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2A Woodruff vs Bishop England
A rematch of last years title game in which Woodruff more than held their own. A game matching Poverty Index versus accusations of recruiting, yada, yada, yada--hush and lets play the game! Two very good soccer teams meet today at 3pm and both teams arrive with a little pep in their step. Woodruff stepped up its schedule this year and suffered some close losses early on but rides a 13 game winning streak into the championship game. Bishop England has won the last "100" 2A championships but suffered 2 losses versus Waccamaw in the regular season to only revenge those 2 losses with the win in the playoffs versus them.
Close game Bishop England by one goal over Woodruff. 1-0 or 2-1.

3A Riverside vs Hilton Head
These two teams had to be the 2 favorites to reach the state championship from the beginning of the season. State champion (2007) Eastside lost 10-12 seniors off of last years team thus giving Riverside the edge this year to earn the upper state spot in the championship game. Hilton Head lost maybe 1 senior from last years runner up team that lost to Eastside 2-0. Hilton Head has only 1 senior this year while Riverside has 8-10 seniors plus a very solid freshman class. Senior Sarah Jacobs will be a wild card at today's match--can she play? Is she 100%? Hilton Heads defense has not been tested and strength of schedule has to go to Riverside. The upstate has won 2 state titles in a row in 3A. That streak will end today as Hilton Head wins by a goal. 2-1 or 1-0

4A Mauldin vs Wando
It's hard to believe that Lexington is not back in the finals again this year but I think everyone is glad not to hear about the choo choo train being on a roll. Wando was outplayed last year in the state final but yet capitalized when needed and held on to win the controversial state championship. Urig is a beast but their other forward Shawn Haviland has stepped up and had the better year. Their defense is solid and have a very good goalie. Experience should favor Wando. Mauldin is a "fresh" face to this years championship game. After losing twice to Dorman in the regular season, they revenged those 2 earlier losses with the big playoff win versus them. Dorman and Waccamaw know the pain all too well of how hard it is to beat a quality team 3 times in 1 year. I am not certain the number of seniors Mauldin has but once again, I believe experience will favor Wando. Quick fact: Wando has 2 "Clash" players, Mauldin has 0 "Clash" players; Wando has 2 All State players, Mauldin has 1 All State player. All signs point to a Lower state sweep for the championships but not so fast. Mauldin's strength of schedule is much better than Wando's and Mauldin pulls the emotional upset today in the 7pm match.

All predictions are for fun and good luck to all 6 teams involved. Another note--4 out of the 6 teams playing today were involved in last years state championship games. One last side note....if I had 2 cents for every time a fan or coach or ref counts to make sure only 11 players are on the field today--I would be a reach person!

Woodruff did NOT step up their schedule this year. Look on this web-site. Woodruff has had a challenging schedule for many years now, thanks to Coach Gomez.

>>MyTwoCents2008] It's hard to believe that Lexington is not back in the finals again this year but I think everyone is glad not to hear about the choo choo train being on a roll.<<

As long as cat is correcting you, I'll add my $.02 -- the phrase above is demonstrably false. If you change it to "almost everyone" it is no longer demonstrably false (whether it's true or not is another question! )

Other than that, insightful and interesting post...

And. . .

Good luck to all—safe and great games to all. . .

almost everyone is probably a little high as well.
Good luck to Coach Fryland and congrats on a great run at Lex!

Dale has no predictions? or is he preparing for his 3A state title next year already?

I'm trying to stay on both sides of the fence on this one as I have friends on multiple teams

I will go with Woodruff..... tougher schedule + a big-time IMPACT player (with a very solid supporting cast) in Casey Black!

If they lose, CC is going to go crazy on BE!

My picks

Woodruff - it time for someone to knock off BE
Riverside - too much talent, could be a blow-out
Wando - great coach with a solid defense/backline/keeper.

woodruff
riverside
mauldin

Woodruff
Hilton Head
Wando

Final Scores
BE 4 Woodruff 1
HH 3 Riverside 1
Wando 2 Mauldin 1

Lower state sweep.

BE vs Woodruff recap nicely done already. BE was on a mission the 2nd half.

HH vs Riverside
1st hald HH had the better play and better scoring chances.
Halftime 2-0 HH.
Riverside came out in the 2nd half and played much better and with a lot more intensity. After getting their 1st goal to close the gap to 2-1, Riverside looked to tie it at 2-2 but had the goal called back when the ref called holding(grabbed jersey) on an HH player. The Riverside player had the advantage and scored a couple of seconds later. Bad call by the ref who should have let play resume.
Riverside continued to press but HH put the game away with a great play by #10 who created her own shot and put it backside with what looked to be an impossible angle. 3-1

The Wando vs. Mauldin game was very good as both teams passed well and made very good runs. The speed of play was very good from players 1-11 for each team. There were a few scoring chances in the 1st half that stick out. Wando had an excellent chance to take a 1-0 lead when a Mauldin defender misplayed a ball in the back but the keeper made a good save. Mauldin looked to have the better attack in the first half but seemed to overpass the ball around the 18-25 yard line and thus wasting multiple scoring chances. 0-0 at Half.

Wando took a 1-0 lead off a header on a cross with 14 minutes left. Mauldin answered within 5 minutes it seemed off a header on a corner kick. It was a slow motion corner header where it seemed like no one from Wando moved to the ball. 1-1. Wando soon answered off a corner of their own--this time no one from Mauldin seemed to goto the ball. 2-1.

Overall Wando looked to have the better scoring chances especially in the 2nd half. Mauldin's keeper made a great save in the 2nd half (leaping diver) and Wando almost scored off a corner earlier in the 2nd half on a near miss header by #15.