Chris Cox covers high school sports and tennis in Beaufort County. | The Hilton Head Island High boys lacrosse team travels to Fort Mill later this afternoon for a clash with the Yellow Jackets in the second round of the state playoffs.
I spoke with coach Joe Monmonier, among others, about what the Yellow Jackets bring to the table. Fort Mill, which knocked off Spring Valley 13-7 in the playoff opener, earned the No. 2 seed in the Lower State bracket after an 11-3 regular season. Here are some quotes on tonight's game...
Monmonier: "Fort Mill has a very good offense and a very good attack. From what I hear, I've never actually seen them play, but a lot of the other coaches that have played against us and seen them have said that we should match up well with them. They have a very good offense. But I hear that their defense in goalie is not as good. We kind of get some strength out of our defense. Depending again on who we are. I think anyone can win this. It's just a matter of who shows up and when."
Senior Nick Bautista: "They won the state championship last year but they separated into two different teams. So I really have no idea. I've got to look them up."
Junior Kyle Kirby: "I'm not worried about Fort Mill whatsoever. I'm just not."
A.C. Flora coach John Hutt, whose team lost to the Seahawks in the first round: "I think they'll be all right. They've got some good players. They're going to match up well against Fort Mill. I think that's going to be a good game."
Should the Seahawks get past Fort Mill, they'll likely earn a date with rival Wando in the Lower State finals. Wando knocked off Hilton Head High in the same game two years ago, which is clearly still on the mind of Bautista.
"We're pretty much looking one game ahead, but we've always got Wando in the back of our minds," Bautista said. " ... Fort Mill is just an obstacle and we have to get over it to get to Wando. And Wando is an even bigger obstacle to get to the ultimate goal, which is the state championship."