Rebels host Vikings without one star

Malcolm Watkins (5) will carry a heavier load for Strom Thurmond tonight. Staff photo by Mike Adams.

When Darius Hammond was out with a medical condition earlier in the year, Strom Thurmond head coach Lee Sawyer had no way of knowing that playing without him would be a precursor of things to come in the playoffs.

Yet after only one playoff game, the Rebels (11-0) will finish their 2011 campaign without the do-it-all junior. Hammond broke his ankle in last week's 42-7 win over region foe Keenan in the Class AA, Division I playoffs. Sawyer said if his team wants to advance past today's third-round game at 7:30 p.m. against Region 2-AA's Emerald (7-5), it will be up to his other stars.

"Raleigh (Yeldell) is just going to have to step up even more than he already has," Sawyer said of his senior quarterback, while pointing out senior receiver Marquez Mathis will be needed to contribute.

Sawyer went on to talk about how well senior running back Malcolm Watkins has played in Hammond's absence. That was exemplified in the Rebels' first stint without Hammond.

Watkins carried the ball 26 times for 148 yards and two touchdowns in a tilt with another Region 3-AA favorite coming into the season, Columbia. Meanwhile, Yeldell ran the ball 11 times for 93 yards and a score, while completing 8 of 11 passes for 92 more yards and another score. Mathis was Yeldell's main target that game, catching three passes for 41 yards and a score in the 49-20 Rebel victory.

Another Rebel that came up big in that game was junior Ty Brooks, who returned a kickoff 80 yards for a score. Sawyer said Brooks will be handling both kick and punt return duties against Emerald.

The sixth-seeded Vikings played up-and-down for much of the regular season, finishing with a 5-5 overall record, 2-3 in region. After opening the playoffs with a 40-6 win over Eau Claire, Emerald upset No. 3 Pendleton 48-26 on the road in the second round. Sawyer said it's common for teams to peak at this time of year.

"A lot of times you get a team that gets hot in the last couple weeks of the regular season and the first couple weeks of the playoffs," he said. "They seem to be that team."

Even though Emerald lost 28-21 in its regular-season finale to Saluda, a team that Strom Thurmond beat 35-0 on Sept. 2, Sawyer said "Saluda's a different team than when we played them."

Emerald is the first foe that Strom Thurmond didn't play last year. Even though teams often have consistent opponents on the regular-season schedule, Sawyer said that getting into the third round of the state playoffs before playing someone new is strange.

"Usually you get one right out of the gate," he said. "So that is unusual."

Because of that unfamiliarity, he's preparing his defense for the variety of sets that the Vikings run.

"They run a lot of different stuff, and we can't let them confuse us," Sawyer said.

He also said that his team will need to avoid letting Emerald drain clock the way the Raiders did in last week's game, scoring on a 20-play, game-opening drive that ate up most of the first quarter.

To do that, the Rebels will need to contain 1,000-yard rusher Osharmar Abercrombie, who scored three times in the upset of Pendleton, and senior quarterback Robinson Sanders, who also got loose for a 37-yard score against the Bulldogs. Senior Trayvon Sanders added a 97-yard kickoff return for touchdown to start the second half for the Vikings, so the Rebel special-teams units will also need to be alert.