Cav’s getting better as region play begins

By Neill Kirkpatrick

Special to the HSSR

Greenville – It has been an up and down year so far for the Cavaliers of Christ Church Episcopal School. The season started with three straight loses and then after their first win all the momentum they gained was lost due to Hurricane Helene ravaging the up state.

The Cav’s last two games have been cancelled with the one of the games being a region match up with rival St. Jospeh Catholic. At the present time there has been no make up date scheduled. The Cavs game with the Hampton County Hurricanes being cancelled all together.

A closer look at the Cav’s schedule would revel that they have played some top teams. Their three loses were to teams with a combined record of 12-2. The good news that despite the subpar start the Cav’s still have a region championship in their sites whenever they get back on the gridiron.

Before the Hammond game head coach Quinn Hatfield said, “We have a good camp but this is the first time under the fire for a lot of these guys. Hammond is good football team so this will be a good test for us to see where we are.”

The Cav’s dropped the game to the seven-time SCISA AAA state champions Skyhawks 56-28.

“Disappointing performance overall with the special teams’ blunders, a lot of missed tackles and offensively we did not play well. Just a tough night all the way around. We have a lot work do but it was also an eye-opening experience for us to see how much work we need to do to beat a good football team,” said coach Hatfield after the Hammond game.

The one thing that reared its ugly head opening night was the turnover bug. In their first three games they had 10 turnovers and you will not win a lot of football games if you continue to turn the ball over at that rate.

The HSSR’s 50^th ranked player Tucker Hendrix is the leader of the offense and has played well but he has been under duress this year. He has thrown for 681 yards and six touchdowns. He threw for 346 yards against Hammond but tossed two picks to go with his three touchdowns. That has been his top performance this season in terms of yards.

The Cavs have two of the top receivers in the state in senior Jackson Repp and junior Jude Hall. Both have 19 receptions with Hall having 241 receiving yards and Repp has 197 receiving yards. They have each scored two touchdown. They are also the top kick returners

Sophomore Hayes Lyman has shown the ability to make the big play as he is averaging 23.6 yards per reception. He had a 40-yard touchdown catch against Hammond.

Freshman running back Michael Martin is getting better every game and leads the Cavs in rushing yards with 214 yards. He had his best game to date against Chapman when he rushed for 85 yards in the game.

The offensive line has been a work in progress as three new starters in senior left guard Jackson Linz and sophomores right tackle Victor Sandres and center Alex Drake have been gone through a lot of growing pains but they continue to get better.

The Cav’s two returning starters on the offensive line senior right guard Charlie Shields and junior left tackle Rody Barnett have been solid all year.

Defensively, the Cavs have had a tough time stopping teams and are giving up over 35.5 points per game, however, they played their best game of the year the last time out allowing Chapman only 7 points on the night.

They have been led by seniors free safety Acie Hatfield, linebackers Ford Glenn and Will Marguet. The three have a nose for the ball. Glenn and Marguet lead the team in solo tackles with 29 each while Hatfield leads the team in tackles with 35.

Marguet leads the in tackles for loss with six and sacks with four while Glenn has five tackles for loss to go with one pick.

Whenever play resumes in the upstate the Cav’s will have nothing but region games left so their goal of making the playoffs is well within reach.