By MONTE DUTTON

In all honesty, I could make neither hide nor hair of Presbyterian College’s spring football scrimmage at Bailey Memorial Stadium on Friday evening.

Following the theme of honesty, I was sitting in the front row of the stands, and I might have understood what was going on had I been standing on the sidelines, where I usually reside. However, my surgically repaired abdomen was misbehaving, and I was concerned that if nature called, making it up the staircase that connects the brick and concrete to the green grass struck me as risky.

When I got there, the P.A. announcer was reciting the Blue and White rosters, but my memory isn’t that good and I can’t write that fast.

The scrimmage was advertised as four 12-minute quarters between the aforementioned Blue and White, but before it started the clock on the scoreboard read “75:00” and advanced in sporadic one-minute increments as the action progressed. At the start, the score read “Blue 0, White 26.” At the end of that section, it was 35-33, so I suspect but do not know that the real score was 28-6.

Szydlowski (97) sees it.

What actually happened was that the defense was given 26 points and the offense tasked with exceeding that total. It did.

The scoreboard was apparently configured for lacrosse, the sport played more often in the stadium this time of year. Neither the Blue nor the White had a “shot.”

As it turned out, this was completely legal and somewhat plausible.

The next announcement was of a modified scoring system the rest of the way. A touchdown was still six points, a kick one, but if a one team settled for a field goal, the other got the other four points.

When I left, it was White 4, Blue 3. When this red-zone drill ended, the Blue was ahead, 18-17.

What I saw of the scrimmage had lots of big plays, which speaks either of a prolific Blue Hose offense, a porous defense or, more likely, Steve Englehart using lots of reserves’ time for evaluation and not lots of key players who are already proven quantities. Incumbent starting quarterback Collin Hurst mainly occupied himself with holding for kicks.

It was Englehart’s 48^th birthday, by the way.

“I told our team after the game that whatever happened tonight wasn’t going to change my thoughts on how terrific our 14 spring practices were, as well as two other scrimmages that we ran before this.The offense really showed a lot tonight, and overall we’ve shown better football IQ as of late,” he said. “We were able to give numerous young players meaningful reps, and so many guys made great plays in this scrimmage. Our roster continues to make good strides with both our more veteran players and the ones that will be stars of the future.”

Senior Carter Szydlowski provided the White its bonus points with a 25-yard fumble rumble in the opening part of the affair. Warner Bush threw a long touchdown pass to Jacob Deller, and Max Holtzclaw hit Charleston Southern transfer Jaden Scott on a 35-yard score. Jett Jackson hit a 50-yard field goal.

In the red-zone segment, Tucker Bolen and B.J. Atkins scored on leaping touchdown passes.

Clinton High’s record-setting hurdler, Jabari Dillard, signed on Friday to continue his career at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Dillard, from Cross Hill, wants to go to medical school after his time as an undergraduate and was attracted by Howard’s reputation as an elite HBCU. He had a number of offers, Coastal Carolina and East Carolina among them.

“I thought I would get the best education there (Howard) than any of the other schools I visited,” Dillard said. “I’m a better trained athlete. Running outside your high-school season is what can get you there.

Dillard won a national championship in the 110 hurdles (13.92) at the Adidas Nationals last year in Greensboro, N.C. It is in that event he is likely to concentrate at Howard.

His personal best in the 400 hurdles is 55.55. He surpassed the Clinton school record in the 100-meter dash at 10.52 seconds in a non-school national event.

What greatly enhanced Dillard’s reputation was his success in AAU meets.

“I think it’s extremely important,” he said. “The high-school season is only so long. Running AAU in the summer extends the season by months, and you’ll be running till August. It gives you so much more time to get better.”

Dillard is a young man who is mapped out. Already, he plans to major in biology, go from there to medical school and ultimately a career in – surprise! – sports medicine. For now, he wants to branch out from the familiarity of home to a different atmosphere.

Cross Hill to D.C. is about at different as it gets.

Ed Prescott Field was the scene of yet another Laurens loss to Fountain Inn (17-3, 9-0). After two one-run and one extra-inning, the Fury unleashed Friday night’s win, 5-3.

Laurens (9-8, 7-5) hadn’t lost a Region 1-4A series until the Fury swept through. Fountain Inn took an overwhelming lead in region standings, now 3-1/2 games ahead of the runner-up Raiders. The Fury’s remaining series are against Emerald and Wren. The Raiders’ only remaining series is against Southside. Laurens takes on rival Clinton at home on Monday and in Clinton on Tuesday.

Laurens took a one-run lead in the bottom of the first inning. Ben Willis and Zay Pulley singled consecutively, and Willis later scored on Logan’s groundout.

The Fury took the lead with two runs in the third and held it the rest of the way. A sacrifice fly by Lucas Cannon gave Fountain Inn the lead.

Willis and Pulley wound up with four of the Raiders’ five hits. With the Raiders trailing, 4-1, in the fifth, Willis singled, Pulley doubled and Bennett Edwards singled in Willis. Laurens pulled to within a run on, once more, on Martin’s grounder.

The Fury added an insurance run in the top of the seventh on Joel Izxerary’s two-out RBI triple.

Anderson Hayes went 2/3 for Fountain Inn. Collin Wilson, who started and pitched 4-1/3 innings of five-hit, three-run ball, was the winner. The Laurens starter, Ryland Paxton, took the loss. Six walks marred his three-inning stint.

Wade Hampton handed the Raider softball team its sixth straight loss, 14-0.

Entering the third inning, the Generals led only 1-0, but they piled on five, three and five in the remaining frames.

Summer Nations and Makayden Livingston singled for Laurens’ only two hits. Wade Hampton’s Kellyn Kingstone was 4/4 by herself, driving in three runs. Eden Morford only had two hits but drove in four.

Laurens is 10-10.

Clinton defeated Laurens in golf on Thursday at Lakeside Country Club, shooting 163 to the Raiders’ 174.

The Red Devils’ Luke McMurray was individually tops with a 36. Michael Hamby led the Raiders with a 40.

Clinton’s other scores were Aiden Bragg 41, Mia Carles 41, Talula Wilson 44, Gabby Carles 47 and John Carles 48. Other Laurens scores were Landon James 44, Rich Coggins 45, Layden Kernells 45 and Ashton Wilson 51.

Winning every game in every set, Clinton (6-0, 4-0 Region 3-2A) crushed Columbia in boys’ tennis.

Nathan Meade, Edwin Orr, Jacob King, Matthew King and Jacob Meyerholtz all took Capital victories 6-0, 6-0. Cooper Stinson and Malakye Brewer also swept victory in doubles.

The Red Devils visit Blue Ridge on Tuesday.

I watched golf commentators talk about a player who was hitting short irons at the range for 10 minutes without them ever saying who he was. Then he hit woods for a while, and they interposed the course of his range drives on the first hole.

Technology often provides too much information.

A word of advice: never read an Internet sports story with a headline that begins, “Calls mount …” You are wasting your time.

Buy my books. A lot of them are on Amazon. Most of them are fiction. This website satisfies my need for real life.

The Latter Days is the story of Clyde Kinlaw, a baseball scout who finds a bright prospect in the middle of nowhere and tries to develop him and prove his detractors wrong.

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is a story of a group of restless souls who unwittingly get themselves involved in a national conspiracy involving big business, politics and foreign interference.

Lightning in a Bottle and the sequel, Life Gets Complicated, are about rebellious young stock-car racer Barrie Jarman.

Lightning in a Bottle and Cowboys Come Home, about two Texans home from World War II, are also available in audio versions.