Hilton Head, Beaufort lurk dangerously as playoffs get underway

Hartsville coach Jeff Calabrese wasn’t exactly thrilled when he placed a call to his Hilton Head Island counterpart earlier in the week.

The Red Foxes have won 60 games over the past five years, played for two state titles — winning one — and have fallen short of the quarterfinals just once during that span. So after a nine-win regular season and No. 3 ranking, what does the Class 4A playoff bracket give them?

Possibly the best fourth seed in the field.

B.J. Payne chuckled as he related the story. “Hey, sometimes that’s what you get,” the Seahawks coach said. “It could be interesting.”

The Seahawks (6-4) happen to be one of just seven teams statewide to produce a winning record and still place fourth in its region. That makes them a dangerous wild card when the opening round commences Friday night in Hartsville.

Along similar lines, Beaufort (7-3) finished third in Region 8-4A but will have the better record when the Eagles open their playoff stay with a trip to resurgent Lugoff-Elgin (5-5).

“The competition level always helps you,” Beaufort coach Mark Clifford said. “You can’t make a lot of mistakes in this region to win. It kind of conditions your kids to get in that mindset, so I think it can help.”

Unbeaten Bluffton, ranked No. 2 in Class 3A, ends a three-year absence from the postseason with a home game against Swansea (3-7). Despite the hiatus, the Bobcats enter with lofty ambitions — a deep run of the kind that took them to the state semifinals three consecutive years from 2010-12.

“We’ve talked about winning them all,” coach Ken Cribb said.

The rest of the schedule finds Whale Branch (6-4) welcoming Mullins to town for its Class 2A opener, while Battery Creek and first-year May River try to pull off upsets as they face a pair of 9-1 foes.

Beaufort and Hilton Head, though, hold the most potential to create a little disorder. Along with Region 8 champion Berkeley and Cane Bay, all four have been ranked among the top 10 at some point in the season. The Seahawks took the biggest lumps, falling to all three region rivals. But the Cane Bay loss was decided on a fumble two yards short of the Cobras’ goal line, and Hilton Head’s loss to Bluffton likewise came in the final seconds.

Last week, Hilton Head put up its biggest point total of the season by hanging 69 on Colleton County.

“It’s a confidence thing,” said Payne, who faces a tough balancing act in taking his team into the home of a longtime powerhouse.

Hartsville has won four state titles over the years, with six other trips to the title game. But Payne has stressed to his players that those aren’t Friday night’s opponents.

“You’re not playing the tradition of Hartsville. You’re not playing the last 30 years of Hartsville,” the coach said. “You’re not playing the 2012 state champion Hartsville team. You’re still playing the team from this year.”

Beaufort seeks to bounce back from last week’s 48-14 loss to Berkeley, in which the Eagles quickly fell behind 14-0 and couldn’t recover.

“We kind of took one on the chin,” Clifford said. “I just think we got outplayed. We’ve got to play harder and have a strong desire to win. ... Come off the bus ready to play and take last week as a learning experience. Don’t let it happen again.”

Though Lugoff-Elgin was just 5-5 overall, the Demons won four of five games in their region.

Air quality awareness: The Bluffton and Whale Branch games could come under scrutiny Friday afternoon as smoke from North Carolina wildfires continues to drift across the state.

Beaufort County currently is one of seven counties in the state classified as “unhealthy for sensitive groups” by the state Department of Health and Environmental Control. That’s one level below the “unhealthy” designation by which the S.C. High School League would recommend postponing the contest.

This story was originally published November 17, 2016 at 6:01 PM with the headline "Hilton Head, Beaufort lurk dangerously as playoffs get underway."