By Thomas Grant Jr.<\/i> <\/p>\n
Don’t tell Irmo head coach Aaron Brand that Friday’s Top 10 showdown in Kellytown with Hartsville is a Class 4A championship preview.<\/p>\n
“It’s only the fourth game,” he said. “Nobody has ever won a title after 4 or 5 weeks.” <\/p>\n
The sixth-ranked Yellow Jackets refuse to get caught up in the hype entering the matchup with the second-ranked Red Foxes. Both teams are undefeated and are coming off their strongest victories of the season. <\/p>\n
Hartsville defeated previous Class 3A number-one Dillon 51-34 in a game in which it rallied from a 28-14 halftime deficit. Hakeem Waters rushed for four touchdowns and Carmello McDaniel added two. <\/p>\n
Irmo is coming off a bye week following a 42-0 shutout of River Bluff. Quarterback A.J. Brand accounted for five touchdowns, four passing, running back Jaden Allen-Hendrix rushed for 209 yards and the defense collected four turnovers. <\/p>\n
“The bye allowed us to heal up a bit and just analyze our season to this point,” Brand said.<\/p>\n
“We were able to watch Hartsville on film and get a feel for what they are trying to do. Hartsville has plenty of speed in the backfield. That is always an issue.”<\/p>\n
Brand is hoping for another big game from his offensive playmakers, which also includes wide receiver Donovan Murph. The key will be doing so as part of the “team” gameplan.<\/p>\n
S.C. Prep Football Media Poll<\/b>
Class 4A<\/b>
1. South Florence (10) (4-0)
2. Hartsville (8) (4-0)
3. Northwestern (1) (2-1)
4. South Pointe (1) (3-1)
5. James Island (4-0)
6. Irmo (3-0)
7. West Florence (3-1)
8. Westside (2-1)
9. AC Flora (2-1)
10. Midland Valley (4-0)<\/p>\n
Others receiving votes: Greenville, Greenwood, Lucy Beckham, North Augusta, Ridge View, Airport<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Thomas Grant Jr. Don’t tell Irmo head coach Aaron Brand that Friday’s Top 10 showdown in Kellytown with Hartsville is a Class 4A championship preview. “It’s only the fourth game,” he said. “Nobody has ever won a title after 4 or 5 weeks.” The sixth-ranked Yellow Jackets refuse toContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[52],"tags":[570,592],"class_list":["entry","author-john-griggs","post-5307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-high-school-football","tag-irimo-high-school"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gpstrianglenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/IrmovsRBHS_2023_630x350.jpg?fit=630%2C350&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5307"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5318,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5307\/revisions\/5318"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}