SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Boys Varsity Soccer Thoughts on 4A now

Im just wondering what everyone’s thoughts are after this very interesting week of soccer. With the Palmetto Cup and other spring break tournaments over what are everyone’s thoughts on where we all go from here. Any predictions, any new ideas, anyone’s mind change on teams... lets here it

parity

as far as im concerned Northwestern is still in the driver's seat. Their loss to Dorman can be compared to what happened to Roma today only not as extreme. THey will bounce back. Besides their anchor on defense was in europe for the Palmetto Cup. and as far as christian brothers goes they are from tennessee so they are not a concern. however everything in 4A is alot closer now than everyone previously thought. apparently dorman can pull an upset here and there. dont sleep on em

well NW and Lex both lost...i think they just beat each other up so bad that they couldnt compete the next day...great game by the way...cant wait for the rematch

i think its wide open and the northwestern will proably come from upperstate and the leading candidates for lowerstate would be dutch fork or wando maybe sv if they play to potential

It's going to come down between Lexington and Northwestern in the upperstate. I think Dutch Fork has the lowerstate this year. Wando is good but they can't seem to win the big games.

Upper State Final Lexington vs. Northwestern- If Friday at the Palmetto Cup is a preview, its going to be a great showdown. The difference is Enzo. Northwestern will be beat up by the time they get to the state championship.

Lower State Final Wando vs. Dutch Fork- I'm not sure how well prepared Wando will be. Dutch Fork will prevail because they are loaded with seniors.

Final
Northwestern vs. Dutch Fork- I think Dutch Fork might want it more although NW has the better talent. NW has a freshman keeper that is not use to playing in big games which is the difference.

State Champion
Dutch Fork

Yes Caesar, these will be great match ups in the playoffs however neither one of these games will be for the Upperstate of Lowerstate Final. Looking at the possible seeding, if both Lexington and Northwestern win their region which looks very likely they will actually play each other in the third round. This could be a potential scare for either team because whoever wins the third round showdown between the two will still have to play another game before the state championship to someone who is maybe not as talented but very hungry and motivated. Whoever wins the third round game between Lexington and Northwestern better be careful not to overlook the team they will face in the Upperstate Championship such as Dorman, Mauldin, or Irmo.

Dutch Fork vs Wando also presents the same scenario only earlier. Due to splitting games with Spring Valley, it looks like Dutch Fork will finish second in the region by the tie breaker. This means they will have to travel to Wando in the second round. So once again whoever wins that game will have to not overlook the fact they will still have two games to play before the state championship.

My thoughts on 4A after this past week come down to that it will be a great and exiciting finish with several teams have the chance to contend for a State Championship and as of right now it seems to me Dutch Fork may be the hottest team in the state right now. If they can maintain this high level of play and not peak to early they are my favorite in the Lowerstate. In the Upperstate I still am leaning torwards Northwestern as a favorite but several other teams have a shot.

What is the tie breaker for region 5? It seems that with a split between DF and SV that DF has a 1 goal advantage in goal differential.

Lex/NW and Wando/DF are the likely matchups for Upper/Lower State games...

But I'm gonna say that at least 1 of those teams won't make it there...

Watch out for a sleeper team...Dorman, Irmo usually seems to find another gear around late April, S. Aiken, SV...anyone else with a sleeper pick?

I don't believe you can count Irmo to challenge for much this year. I saw them for the first time this year last night against Daniel and they are incredibly average. Nothing like any of the teams they've fielded in the past. Daniel won in overtime, but their midfield (especially #5), just dominated the game. Irmo had no offensive punch whatsoever.

I checked their record and saw that Irmo had lost six games this year. They lost a good many last year, too. Has the well finally dried up for the Yellow Jackets? They were on top of high school soccer for 2 1/2 decades so how are they dealing with mediocrity?

Irmo is experiencing the demographics shift, with the majority of higher level players living in the Dutch Fork, Chapin , Lexington HS districts. (much discussed last year)

All in all Irmo is still a young good team. Not at the Irmo standards of the past but still a solid squad.

You see this in other Midland areas as well....i.e

Dreher, BC, Airport, AC Flora.

Growth in the area is pushing the "players" outward... Not long ago RNE had a strong program, now they are lucky to have subs at the games. Spring valley has become the recipient of this. Ridge View has been hurt by Blythewood and so on.


It would not surprise me if Chapin becomes 4A in the near future, or if White Knoll becomes more competitive.

The things is if both Lex and NW win their regions then they will NOT play in the upperstate championship they would meet in the 3rd round!

Irmo always seems to play good ball in the playoffs, but I don't think that they will reach upperstate.


Speaking of growing areas, if I am correct Riverside will be a 4A school next year (they basically are now). That will change the upstate landscape a bit.




With regards to NW and Lex, they need to be careful because as good as they are, they are not unbeatable and if they spend too much time looking forward to their rematch, they could fall as there are other teams out there that are very capable of beating them. Given the way the brackets look now, either one of those teams could be meeting Dorman in the second round and Dorman has already beaten both teams.

You are very right CornerFlag NW and Lex must be careful and play every game!

With regards to my previous post about Riverside being 4A, I think that I had the year wrong. I believe that they will jump in the 08-09 school year.

the tie breaker is some goofy out of region points things. head to head goal differential seems to make much more sense.