Darlington hasn't had much luck against South Florence recently, but that could start to change on Thursday. The Falcons will head out to take on the Bruins at 7:30 p.m. The two teams might be coming in a bit winded given these two teams combined for 1,006 yards in their previous games.
Darlington came into this matchup off a tough 28-point loss two weeks ago. This time they kept things ultra-competitive, but unfortunately the final result was the same. They fell just short of Wilson by a score of 28-26 on Friday.
Despite the defeat, Darlington got top-tier performance from Jaylen Augustus, who rushed for 310 yards and a pair of scores while picking up 8.6 yards per carry, and also threw for 165 yards and two TDs. Augustus was no stranger to the big play, taking off on a dash that went for 55 yards.
Meanwhile, South Florence entered their tilt with Hartsville on Friday with six consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with seven. They blew past the Red Foxes 51-23. Given the Bruins' advantage in MaxPreps' South Carolina football rankings (they are ranked fifth, while the Red Foxes are ranked 37th) , the win wasn't entirely unexpected.
South Florence's win came from a few key players Darlington will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Gabe McLaughlin, who rushed for 153 yards and three touchdowns while picking up 9.6 yards per carry. Those three rushing touchdowns gave him a new career-high. Another player making a difference was Cameron James, who rushed for 179 yards and a pair of TDs while picking up 7.5 yards per carry.
They were just one part of a punishing run game: South Florence was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 371 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 164 rushing yards in eight consecutive contests.
South Florence's record is now 9-1. As for Darlington, their loss dropped their record down to 3-7.
| Passing Yards | 1,111 |
| Passing Touchdowns | 13 |
| Passer Rating | 86.5 |
| Rushing Yards | 940 |
| Rushing Touchdowns | 11 |
Thursday's matchup will pit two of the most dominant signal callers against one another: Augustus and Messiah Jackson. Augustus just won't slow down this season and has thrown 13 touchdowns while averaging 111.1 passing yards per game. Jackson has been a dominant force too and has thrown 16 touchdowns (and and only 1 picks) while averaging 121.7 passing yards per game.
Darlington was taken down by South Florence 57-6 in their previous meeting back in October. That game was all but decided by halftime, at which point the Falcons were down 43-6.
