EXTRA POINTS: North Augusta 27, Strom Thurmond 17

NORTH AUGUSTA EXTRA POINTS

The sky couldn’t be any brighter for North Augusta right now. Last year’s 1-10 season seems like a bad memory blotted out with the promise of a potential redemption year.

The Yellow Jackets (1-0) raised the curtain on their season and beat their rival for the first time since 2003. They found at least four impact players capable of starring in a big game.

Junior linebacker Brett Johnson was credited with 21 tackles. He had 130 tackles last year and is already on the short list of the best linebackers in the area.

Junior running back Tidy Johnson could also be all-region material. He displayed a strong burst into the line and ran decisively. He often made the first defender miss and broke out a few spin moves worthy of a PlayStation3 controller. He carried the ball 19 times for 160 yards. He tore off big gains of 11, 11, 13, 39 and 72 yards.

Senior receivers Dave Dixon and Marcus Thurmond were the fastest players on the field. Thurmond beat man coverage for a 21-yard score and added a 25-yard gain on a reverse. Dixon caught three passes for 42 yards, including a 35-yard touchdown.

Then there’s Travis Murphy.

The first-year quarterback displayed good touch on the deep ball. He completed 10 of 17 passes for 138 yards with four touchdowns. No interceptions. His arm was the catalyst for the 27 unanswered points that secured the 27-17 comeback victory.

There’s also the matter of not relenting to a favored team down 17-0 at home in a game delayed almost two hours to lightning. North Augusta also seemed to be the better conditioned team in a game that ended shortly before midnight. 

Both traits speak volumes about the character and work ethic of this team. The emotional reward of Friday’s performance should stay with the Jackets for the remainder of the season.

The Yellow Jackets seems capable of making a run at a winning season, but they don’t need to go into the world-beater category just yet.

They did fumble the ball four times. They did give up 193 rushing yards to two Rebel runners. North Augusta also did not make a single first down on four of its first five possessions of the game.

STROM THURMOND EXTRA POINTS

The initial impression for Strom Thurmond is troubling.

It could have been an off night. Maybe the Jackets will prove to be one of the area’s better teams. That said, opening night exposed several flaws in what was supposed to be one of the area’s better teams this fall.

There were the seven times the Rebels put the ball on the ground. They lost five of those fumbles. The center-to-quarterback exchange is not yet a certainty.

There was the other hat-tossing matter of Strom Thurmond’s attempts to punt the football. Cord Butler went to his knee twice to field snaps on fourth down. He was ruled down immediately when his knee touched the ground. That was at least 60 yards of field position that the Rebels gave away. The Rebels fielded a kickoff inside their 25 that was inches away from going out of bounds.

It was one of those nights.

First off, the Rebels need more athletes on offense. Aramis Hillary and Oquendo Curry looked like star players surrounded by extras brought in off the street.

Hillary went 14-for-26 through the air on a night where his receivers let him down. There were at least four dropped passes. But Hillary let the fallout of an evaporated 17-0 halftime lead rattle him. Or at least stir his temper. It was a tough situation for a prep quarterback to stay composed in.

The quarterback with maybe the best intangibles in the area let his frustration show on the sideline. It’s one thing to be competitive. It’s another to maintain your composure. The quarterback has to keep it together to set the example. He’s got to be a positive anchor amid the storms circling his team.

The 6-foot-2, 216-pounder has showed ample poise on the field the last three seasons. It was nothing worth going into detail about. But it was clear he lost some of that poise with that 17-0 lead.

That may be directly attributed to circumstance. There might be no more receivers left on the team for the area’s top returning passer to work with.                                                                                                                     

His receiver corps came into the game minus a starter who had been kicked off the team. “Pooh” Williams, the team's top receiver, will not return from knee surgery for another month. Senior receiver Josh Painter left the game after re-aggravating a shoulder injury on his first reception of the night.                                                            

The lack of options reduced Hillary’s options to dink-and-dunk status in the passing game. The play-calling was also not that creative. Those calls seemed to rely on Hillary’s legs far too often. Hillary is not his older brother Coco. Coco Hillary was as much a threat to run as pass during his two All-Area seasons under center.                  

The current quarterback for the Rebels does not have the same skill set even though he’s clearly talented in his own right. Aramis Hillary has college scholarships offers from teams like Middle Tennesse and Missisippi State because of a pair of legs that are best served for buying time in the pocket for his receivers to find a crease. That is especially vital right now because his receivers looks like they need all the extra seconds they can get to break open.   

The defense looked more like blue painter’s tape than the famed “Blue Steel.” They could not stop the run or the pass. North Augusta’s Tidy Johnson ran for 160 yards. They gave up four touchdowns passes to a first-year QB.                                                                                                                              

The Rebels should expect their opponents to see this film and lick their chops about the ability to beat man coverage in the passing game. They look especially vulnerable to corner routes.

Brighter days will come for the Rebels. Curry (107 rushing yards) and Hillary (86 rushing yards) will make certain of that. But Lee Sawyer must see a slew of things to correct.

He also sees a schedule that reads Batesburg-Leesville, Laney, South Aiken and Silver Bluff over the next few weeks. The team that showed up Friday will be lucky to be 2-3 after that portion of the schedule. The Laney and South Aiken games seem like losses. The Batesburg-Leesville and Silver Bluff games seem like toss-ups.

Then again, no one really knows until Friday night. Most expected the Rebels to roll by at least two touchdowns against North Augusta.

That was before we saw what each team looked like under the lights. The game left a whole batch of evidence that suggests how each team will wind up this season. 

BOTTOM LINES

As with any game, it’s never as bad or as good as it seems. There’s always the little things to correct that matter so much in the big games against top competition.

Region play has always been much less of a challenge for the Rebels compared to their ultra-tough non-region schedule the last few years. This team is still plenty good enough to reach the playoffs considering the region it plays in.

This roster should be watching the recovery of top receiver “Pooh” Williams very closely over the next month. A big-play man in the passing game will go a long way toward aiding a lot of the team’s ills on Friday night.

Things are not as bad as they seem for the Rebels. If they had cut down on those fumbles, they still might have held on for a slim victory. Keep in mind the Yellow Jackets are a higher-classification team that looks to be improved this fall.

As for the Yellow Jackets, the first two weeks of the season must have them chomping at the bit. They should definitely be seen as a playoff contender in their region after what has taken place so far over the first two weeks of the season.

Aiken looks down. Way down. South Aiken looks like it will have trouble scoring points against any team without Calvin Fuller.

Dan Pippin showed again Friday he can still prepare a team to play well and play hard under the toughest of circumstances. The Yellow Jackets seem to have enough to contend for a playoff spot this year.