Unbeaten Clinton at home; Hobbton, Lakewood hit the road
Clinton’s Boogie Smith gets to the open field against Wallace-Rose Hill last week. The Dark Horses finished the season undefeated at 7-0 and won the East Central Conference, earning the No. 2 overall seed in the East. They take on Eastern Randolph.
The North Carolina High School Athletic Association Football playoffs get underway tonight and Sampson County has three teams that made it to postseason play. Hobbton and Lakewood will participate in the 1AA Playoffs and will each hit the road while Clinton will participate in the 2A classification and will play on their home field. Let’s go ahead and dive in and see what this week’s playoffs games could look like.
Lakewood at Louisburg
The Leopards are the No. 7 seed at 2-5 overall with wins over Hobbton and Union while the Warriors enter the playoffs as the No. 2 seed at 4-2 overall. Louisburg finished in third place of the Northern Carolina 1A/2A Conference behind Roanoke Rapids and South Granville.
Statistically speaking, the Warriors will likely look to air it out against the Leopards. Senior quarterback Ja’Heim Brown has passed for 75-of-130 passing for 1,436 yards and 14 touchdowns. In the ground game, Louisburg has proved to be somewhat effective with 776 total rushing yards this season, but by nearly double, their air attack stands out. The Leopards will want to pay special attention to Turan Alston, who has hauled in 509 yards on 25 catches, and Jo’Ron Davis, who has caught 29 receptions for 449 yards. On the ground, freshmen Shamir Sheppard has compiled 315 yards of rushing, followed by Brown with 229.
For Lakewood, the ground game has historically been the Leopards go-to offense, but at times have shown they can air it out.
Kick off in Louisburg is set for 7 p.m.
Hobbton at East Carteret
Their regular season finale win over North Duplin last week proved to be extremely crucial for Hobbton, who earned their way into tonight’s opening round of the 1AA Playoffs. The Wildcats drew the No. 6 seed and will travel to take on No. 3 East Carteret. The Mariners are 5-2 this season and finished in 3rd place in the Coastal 8 1A/2A Conference following losses to Southwest Onslow and Croatan.
The past couple of games have really shown the Wildcats’ ability to air the ball out. Loden Bradshaw has put on quit the show, frequently hitting receivers like Nate McClamb, Daniel Britt, and Colby Weeks. Bobby Dial has also found some success in the ground game. Hobbton could be finding their peak at the right time to make things interesting, but, that doesn’t make tonight’s contest any easier.
Though there are no stats to rely on, the Mariners are capable of putting up big points, averaging 39.9 points per game.
Kickoff in Beaufort is set for 7 p.m.
Clinton vs Eastern Randolph
Tonight’s feature game is between Clinton and Eastern Randolph. The Dark Horses finished the season undefeated at 7-0 overall and champions of the East Central Conference, earning the No. 2 overall seed in the East. The Wildcats, meanwhile, finished 4-1 this season and were second in the PAC-7 2A Conference behind undefeated Randleman.
Clinton has displayed a powerful running game time and again this season with quarterback Blake Smith and running back Boogie Smith being quite the duo, totaling 881 yards for Boogie and 618 for Blake. Blake has also hit 44-of-65 yards for 721 yards this season.
Eastern Randolph has not entered any stats this season but surely does seem like they are fully capable of giving the Dark Horses a competitive game.
Game time is 7 p.m.
Reach Sports Editor Daron Barefoot at [email protected].