Player of the Week: Midland Valley running back turns in highlight-reel performance in Week 7 win

Oct. 10—It usually doesn't take long after a high school football game ends for players to have personalized video clips featuring their best plays of the night.

Those videos are often front-loaded, with the touchdowns, sacks, blocks and other attention-grabbing plays leading things off for fans and potential future college coaches to see.

For Midland Valley sophomore running back Preston Smith, last week's recap from the Mustangs' game against Airport could just be the entire game film. He rushed for 334 yards and five touchdowns on only 18 carries, averaging over 18.5 yards per run to lead his team to a 63-26 blowout to move to 5-1 overall and 2-1 in Region 4-AAAA.

For that, he is the Aiken Standard Player of the Week for Week 7.

"I mean, that was a highlight reel, said Mustangs head coach Brent Dorn. "Pretty much any time he touched the ball, he had a chance to take it. On a couple plays, he broke five-, six-plus tackles. It got to a point that they didn't even want to try to hit him."

Smith is averaging nearly 10 yards per carry for the season and 141 yards per game, and he's already up to 846 yards and eight touchdowns on only 89 carries. He's been particularly unstoppable the last two games, having rushed for 229 yards in a 34-7 win over Brookland-Cayce the week prior.

"I think it's really that we're getting into a groove," Dorn said. "Obviously, the B-C game, the weather was not fun trying to throw the football so we leaned really heavy on the run. Up front, we've gotten a lot better thanks to some new sled pads that we purchased a few weeks back. We've been hitting those really hard over the last few weeks, and he's just been doing his thing. He's a strong kid, very smart kid, understands his responsibilities. He does everything to the max."

Dorn said before the season that the goal for the offense was to achieve closer to a 50-50 split between the run and pass. That didn't necessarily mean in each game — quarterback Xavier Geter surpassed 1,000 passing yards through the first three games of the season in a pass-heavy start to the year, and that has flipped over to a run-dominant attack in recent weeks.

"He's obviously enjoyed having a few more carries," Dorn said. "... He's been ready for this role and to take more of the load when needed. Luckily, the other guys all understand that we've got to do what it takes to win, so they've been a great support. Even when it's been a little bit more run-heavy the last two games, they get in there and they have fun blocking and doing all of the little dirty stuff.

"It's starting to be a little bit more balanced. It's kind of been taking turns. Early we were pass-heavy, now we're slightly run-heavy. Obviously, it makes teams prepare a little bit for both, because at any point we can do one or the other."

There's been nothing opponents could do to prepare for Smith the last two weeks, and now Gilbert will be the next team to take its best shot a week after allowing South Aiken to have some success on the ground.

Smith gave a hint at big things to come during his freshman season while splitting time in the backfield with seniors Preston McNair and Caleb Williams. He averaged 7.0 yards per carry and rushed for more than 100 yards in a game twice in the last three weeks of the season.

He didn't settle knowing the starting job would be his after graduation day. He got right back to work, earning so much respect from his older teammates that they voted him a captain.

He's been a young leader for the program, and that leadership from he and the other captains was especially important after a disappointing loss to Gray Collegiate during which the Mustangs looked — and acted — like a fractured team.

Needless to say, they feel like that's behind them now, and they'll continue to lean on leaders like Smith as they tackle the rest of the region schedule and the playoffs.

"He's been one of our captains this year. We put Cs on their chest, and he was a unanimous decision to have that C on his chest," Dorn said. "He does a little bit of everything the right way. Even when he's not getting the ball, he's doing the little stuff that matters. He's really taken ownership. He's one of the true leaders on the team.

"He's got the C on his chest for a reason. He's done everything the right way and continues to do it the right way, even after these big performances. He's running hard at practice Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. It doesn't stop for him. Every time he gets the ball, he's going 100%."