Players have first winning season as Crusaders in run to title game

RWA claims first state championship since 2014

By Dennis Brunson hssr.com Associate Editor Laurens – The Laurens Academy football team hopes the third time is the charm on Friday in the SCISA 8-man state championship game. The Crusaders will be going up against W.W. King Academy undefeated Richard Winn Academy at the field in Batesburg-Leesville beginning at 7:30 p.m. The Eagles won easily in the two regular-season meetings with their Region 1 foes. However, here LA is playing for the state championship after going on the road to beat defending state champion Jefferson Davis Academy 34-28 in a semifinal game. That did not come as a shock to Laurens Academy head coach Jolly Doolittle . “I don’t think surprised is the right word,” Doolittle said when asked about his thoughts on playing for the state title. “You can say we’re blessed. These young men have worked hard, improved as the season has gone along. Sometimes falsely, we believed we could win every game. We’ve prepared well, practiced well, and mostly played well. We’re a blessed team.” The Crusaders will take a 9-3 record into the title game. The win over Jefferson Davis was a roller-coaster ride. LA jumped out to a 14-0 lead only to see the Raiders tie the game at 22-22 at halftime. JDA received the second-half kickoff and scored to go up 28-22. Laurens Academy didn’t tie the game until senior running back Garrett Murphy scored with 1:27 remaining in the game. That forced overtime and Jefferson Davis got the ball first. The Crusaders held the Raiders on four downs, and Murphy scored from 10 yards out on the first play of their possession to pull out the win. Murphy had a massive game. The senior rushed for 184 yards and four touchdowns on 29 carries while catching four passes for 76 yards and another touchdown. Murphy also had two 2-point conversions to account for all of LA’s points. Murphy’s performance didn’t come as a surprise to Doolittle. Murphy went over the 2,000-yard mark for the season. He now has 2,095 yards and 28 touchdowns on 189 carries. He also has 27 catches for 476 yards and six more touchdowns. “He’s had a tremendous year,” said Doolittle, who is in his second season as the LA head coach. “What makes him so special is he does it on the other side of the ball too. He’s just an outstanding player.” Doolittle pointed out that Laurens Academy’s offensive line has played a major role in Murphy’s success. Senior Hack Hardy is the center with junior Garrison Vaughan at right guard and senior Jay Riddle at left guard. Junior Nathan Bell and senior Anthony Candelas split time at tight end. Sophomore Caleb Hardy is the H back and has rushed for 485 yards and nine touchdowns on 65 carries while pulling in 73 catches for 680 yards and seven more scores. Freshman Mason Cooper has 441 yards and two TDs on 60 carries. Sophomore quarterback Ethan Collins has shown steady improvement throughout the season. He has completed 144 of 197 passes for 1,738 yards and 18 touchdowns against just nine interceptions. Doolittle said Collins has done exactly what he and his coaching staff have wanted from him. “Some take it as an insult when you call a quarterback a game manager, but that is what Ethan has been for us,” he said. “He does what we need. He has a high completion percentage. He’s had a turnover here or there, but he gets us in the right play and completes a high percentage of balls. Plus, he is an even-keeled player, which you need at quarterback.” Bell has 17 catches for 142 yards while Candelas has 15 catches for 239 yards and three scores. Also, senior Spires McCameron has eight catches for 187 yards and two scores. While Laurens Academy has scored 456 points, it has allowed 353. While he would obviously like to have allowed fewer points, Doolittle makes a good point. “We’ve certainly been challenged by some very good teams in our region,” he said. “We’ve got some phenomenal offensive players in our region. We’ve got better as a defensive unit. The most important defensive statistic is points allowed, and we’ve outscored the other team in nine games. “We’ve made plays in key moments when we had to have them.” The Crusaders have been a big-play defense led by Vaughan on the defensive front. Vaughan easily leads the team in tackles with 117 to go with an amazing 42 ½ tackles for loss. He also leads in quarterback sacks with 7 ½ while forcing five fumbles, recovering three of them and blocking four punts. “He’s one of the best defensive linemen I’ve ever had,” Doolittle said. “He’s putting up video game numbers.” Hack Hardy starts on the defensive line and has 89 tackles and 19 tackles for loss, while Candelas has 71 tackles, six sacks and 17 ½ tackles for loss. Murphy, Caleb Hardy and Bell are the linebackers. Murphy has 66 tackles, three sacks and 13 ½ tackles for loss, Hardy has 94 tackles and 15 ½ tackles for loss, while Bell has 83 tackles and 17 tackles for loss. McCameron, Cooper and Elias Littleton make up the secondary. McCameron has 37 tackles, Cooper has 39 tackles and one tackle for loss and Littleton, an eighth-grader who became a starter over the last three games, has 15 tackles. Doolittle said he can’t point to any specific game or play that was a turning point in the Crusaders’ season. Instead, he thinks it was the day-in, day-out work done by his team that has led to its success. “We stacked a lot of good practice days,” he said. “We were very good Monday through Thursday. We had some games where we could have played better or things didn’t go our way, but we always worked hard.” Doolittle knows Laurens Academy has its hands full with Richard Winn, which is 11-0. The Eagles won the first meeting between the teams 56-20 and took the second contest by a 62-12 score. However, the head coach said his team will be prepared and then see what happens. “It’s quite a tall task because they beat us handily in both matchups during the season,” he said. “They’ve got a great quarterback in Charlie Bonds. With him, they are able to have a vertical pass game, and they have a phenomenal power-option run game. They are prolific on offense and are just a tough matchup for everybody. “We’re going to try and play our best, create the best game plan we can. We’ll see if that will give us some breaks and see where it takes us.”

It's a big weekend for high school football. SCISA holds their Championship Weekend starting tonight with two games in different parts of the state. And, the SCHSL playoff round gets one step closer the final playoff round before their big Championship Weekend. SCISA's state title games for Friday night: At W.W. King Academy with kickoff at 7:30pm , the 8-man title game pits Laurens Academy vs. Richard Winn At Charleston Southern with kickoff at 7pm , the Class AAAA title game pits Hammond vs Porter Gaud SCISA's state title games for Saturday : all games at Charleston Southern University Kicking off at 12-Noon , Class A featuring Thomas Heyward vs. Williamsburg Academy Kicking off at 3:30pm , Class AA featuring Pee Dee vs. Bethesda Academy Kicking off at 7:30pm , Class AAA featuring Wilson Hall vs. Pinewood Prep The SCHSL will hold their Championship Weekend Dec 14th and 15th at South Carolina State's Oliver C. Dawson Stadium in Orangeburg, SC. If there is a time for upsets, it's this weekend. See how your team stacks up this week in our exclusive prognostication feature, Doodles Doodles . This season the predictions are right 78.6% of the time with a record of 1089-313-2 .

By Dennis Brunson hssr.com Associate Editor Laurens – Jolly Doolittle liked where his Laurens Academy 8-man football team was after six games. The Crusaders owned a 4-2 record as they prepared to play the games that counted against SCISA Region 1 foes. Two weeks later and Doolittle didn’t know what kind of team he had. That’s because LA was still stuck on six games after having two games postponed as people along the middle to northern portion of the South Carolina-Georgia state line tried to recover from the devastation brought by the remnants of Hurricane Helene. “I felt like we were about to get to the point where we were playing our best,” said Doolittle, who is in his second season at Laurens. “Now we haven't had grass under our feet in two weeks.” The Crusaders had their game against Newberry Academy scheduled for September 27 postponed as well as their October 4 game against Wardlaw . The Newberry game was rescheduled for October 18, however it remains to be seen what will happen with the Wardlaw game. The six Region 1 teams were all scheduled to play each other twice with the second meetings being the ones that counted in region play. The first meetings could come into play if the second meetings can’t be made up. “We may have to sit down as a region and talk about different scenarios,” Doolittle said. “Decisions could have to be made where people do things for the greater good.” Senior Garrett Murphy was leading LA offensively, rushing for 947 yards and 10 touchdowns on 94 carries. Sophomore Caleb Hardy had 53 carries for 379 yards and eight TDs. Sophomore quarterback Ethan Collins had completed 65 of 96 passes for 807 yards and nine touchdowns while rushing for 204 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries. Hardy had 34 catches for 309 yards and five scores. Murphy had 10 catches for 108 yards and a TD, Nathan Bell had eight catches for 102 yards, Anthony Candeles had seven receptions for 116 yards and two TDs, and Spires McCameron had four catches for 164 yards and one touchdown. Doolittle gives credit for the offensive success to Laurens’ line. The Crusaders have an experienced group along the line in Bell and Candeles as tight ends, Garrison Vaughan and Jay Riddle as guards and Hack Hardy at center. “We knew coming in the strength of the team is the offensive line,” he said. “Certainly, that's been the key to our success.” Laurens has been a big play defensive team. Vaughn had 17 ½ tackles for loss followed by Hack Hardy with nine, Bell with 7 ½, Murphy with six and Caleb Hardy with five.

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