By MONTE DUTTON

Hold your horses – or perhaps your pitchforks — on the celebrations for Clinton High School in the Class 2A football playoffs.
The Red Devils – and the ones in Liberty, too – have a lot riding on Friday night’s game at Liberty.
Clinton (6-2, 3-0 Region 1-2A) must defeat Liberty (5-3, 2-1) in order to, (a.) win the region, and, (b.) earn the home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
It’s quite an opportunity, given the local Red Devils’ home-field advantage and that they have lost on the road – at Daniel in 2021, Powdersville in ’22 and Belton-Honea Path in ’23 – in the playoffs three years in a row.

Chesnee (4-5, 2-1) defeated Liberty, 22-16, on Oct. 18. Clinton defeated Chesnee, 46-21, on Oct. 11.
If the Red Devils win – the Clinton Red Devils, that is – all is well. If Liberty wins, it’s a three-way tie. The Eagles are off.
Clinton and Liberty have never played. According to MaxPreps, 32 American high schools are named Liberty, and that’s not accounting the Liberty Counties, Academies, Christians, Baptists, Charters, etc.
Fourteen are named Clinton. One of each is nicknamed Red Devils.

Garrett Murphy enjoyed another monster night, and Laurens Academy’s 40-26 eight-man football victory over King Academy on Friday wrapped up a first-round game at home for the Crusaders in the SCISA playoffs.
What did Murphy and his teammates conjure up?
Murphy rushed for 277 yards, scored five touchdown and gained 51 more yards receiving.
Garrison Vaughan, Murphy and Hack Hardy recovered a fumble apiece. Vaughan participated in a season-best 26 tackles.
As a team, Laurens Academy (7-3, 3-2 region) gained 328 yards on the ground.
King (2-7, 1-3) plays against 10-0 Jefferson Davis Academy in Blackville. The playoffs open on Friday night.

Cross Schools (2-8) visits LA at Todd Kirk Field in the first round. The Stingrays, of Bluffton, defeated Conway Christian (0-10), 62-28, on Friday.

Presbyterian College never won a women’s soccer match at Longwood until Saturday, and it took a penalty-kick shootout for the Blue Hose to oust the fourth-seeded Lancers, 4-2, from the Big South tournament in Farmville, Va.
Tied at 0-0 for the second time in two weeks against the Lancers, the Blue Hose took great advantage of the goalkeeping virtuosity of Kelly Hall and Sara Curtis.
In a true storybook ending, it was Hall who delivered the final blow to secure the victory, Presbyterian’s first-ever Division I postseason win.

PC had been unable to win in any of its previous seven trips to Longwood. It was also the Blue Hose’ first tournament win. It was only the third time they qualified.
Presbyterian (7-5-5) now goes head-to-head with USC Upstate next Thursday at a neutral venue in Matthews, N.C.
Presbyterian’s defense held steady despite getting outshot, 18-8, by Longwood (4-9-6). The Blue Hose hit 4/5 penalty kicks, after Sarah Dieffenderfer scored in the second overtime period. The penalty goals were by Dieffenderfer, Harlan Lyons and Lyla Chadd.

The Blue Hose also qualified for the men’s tournament, thanks to a 5-2 victory at Winthrop, coupled with USC Upstate’s loss.
Presbyterian (5-7-2, 2-4-1) earned the tournament’s sixth seed. Sandro Rabarivony scored two goals.
Iragi Kalala opened the offensive, assisting Morgan Dance on the left side of the field. Dance chipped the ball over Winthrop’s goalkeeper Jack Kilstrom’s head into the right side of the goal.

In the 21st minute, Dance had a breakaway when he was fouled in the box by Winthrop’s goalkeeper Kilstrom leading to a penalty kick. Damorney Hutchinson blasted the ball into the lower-left corner of the goal giving PC a 2-0 lead.
In the 43rd minute, Winthrop’s Rodrigo Ferreira put a free kick into the top left corner of the goal from 20 yards out, cutting the Blue Hose’s lead in half.

In the 50th minute, Winthrop’s Ricardo Ferreira tied the score at two with a goal off assists from Sam Pidgen and Rodrigo Ferreira.
In the 69th minute, Presbyterian regained the lead for good when Jonas Sundli-Hardig passed the ball to Rabarivony on the right side of the box. Rabarivony blasted the ball just inside the right post into the back of the net.

In the 78th minute, Sundli-Hardig and Rabarivony connected again on a goal. Sundli-Hardig passed the ball from the top of the center of the box to Rabarivony on the left side. Rabarivony blasted the ball into the middle of the goal from 15 yards out, increasing the Blue Hose lead to 4-2.
In the 86th minute, Hutchinson was fouled in the box by Winthrop’s goalkeeper Kilstrom, awarding a penalty kick for the Blue Hose. Carson Griffith blasted a penalty kick shot into the goal’s lower right corner, giving the Blue Hose a 5-2 lead.
Presbyterian returns to Rock Hill for a rematch with the third-seeded Eagles in the quarterfinals of the tournament on Wednesday at 6 p.m.

Peter Lipscombe, not a household name even in PC’s football house, is the PFL Special Teams Player of the Week, as well he should be.
The junior from Catonsville, Md., provided an antidote to the Blue Hose’ placekicking inconsistency by kicking a record four field goals in a 28-7 victory of Dayton.
Four field goals in 28 points? Um, yes. PC did not score a conventional 28 points. The Blue Hose led, 5-0, early, and, 15-0, at halftime. Lipscombe kicked field of 37, 27, 22 and 34 yards.
Here’s the kicker (literally). Until Saturday, Lipscombe had never made or attempted a field goal in college. He is 11/11 in extra points.

After playing for 10 straight weeks, Presbyterian (4-6) draws a bye this week.

Basketball season opens in Charlotte, N.C., on Monday for both the Presbyterian men’s and women’s teams, both of whom are playing the Charlotte 49ers.
Halton Arena is the site of Tiffany Sardin’s debut as head coach of the Blue Hose at 5:30 p.m. Quinton Ferrell begins his sixth season at the helm at 8.

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