By MONTE DUTTON (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. GREENWOOD -- On Friday evening, at a tidy field, Laurens Academy opened its football season with a 56-20 victory over Cambridge Academy, and the game is undefeated back in Laurens County. This was in part because it was the season’s first game and in part because the …
Furmanology: Fight the good fight
By MONTE DUTTON (Furman photo) Click here. For the past few years, I’ve looked forward to football with buoyant expectations. For the past two seasons, I’ve been right. The Paladins have fulfilled those elite expectations. This year, I’m fascinated. The players who propelled Furman are mostly gone. The Paladins are ranked prominently in both the …
County Signs: Crusaders go first
(Monte Dutton photos) Click here. On Friday night, there will be football. Honest-to-gosh, bona-fide, counts in the standings, football. It’s eight-man football, and it’s in Greenwood, where Laurens Academy kicks off the whole county season with a visit to the den of the Cambridge Cougars. It’s sort of week double-zero. Clinton and Laurens open thunderously …
Furmanology: Mixing and matching with bandits, spurs
Luke Clark (Furman photo) Click here. As in old westerns, Furman’s defense features bandits and spurs, though football bandits do not wear the latter. Leading the way at bandit is one of Furman’s tops defensive returnees, Luke Clark (6-3, 253, R-Sr.), who is coming off an impressive season that saw him register 53 tackles and …
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County Signs: Change is the rage
By MONTE DUTTON (Monte Dutton photo) Click here. Here’s my prediction for professional football. Because most of the starters play little, if at all, in exhibition games – and that’s exactly what they are, even though the NFL insists on “preseason games” – the beginning of the actual season will be sloppy. The middle of …
Furmanology: Corbin Comet passes at 91
(Furman graphic) Click here. The Corbin Comet crossed the firmament on Tuesday morning at his home in Simpsonville. Frank Selvy was one of college basketball’s all-time greats. He was 91 years old. Selvy, a native of Corbin, Ky., led the NCAA in scoring twice during his Furman career career (1952-54) and averaged 41.7 points per …
Chapin edges Clinton, 24-21, in scrimmage
By MONTE DUTTON (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. CHAPIN – It was good to get out of the house on Monday. I’ve been to Chapin in distant memory – Laurens played in a jamboree, as Clinton will on Friday night – and I remembered there was a barbecue place. It’s open on Thursday through Sunday. …
Paladins deep on the flanks
Joshua Harris (Furman photo) Click here. The upward mobility that characterizes much of the Furman football program is excepted in the figurative room of wide receivers. "It (wide receiver) is one of the deeper groups on our team and one with a bunch of talent that we're excited about," said head coach Clay Hendrix. "We've got …
From Paris to PC to NASCAR
By MONTE DUTTON (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. Shortly after Team USA won Olympic gold in men’s basketball, I showered on account of athletic heroics on TV and the lingering fatigue of a late night in Union, and I hadn’t gotten around to it. Then I drove over to watch Presbyterian College practice the art …
County Signs: Raiders pass only preseason test
By MONTE DUTTON The Raiders were at full song (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. It doesn’t get much better than the Olympics men’s basketball game between Serbia and the USA. I watched the first half, took a shower, dressed in dirty pants and old shoes in preparation for mud, and headed to Honea Path, where …
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Nightrider's Lament 