Hammond adds to its dynasty; 5 Takeaways from this week's South Carolina high school football playoffs

Batesburg-Leesville cruises; Sellers soars; Powdersville and Daniel prevail

Hammond football celebrates its 8th consecutive SCISA football state championship after its 28-21 victory over Porter-Gaud. / Hammond Football

Hammond School added another notch to its dynasty in a thriller over Porter-Gaud while Batesburg-Leesville’s Amadre Wooden set a school record.

Those two are part of our five takeaways this week. Here they are:

Hammond wins eighth consecutive state title

Hammond is gold-plated football program of the South Carolina Independent School Association.

The Skyhawks won their eighth consecutive state championship in a 28-21 thriller over Porter-Gaud. Hammond has won 16 state championships since 2006 and 22 overall. It’s their fourth title under head coach Jon Wheeler.

That’s a dynasty few can match.

Hammond most dominated its opponents in an undefeated season. But it took Andrew Turner’s 23-yard touchdown pass on fourth down to LSU commit Mike Tyler, who made a diving catch in the end zone with 45 seconds left to secure the championship. 

Porter-Gaud had tied the game on Tony Brown’s 1-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter. The Cyclones thought they had taken the lead on Nolen Shuman’s pass to J.J. Fludd following a Hammond fumble but that play was nullified by a penalty.

Turner had three touchdown passes. Immanuel Johnson caught a touchdown pass and had a touchdown run.

The Skyhawks took an initial 7-0 lead before Fludd busted loose on an 84-yard touchdown run.

Fludd’s second touchdown, a 3-yard run, gave the Cyclones a 14-7 lead but Turner threw a 23-yard touchdown pass to Croft to even it up again.

Hammond (13-0) ended the season with a 23-game winning streak.

Wooden shows out for Batesburg-Leesville

Batesburg-Leesville is already having its best season since 2000. Wooden applied an exclamation point Friday night by running for a school-record 334 yards and 5 touchdowns as the Panthers routed Andrew Jackson 49-14.

Wooden upped his season total to 2,053 yards.

That wasn’t the only B-L record set on Friday. Quarterback Tanner Watkins didn’t have to throw much but ended the game with 3,275 yards for the season, a school record.

Sellers soars in leading South Florence

Jayden Sellers, the younger brother of South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers, scored five touchdowns as South Florence rolled to a 56-28 victory over Hilton Head Island.

The younger Sellers, a South Carolina commit, had four touchdown runs on direct snaps and caught a 42-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Messiah Jackson. The running touchdowns were 68, 27, 1 and 50 yards.

Powdersville uses takeaways to hold off Woodruff

Powdersville grabbed two interceptions and recovered a fumble, all in the fourth quarter, enabling the Patriots to hold on for a 21-14 win over Woodruff.

Brock Holliday and Brendan Wertz had interceptions. Both came inside Powdersville territory. Javier Mills got the fumble recovery.

It was a solid win for the Patriots. Woodruff’s only other loss was by two points to Mountain View Prep.

Daniel wins shootout with Richland Northeast

Richland Northeast quarterback Will Wilson put on another Superman-like performance with 370 yards passing and 136 on the ground. The North Carolina State commit accounted for five touchdowns.

But it wasn’t enough.

Daniel quarterback Grayson Clary threw two touchdown passes and ran for two more as the Lions won 48-36. Mickey Conn ran for 183 yards and a touchdown on just 6 carries.