Region rivals sharpened Seahawks, Sharks
By Justin Jarrett
Contributor
On the cusp of the 2024 high school football season, the collection of sports fanatics that calls ourselves Team Lowco and go online night after night to talk about the teams and athletes to rep the Lowco noted time and again that this year’s Region 6-4A race would be a wild ride marked by unpredictable outcomes every Friday night.
We nailed it … sort of.
It was widely thought that Beaufort High was the slight favorite to win the region in August, with veteran star quarterback Samari Bonds at the helm, but early injuries to Bonds and others left the Eagles looking at their worst season in two decades and a fifth-place finish.
So, we whiffed on that one, but Bryce Lybrand’s team was still a tough matchup week after week, and the Eagles hung in with top-seeded Hartsville well into the second half before fading on the road in a 45-21 loss in the first round of the playoffs.
Having to grind out tough wins against the Eagles and Colleton County didn’t provide too much of a respite from the gauntlet for the contenders, and the margin between eventual region champion Bishop England and the next three finishers was razor-thin. The top four teams finished within one game of one another in the region standings, with head-to-head tiebreakers settling deadlocks for first and third.
As a result, May River was the only region team to knock off Bishop England — and did so in convincing fashion on the road — but the Sharks wound up as the No. 4 seed from the region. Through sheer coincidence, the new SCHSL system that uses RPI ratings to seed the playoff bracket resulted in a rematch of region rivals in round 1, and the narrow margins were once again on display.
After watching the Bluffton Bobcats celebrate on their field two weeks earlier, the Sharks had their revenge in Friday’s playoff opener. Trailing 24-21 in the final minute at home on Nov. 1, May River mishandled the ball on fourth-and-2, and the Bobcats escaped with the win. After an epic battle in the rematch, it again came down to one play, and this time, the Sharks delivered.
Senior quarterback Tanner Macy ran in the two-point conversion in double overtime to lift May River into a second-round matchup at No. 2 seed North Augusta.
Along with Hilton Head’s 19-17 win over Crestwood and Bishop England’s blowout victory against South Aiken, Region 6-4A sent three teams through to the final eight in the Class 4A Lower State bracket — after fighting for recognition in the statewide rankings all season and consistently knocking each other out of the top 10.
And if Bluffton had drawn literally anyone other than May River, the Bobcats might still be playing too.
All three could very well bow out in round 2, as the Seahawks face a tough test at perennial power South Florence and the Battling Bishops host a scrappy Gilbert team with a history of playoff success, but there’s no question the standard has been raised in the region. Beaufort’s state title in 2022 upped the ante for the area. B.J. Payne’s success sending Seahawk stars to the next level has trickled down. Hayden Gregory has rekindled the fire at Bluffton, and Richard Bonneville has restored a hard-nosed identity at May River.
Iron sharpens iron, and the programs in the Lowco have developed some mettle — together.
Justin Jarrett is the sports editor of The Island News and is the founder of Lowco Sports. He has a passion for sports and community journalism and a questionable sense of humor.
