Personal Injury Attorney in Barnwell, SC

BARNWELL -- Brian Smith isn't the kind of guy who is frequently at a loss for words.

Pregame, postgame, midweek - it doesn't matter. Barnwell's head football coach typically doesn't need much prodding to advance the conversation.

Friday night, though, took a moment to process. Look no further than the players from both Barnwell and visiting Cheraw who had collapsed on the field following the final momentum swing in a third-round playoff game full of them.

Joy, and perhaps disbelief, for the hosts. Agony, and also perhaps disbelief, for their guests. Cheraw's Nick Gordon got behind the Barnwell defense on the final play of the game, pulling in a pass from Kadin Thomas before his momentum carried him out of bounds a yard before the goal line.

Barnwell 28, Cheraw 27. The Warhorses move on to next week's Class AA Lower State finals against Manning back on their home turf, while the Braves were left to head home heartbroken.

"It's great to win. It's great to win at home in the playoffs in November, Thanksgiving weekend going into December," Smith said. "They played a heck of a ballgame over there. That's a good bunch. ... I don't think we played our best tonight, but we played good enough to win. That's what we try to talk about this point in the year. I'd much rather come out of this one with a win than saying, 'Boy, we played our best and got beat.' Our kids, I'm proud of the way they fought, coming back at the end."

The season for both teams came down to one final snap. Cheraw was at the Barnwell 45-yard line, down a point with 3.9 seconds left on the clock after a penalty against the Warhorses.

Thomas rolled to his right, keeping the play alive for as long as he could while directing his receivers into whatever openings he could find in the Barnwell secondary. He had done that just a couple of minutes before on a 66-yard touchdown pass to Deshaun Drake to put the Braves ahead 27-21 with 2:10 to play, and this time he found Gordon streaking down the sideline.

Thomas released the ball from a step inside the 50, dropping it cleanly into Gordon's hands. But Gordon's momentum carried him to his right, and he tiptoed out of bounds right before the pylon.

"He stepped out on like the 1 or the 2," Smith said. "Our chain crew said his momentum, you could see it coming, kind of, the momentum on the play. That's our fault, too. We've got to cover better than that, and we've got to protect better than that. We know they're throwing it deep, and we didn't do our job there. We should've done a better job there. That's our fault. But again, at least we get to come back next week and correct it."

That capped a wild final few minutes that included a pair of lead changes, the last of which came when Cameron Austin floated a pass on fourth-and-4 into the arms of William Robinson for a 13-yard touchdown to put Barnwell ahead with only 34 seconds to play.

That finished a frantic final drive for Barnwell that reached midfield with 1:24 to play, then quickly advanced into the red zone on a long completion from Austin to Jaquan Peeples. The Braves answered with a sack and eventually put the Warhorses into a tough spot with a third-and-18 from the Cheraw 25, only to split that in half by interfering with Kahzeer Wesley on a pass over the middle.

The Braves brought pressure on the fourth-down play, but a hobbled Austin eluded it just enough to find Robinson in the end zone for what turned out to be the game-winner.

"We've got to do a better job at the end of the game offensively. We took the sack, we fumbled out of bounds, and we threw incomplete," Smith said. "We've got to get a first down to win the ballgame sometimes, and we didn't do that tonight. We came back out and gave up the score on defense, but we responded well to go back down and score again. William Robinson made a great catch in the end zone, and then we were able to get - I'm not sure we got much of a stop. The guy's momentum took him out of bounds more than anything, or we would be sitting here crying right now. And I hate that. They're a good bunch. They're well-coached, and you see it every week, but we came out alive tonight."

Cheraw appeared to have all of the momentum late in the second quarter, having forced Barnwell into consecutive three-and-outs and kicking a pair of field goals for a 13-7 lead. The Braves had limited the Warhorses to 91 yards of total offense, with 51 of those coming on an Austin-to-Robinson connection on the opening drive, on only 18 plays in the first half.

Yet they headed into the break trailing after a controversial play that will be talked about in Barnwell, Cheraw and the rest of the state for a long time.

Cheraw had gotten a first down in Barnwell territory with under a minute to go in the half, and the Braves hurried to the line of scrimmage to run another play after the chains were moved. Thomas lobbed the ball downfield while falling away to avoid the pass rush, and it fell short of its intended target - only to bounce into the air where Damahjai Devoe was waiting to intercept it. He snagged it and ran 66 yards to the end zone, untouched, to put Barnwell ahead 14-13 with only 6 seconds left on the clock.

Some of Cheraw's players didn't even give chase, one of them signaling to the officials and pointing at the ground as if to say it hit the turf and should have been incomplete. Cell phone videos of the play appeared on social media within minutes, leaving internet sleuths on both sides of the equation analyzing the footage and coming up with their own theories.

Did it hit the turf? Or a gloved hand underneath the ball? Either way, the whistle never blew - and Devoe alertly hightailed it toward the end zone. Touchdown, Barnwell.

"The interception to end the first half, which we get. I didn't see it. The ball's getting tipped - I thought it was incomplete," Smith said. "Next thing I knew, we were running and nobody's blowing it dead, so we keep running. I'm proud for our kids. I'm proud for this community. I'm thankful we get to come back next week to do this again."

Cheraw bottled up Barnwell's run game for most of the night, holding the Warhorses to 19 yards on nine carries in the first half. Enter Jordan Peeples, who took his first carry of the game 35 yards on the first play of the second half. His only three carries of the night came on that drive, but he gave his team a spark and ended up as their leading rusher with 46 yards.

Smith felt, even with the slow start, that it was just a matter of time before the Warhorses would break a big one. That was it, and Austin finished the drive with a keeper from a yard out for a 21-13 lead.

And the fun was only just getting started.

Deman Ellerbe picked off Austin on the first play of the fourth quarter, giving Cheraw the ball at the Barnwell 43. The Braves went back to their run game, which was already without leading rusher Cam McClendon and then lost their second option in Justyn Joint after only two carries. Their leading rusher after those two coming into Friday night was Jamarion Banks, who had 189 yards on 42 carries for the season.

Yet Amari Short stepped up and brought a physical presence to the run game, and Thomas hurt the Warhorses on some quarterback keepers. One of them resulted in an 11-yard touchdown run to get the Braves within 21-19 - they went for a tying two-point conversion, but Jayden Peeples made a one-handed interception - with 8:54 remaining.

The Braves got the defensive stop they needed on the ensuing drive, only to give it right back on downs. They thought they had it after an Austin fumble, which Barnwell kept after he was ruled down on the play. Cheraw had the ball again only moments later after forcing a turnover on downs, setting up the touchdown pass from Thomas to Drake.

Thomas passed for 281 yards and a couple of scores, and Gordon was his top receiver with 119 yards to go with an interception on defense. Drake had 88 receiving yards, and Short rushed for 63 bruising yards.

Austin, who had a noticeable limp from the Warhorses' first snap, was just 9-for-23 passing for 130 yards and two interceptions. But he also bookended the game with touchdown passes, a 12-yarder to Jaquan Peeples on Barnwell's first drive and the 13-yarder to Robinson on its last. The Warhorses were limited to 95 rushing yards, but they came out ahead on the only part of the box score that matters.

"That wasn't our best ballgame tonight but, again, it was one of those that we won," Smith said. "An ugly win is always prettier than a good loss, because I don't know if there can be a good loss. I've been in some that I felt like we played our tails off before and got beat. I'll take an ugly win tonight. She's beautiful. Beautiful. I'm just happy."

GOLF recently released its latest ranking of the Top 100 Courses in the U.S. (2024-25), a list that includes 11 newcomers. Some of them you might know. Others you might not. Here, in our newcomer spotlights, we’ll introduce you to these rookie Top 100 gems.

Location: Aiken, S.C.Type: PrivateYear opened: 2023Architect: Brian Schneider, Blake Conant

Architects Brian Schneider and Blake Conant borrowed classic design principles and applied them in a fresh way on a sandy parcel of rolling land outside of Aiken. The firmness of the turf that superintendent Davis Verner routinely achieves (thanks, in part, to an absence of overseeding) allows the nuances of this design to sparkle. Half-par holes abound. Can you reach the open but long green at the par-5 opener? Should you try to drive the 2nd or 14th greens? (If you try and fail, the hunter quickly becomes the hunted, as deep bunkers guard these two short 4s.) Can you use the mounds at the par-4 8th to kick an approach close on the inverted L-shaped green? Or how about trying to bounce one onto the rolling green at the 235-yard 11th? Meanwhile, the rust color of the centipede rough lends this open course a heathland-like feel. Completing the ideal is the club’s ethos of giving back to the game and the community, as established by Old Barnwell founder Nick Schreiber.

“A visually and strategically compelling course. It invites you to guess with regard to targeted lines of play, rewarding you with success or the immediate desire to try it again with another lap. The architectural creativity draws the player into the course. Some areas struck me as whimsical and others enjoyably strategic, giving players a sense of North Berwick. Well done with an outstanding golf culture that embeds an appreciation for both the architecture and play.”

“Outside of The Lido, Old Barnwell is the most strategic new design of the past 30 years. It requires thoughtful play throughout and is the kind of course where the direct line to the hole is usually not the correct one. The ground is a key element and there are many holes where the line off the tee changes dramatically every day based on where the hole is cut. The greens are bold without being too severe. This is the kind of course you could play every day without getting bored, and it is not so difficult that it can’t be enjoyed by all levels of players.”