Chester and Daniel know each other well. They’ll play for the 3A Upper State title

Head coach Victor Floyd knows the Daniel football program well.

He can recall the game in 2005, when his Chester team lost to Daniel in the first round of the playoffs. He can remember the game in 2007 — when Chester hosted DeAndre “Nuke” Hopkins and the Lions and soundly beat them in the state quarterfinals.

The rest of this year’s Cyclones? They know Daniel well, too.

“They beat us pretty good last year,” Floyd told The Herald at a practice earlier this week, referencing Daniel’s 62-30 dominant display in the first round of last year’s playoffs. “I told the kids, ‘You don’t get an opportunity for too many do-overs.’ So Friday’s opportunity for a do-over — because the majority of their team is back and just about all of ours is back — is a chance to right the ship. So we’ll see.”

The Cyclones will play Daniel for an Upper State championship on Friday night in Central, which is just about a two-hour drive from Chester High School. The game is an ultimate matchup between two of the state’s best 3A programs over the last five years.

The Lions are the reigning state champions and are touting a 22-game winning streak that extends back to last season.

And Chester has a chance to advance to its second state championship game in four years on Friday.

The Cyclones have nine seniors on their roster, three of whom contributed on Chester’s 2018 state championship team. Those guys are starting quarterback Zan Dunham, starting kicker Henry Glenn and starting offensive lineman (then-tight end) DaMorrius Thompson.

Thompson said he’s told his teammates about what it’s like making a deep playoff run. He remembers the Upper State title game well, he said.

“We tell them all the time,” he said. “The Upper State game? The energy for it? It’s a great feeling.”

What to know in Chester (9-3) vs. Daniel (12-0)

Chester has found ways to win in the 2021 playoffs in different ways — by astonishing comebacks (versus Chapman) and start-to-finish dominance (versus Powdersville).

“It shows that we have no quit,” Dunham said. “It shows that when we’re down, we still can make plays. And when we’re up, we can keep it going.”

The Cyclones will need that dynamism against Daniel.

The Chester offense begins with Dunham, the 6-foot-3, 220-pound quarterback who has started for all of his four years under Floyd. It’s no secret that Dunham will run the ball 20-25 times on Friday night: This year, the senior has recorded 1,190 yards and 11 touchdowns rushing and added 918 yards and 10 touchdowns throwing. (He also gets time as the team’s starting long-snapper and as an inside linebacker.)

Dunham is protected by an offensive line with four senior starters and is boosted by a bevy of talent around him. Junior running back Shydem McCullough has notched 1,001 rushing yards, eight rushing touchdowns and four receiving touchdowns on the year. Junior RB Sherard Feaster (404 yards, three touchdowns rushing), sophomore RB Antonio Hopkins (301 yards, five touchdowns rushing), senior Rathael Pendergrass (186 yards receiving) and junior Andre Evans (173 yards receiving) have been huge playmakers, too.

“Everybody understands their role,” Floyd said. “That’s just how this group is.”

Daniel is impressive through and through.

Daniel’s quarterback and 2020 S.C. Gatorade Player of the Year, Trent Pearman, has thrown for 3,141 yards and 40 touchdowns this year — tossing it most to junior Eli Merck, who has snagged 63 catches for 916 yards and 15 touchdowns on the season.

The Lions also boast a near-1,000-yard rusher in junior Chris Edge (929 yards, 14 touchdowns rushing) and an impressive defense led by senior defensive end Jaheim Lawson (who has a slew of FBS offers), senior linebacker Griffin Batt (Clemson commit) and junior cornerback Misun Kelly (another high-major Division I prospect).

This is Chester’s chance for a “do-over.” This is Daniel’s chance to sustain a streak peered by few in the state of South Carolina.

Both teams have a championship pedigree to draw from — and that should make Friday night special.

“I see this group as the same group as 2018,” Dunham said. “Everybody is hungry. Everybody wants to win every Friday. Same thing as 2018.”

Game prediction

Zietlow’s prediction: Daniel wins.

This story was originally published November 25, 2021 at 8:00 AM.

Alex Zietlow

The Herald

Alex Zietlow writes about sports and the ways in which they intersect with life in York, Chester and Lancaster counties for The Herald, where he has been an editor and reporter since August 2019. Zietlow has won nine S.C. Press Association awards in his career, including First Place finishes in Feature Writing, Sports Enterprise Writing and Education Beat Reporting. He also received two Top-10 awards in the 2021 APSE writing contest and was nominated for the 2022 U.S. Basketball Writers Association’s Rising Star award for his coverage of the Winthrop men’s basketball team.