The Keenan Raiders will head out on the road to face off against the Strom Thurmond Rebels at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Keenan will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps South Carolina Rankings (they are ranked 109th, while Strom Thurmond is ranked 31st).
With a playoff game on the line, Keenan rose to the challenge on Friday. They had just enough and edged Ninety Six out 24-21.
Keenan got their victory on the backs of several key players, but it was Desmond Washington out in front who threw for 196 yards and two touchdowns on only 17 passes, and also punched in a touchdown on the ground. Evan Artemus and his 82 yards on the ground were also a key factor in Keenan's win.
Meanwhile, Strom Thurmond had already won five in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 34.6 points), and they went ahead and made it six on Friday. They blew past Landrum 49-7 at home. Considering Strom Thurmond has won eight matches by more than 25 points this season, Friday's blowout was nothing new.
Quan Edmond and Chris Barnes were among the main playmakers for Strom Thurmond as the former threw for 172 yards and three touchdowns while completing 81.8% of his passes and the latter rushed for 93 yards and two touchdowns on only eight carries. Edmond has been hot recently, having posted three or more passing touchdowns the last three times he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Michael Blocker, who rushed for 52 yards and a touchdown.
Another reason for the win was Strom Thurmond's imposing defense, which managed to get into the backfield for three sacks. Eric Clark was especially locked on to Landrum's QB and sacked him twice.
Keenan has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won four of their last five matchups, which provided a massive bump to their 5-5 record this season. As for Strom Thurmond, they pushed their record up to 9-2 with that victory, which was their sixth straight at home.
Keenan lost to Strom Thurmond on the road by a decisive 21-6 margin in their previous matchup back in November of 2022. Can Keenan avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
