What we learned about teams from Savannah area in Week One of high school football

Before incidents in the stands brought an early end to Benedictine's season opener with Jenkins at Memorial Stadium for the second consecutive season, there was actual football being played on the field Friday night. BC was declared the 42-0 winner after the game was called with 12 minutes left to play.

It was a sloppy affair on the Jenkins side as the Warriors had more than 100 yards in penalties in the first half. It took a bit for BC to get in a rhythm, but the Cadets finally got rolling behind senior quarterback Luke Kromenhoek, who was 6 of 11 passing for 96 yards, including a scoring pass to highly-regarded sophomore Bubba Frazier for his first career touchdown. Kromenhoek also rushed for 59 yards and a score on six carries.

Frazier also scored on an end-around for a 21-yard touchdown runs. Senior Bryce Baker, also a standout linebacker, had a pair of scoring runs, and senior Na'Seir Samuel had a big night with 43 yards and a touchdown on eight carries and a pair of catches for 39 yards before play was halted.

Junior linebacker Third Scroggins and senior lineman Jeremiah Thomas led the defense, along with sophomore free safety Antonio Hansen-Mann, who had a pair of interceptions in his first varsity start for the Cadets, who play at Chambers in North Carolina next week.

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Savannah Christian 49, Hilton Head Christian 0

The Raiders rolled to a road win in their opener as junior running back Zo Smalls rushed for 152 yards on 11 carries and scored four touchdowns, including an 86-yard run for a score.

In his first start at quarterback, sophomore Blaise Thomas hit South Carolina commit David Bucey (4 catches for 59 yards) on a pair of scoring passes. Kenry Wall had 56 yards on five carries and Carson Taylor returned a fumble 28 yards for a score.

Charlie Yannett added a pair of interceptions for the Raiders.

Calvary Day 49, Islands 8

Senior quarterback Jake Merklinger, who has committed to Tennessee, threw for more than 200 yards and four touchdowns to lead the host Cavaliers to a non-region win in their opener against Islands.

Merklinger hit Thomas Blackshear on a pair of scoring passes and also connected with South Carolina commit Michael Smith and Caden Arnold for scores.

Doopah Coleman and Trevor Strowbridge added rushing touchdowns for Calvary Day.

Richmond Hill 34, Effingham County 7

The Wildcats had an impressive victory on the road with senior Nick Bliss leading the way. Bliss had three touchdowns on the night — scoring on an 86-yard kick return, a 55-yard blocked punt return and a 4-yard run.

He had 58 yards on 10 carries and caught three passes for 42 yards in an impressive performance. Wildcats quarterback Kirk Scott was 5 of 8 passing for 74 yards and the score and Joshua Troupe ran for 76 yards and a score on 11 carries. Linebacker Gabe Bauman had seven tackles and an interceptons and Tad Christman had eight tackles for Richmond Hill.

Bryan County 28, Lincoln County 16

Bryan County coach Cherard Freeman led his squad to a road win over his alma mater as Bryan County won its opener Friday night.

Austin Clemons scored on a 25-yard run and helped lead a strong defensive effort with Tanner Ennis for Bryan County. Quarterback Sean Kelly Hill ran for one score and had a touchdown pass to Chris Martin, and also played well defensively, Freeman said.

"This means a lot, and not just because we beat my old high school," Cherard said. "It shows how far this team has come from not winning a game four years ago to starting out the season like this and beating a team that was ranked No. 4 in the state on the road. We're really proud of the kids and the coaching staff did a great job preparing them."

Bethesda 50, Hilton Head Prep 7

Senior Triston Randall helped lead the Blazers to a road win in their opener as he went 8 of 14 passing for 203 yards, while making eight tackles at linebacker.

Noah Jenkins had a huge night as the senior rushed for 150 yards and five touchdowns on 19 carries, including a 65-yard strike.

Caleb Dillon had three catches for 78 yards and a score and Thomas Peters had three catches for 100 yards.

Kamerion Lanigan had eight tackles and a pair of sacks and Charles Greene and Joshua Johnson had interceptions for the Blazers.

St. Andrew's 34, Thomas Jefferson 0

Senior running back Richaard Williams scored three rushing touchdowns, Zayden Williams scored and freshman Jack Kelly added a touchdown as the Lions pitched a shutout on the road in their GIAA opener Friday.

Williams rushed for 101 yards on eight carries and Amari Cook had 90 yards on nine carries for the Lions.

Joe Frazar led the Lion defense with 14 tackles, including two for losses, a sack and a forced fumble.

Memorial Day 59, Palmetto Christian 16

Tyler Kindle threw for more than 400 yards and three touchdowns and Charles Chappell had eight catches for 162 yards and a pair of scores to lead the Matadors to a win at Pooler Stadium, according to Jeff Moeller of the Prep Sports Report.

Assir Best added touchdown runs of 38 and 15 yards for Memorial.

South Effingham 21, Vidalia 15

The Mustangs won their opener in the head coaching debut of Loren Purvis.

Senior quarterback Kaden De Genaro had a pair of rushing touchdowns, with one coming on a 30-yard jaunt. Senior linebacker Jeremiah Washington had a strong second half to help lead the Mustangs to the win.

Saturday

Josey 28, Savannah High 26

Savannah High lost, but showed a lot of fight in the debut of Coach Bud Tolliver. Junior Stephen Fox Jr. had an impressive night as he ran back two kickoffs for touchdowns.

Sophomore Makeen Mervin and his classmate Corey Robinson added touchdown runs for the Blue Jackets.

"It was a tough game, we had the lead until the end when I thought we ran out of gas a little bit," Tolliver said. "But Stephen (Fox) kept us in it with those big kickoff returns. We made some mistakes, but we'll work to correct them next week."

Other scores

South Effingham 21, Vidalia 15

MCA 12, Johnson 0

Bluffton 41, Beach 6

Thursday night

Wayne County 49, Bradwell Institute 20

Bradwell lost on the road in its opener in a game that was moved to Thursday because of a shortage of officials.

Bradwell's senior quarterback Christopher Garrett was 19 of 36 for 256 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. He connected with junior Bryant Thomas 10 times for 85 yards and a touchdown. Sophomore running back Wade Cobb had 13 carries for 91 yards and a pair of touchdowns for Bradwell.

Dennis Knight covers sports for the Savannah Morning News. Contact him at Dknight@savannahnow.com. Twitter: @DennisKnightSMN

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: What we learned about Savannah area football teams in Week 1 of 2023 season