Dutch Fork tops Dorman, starts journey through Region 2 top teams in football playoffs
IRMO — When the South Carolina High School League realignment happened earlier this year, the AAAAA classification had only seven regions, instead of the usual eight ‒ four in the Upper State, four in the Lower State ‒ creating a bit of a math problem: How would the SCHSL divide the classifications come playoff time?
Its solution was simple, take Region 4 ‒ consisting of schools in the middle of the state ‒ and send the No. 1 and No. 4 seeds to the Upper State and the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds to the Lower State.
"When we saw the brackets, I had no idea we were going up to the Upper State, but we just said, this is who will be playing and we have to go take care of business," Dutch Fork coach Tom Knotts said.
The consequence of that decision was simple and easy to predict, Dutch Fork ‒ the defending six-time Lower State champions and favorites to win Region 4 ‒ would most likely end up in the Upper State and have to go through the gauntlet of Region 2 top teams: Byrnes, Dorman, Gaffney and Spartanburg.
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That's exactly what's happening.
After its 35-18 win over the Region 2 third-place team, Dorman in the second round, the Silver Foxes have set up a rematch against Region 2's second place team, Spartanburg -- who Dutch Fork beat in Week 1 by two points, on a game-winning field goal ‒ after the Vikings won their second round game over T.L. Hanna, 39-14.
And if Byrnes beats Blythewood Saturday, it is guaranteed that the winner of Spartanburg-Dutch Fork will play either the Rebels or Gaffney in the Upper State championship game.
Despite the Silver Foxes' incredible run, this team hasn't been perfect, specifically through the air ‒ throwing just eleven touchdowns and eight interceptions on the season. But on the ground, it's a completely different story.
"They probably have the best high school football player in the Upper State bracket ... in Jarvis (Green) and Coach Knotts does such an unbelievable job at scheming the run game and getting a lot of gap schemes rolling and you try like heck to fill them and it's really tough to do," said Dorman coach Dustin Curtis.
"He could've scored 10 touchdowns in some games earlier in the year, if I would have let him play the whole game. ... But he's the man," Knotts said.
Green, a James Madison commit, has rushed for 1,658 yards and 26 TDs this season, including 246 yards and three touchdowns against Dorman (8-4). He had 306 yards and two TDs against Spartanburg.
Given the Dutch Fork run game, and adding its defense that has given up an average of 12.4 points a game this season, this team is more than capable of moving forward in the postseason.
This path through the Upper State, Dutch Fork's first time on this side of the bracket since the SCHSL shifted to the Upper/Lower State format in 2016-17, would be one of the most difficult routes to a championship in recent memory and the teams of Region 2 stand in the way of Dutch Fork's run of six-straight championship game appearances ends this year.
This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Dutch Fork beats Dorman, sets up quarterfinal matchup with Spartanburg
