams will need to find answers if they plan to fulfill the expectations they both must have when the second season begins.

Most pressing for Thomson appears to me to be the health of of star rusher Bubba Murray, who can be seen with his #3 jersey on along with a pair of crutches on the sideline in the highlight video (above) from Friday's game. Another unanswered question is why star quarterback Damekus Taylor stopped taking snaps in the middle of the video. I will try to answer those questions in the days ahead.

In the meantime, Thomson was able to get enough production from Travis Moss (112 rushing yards), Kenneth Neloms (105 yards, 1 TD), and Tyler Curry (61 yards, 1 TD) to get a much needed win before class 6A's defending state champion Lee County will invade the Brickyard this Friday.