Just for the record, the injury in the BE/Barnwell 1st half was due to an (off side)charge on the keeper that was a 50/50 ball and the keep (Calandra)slid with a clean tackle to catch the ball. The AR said there was absolutely no foul play and he was right there. It was an unfortunate outcome, but a risk of the game.
As for the "bench clearing brawl" that was due to the initial attack and two handed pull down from a Barnwell player to one of the smallest BE sophmore players. Both players were ejected along with another BE player who rec'd a red card and another Barnwell player a yellow.
Early in the game a Barnwell player told a BE player that he "may play in this game, but they won't play in the next;" and the keeper told one of his defenders to "break" one of the BE player's legs the next time they came close to each other in a play....this was all before the unfortunate injury to the Barnwell player. Barnwell (and a group of Waccamaw players who came to support Barnwell) trash talked the entire night. The Barnwell highly touted but ineffective goalkeep had to be frustrated from the relentless BE attack. After the fight, Coach Ed asked the Barnwell Coach to play a fair game despite the poor officiating of the Center ref.
There were 26 on frame shots from BE to 3 from Barnwell. BE even scored 2X with 8 players on the field, 6 of which were nonstarters as Coach Khouri opted to protect his players. The score could have been worse as a goal within the first 2 minutes was called back due to a hand ball in the box and a direct shot again beat the keep at the end of the match but pinged off the crossbar. Barnwell's lone goal came at the 73rd minute.
As for #18's judgement about the game while not even there, Jasper County (who by the way beat Barnwell twice during the regular season) played a tough but clean game against the Bishops in the second round. There were no cautionary cards and few fouls from either side. Jasper County did not even have a shot on goal but their coach and players wished the Bishops the best of luck in their defense of the State Title after the match.
