Aynor winning the Blue Jackets way as it eyes another high school football playoff berth

In Disney’s Remember the Titans, T.C. Williams head coach Herman Boone likens his offense to Novocain, saying “Just give it time, it always works.”

The same can be said about the option-style, run-heavy attack of the Aynor Blue Jackets.

“You know, we started running this offense probably 10 years ago and, for the most part, it has worked for us,” said Jason Allen, Aynor’s head coach. “We don’t really have the athletes to run the spread like most schools do these days. We line up and try to play to our strengths, which is offensive line play and running the football.”

The Blue Jackets (3-1) have found measurable success under Allen, who has won 21 games in two-plus years at the helm of his alma mater, including an undefeated regular season last year with a program-defining win over Dillon as the highlight.

That win, like many Aynor has earned with its ground-and-pound offense, came by playing to its strengths.

“We know, most nights, we aren’t going to have the best athletes on the field,” Allen said. “We pride ourselves on working hard and doing the little things right to win ballgames. We want to line up and play physical. Most teams know what we’re going to do when we play them, but if we play fast and physical, that doesn’t matter.”

Evidence of the Aynor system comes from the season stats compiled by the team. In four games, the Blue Jackets have completed just 18 passes on 28 attempts for 217 yards. That’s a solid night at the office for Ryan Burger at Myrtle Beach.

The passing game production is not a knock against this year’s starting quarterback, Noah Jones, but more of a product of the makeup of this year’s Blue Jackets, who have five backs with 20 carries or more.

“We’ve been working on the passing game, just trying to get more live reps to grow Noah’s confidence,” Allen said. “Coach Timmy Lee, our quarterbacks coach, has been working with him and we’ve seen great results over the past few weeks. But, this year, we’ve got a stable of running backs that really haven’t separated themselves from the pack. So, we’re trying to spread the ball around to all of those guys.”

Moving into Week 5, the Blue Jackets have their sights set on the playoffs and just one region game standing in the way – homecoming against Loris. The Lions have played just two games on the year, winning against Waccamaw and Georgetown. Their first contest, against Dillon, was moved to Week 6 and last week the Lions were off.

That means Aynor versus Loris on Friday is a de facto playoff game for the Blue Jackets, who would be out of the playoff picture with a loss.

“This one is a big one for us,” Allen said. “We’ve got homecoming and our cross (county) rivals in Loris coming to town. They’re big, strong, and fast with athletes all over the field, so that will be a big challenge for us. We can’t afford a loss in this one, that’s for sure.”

Week 5 Schedule

Loris at Aynor

St. James at Carolina Forest

Conway at Sumter

Green Sea Floyds at Timmonsville

Myrtle Beach at Wilson

West Florence at North Myrtle Beach

Waccamaw at Socastee

This story was originally published October 22, 2020 at 12:27 PM.