By Justin Jarrett
LowcoSports.com
It’s not time for Beaufort High School football fans to panic, but the clock is ticking.
The Eagles slogged through another game that followed their recent trademark on Friday, watching one offensive shortcoming after another undo a terrific defensive effort in a 17-6 loss to Philip Simmons. It drops Beaufort to 0-3 for the second straight season, an unthinkable notion when Bryce Lybrand and crew were hoisting the Class 3A state championship trophy just three years ago in Columbia.
It seems so long ago now.
This year’s Beaufort team boasts a strong defense — though certainly not as strong as the state championship unit led by Colton Phares, now a starting linebacker at Appalachian State — but any similarities to the 2022 squad end there.
The offensive line was thought to be a strength going into the season, as six players with starting experience returned in the trenches, including hulking tackle Kenshon Speaks, but none of Beaufort’s backs have found much running room, and the Eagles’ quarterbacks have spent too much time running for their lives. It was understandable against Class 5A powers Fort Dorchester and Greenwood, but the trouble up front continued against Philip Simmons, a Class 2A team looking for its first win.
That’s concerning, because the Eagles needed to lean on their ground game this year while they adjust to life without three-year starting quarterback Samari Bonds, a physical freak who could turn busted plays into big gains. They went with Anthony Kahler as Bonds’ successor, but the offense was largely ineffective and Kahler suffered a broken collarbone in a 48-8 loss at Greenwood.
Enter junior Braydon Moyd-Smalls, a less developed version of Bonds who can evade defenders and make plays with his legs and his arm. It didn’t matter. Beaufort’s offense sputtered time and again Friday, making uncharacteristic mistakes that proved costly. A blocked field goal took the air out of one promising drive, and an errant snap over Moyd-Smalls’ head resulted in a defensive touchdown for the Iron Horses.
This year’s Eagles aren’t good enough to get away with mistakes like that.
All is not lost, though. The next two games — at Goose Creek on Friday and at home against Battery Creek on Sept. 19 — are against winless teams, and then Beaufort has a week off before jumping into the Region 6-4A fray at Bluffton on Oct. 3.
Forgive me if I’m not quick to write this team off despite an ugly start to the season. I still remember Bryce Lybrand’s first season as Beaufort’s head coach, when the Eagles lost their first five games and lost quarterback Tyler Haley to injury only to install a revamped offense the next week and win their next four games en route to a region title. Three years later they were state champs.
Lybrand and the Eagles have a lot to figure out in a short time, but they’ve done it before.
Justin Jarrett is the sports editor of The Island News and the founder of LowcoSports.com. He was the sports editor of the Island Packet and the Beaufort Gazette for 6½ years. He has a passion for sports and community journalism and a questionable sense of humor.
