North Augusta’s DeJuan Bell wasted little time in sending an emphatic message during last week’s 41-16 win over Lakeside (Ga.) – opposing quarterbacks will test the Jackets’ secondary at their peril in 2016.
Bell intercepted two passes and returned both for touchdowns and the Jackets’ defense forced two more turnovers in the season-opening victory. For his efforts, Bell was named as the Player of the Week by both The Aiken Standard and The Augusta Chronicle.
“(Two interceptions for touchdowns) ranks really high,” Bell told Augusta Chronicle sportswriter David Lee in an article published Friday. “I didn’t really expect it, but it came to me so I had to take it. I expect better things to happen Friday, too. The formations they have, I recognized them. We went over them in practice. Once they came out in it, I was ready to jump at it.”
North Augusta High School head football coach Brian Thomas said Bell is a playmaker for the team.
“DeJuan is a spark plug; there’s no doubt about it. He makes plays, and we’ve told him that and people in this area are going to know it, too; he makes plays,” Thomas told sportswriter Nick Terry of the North Augusta Star in a Monday article. “He’s very athletic ... The other night he made a couple of good reads, and of course, made some athletic plays and got us a couple touchdowns, so that was big.”
Also earning POY hardware this week was South Aiken High School’s Harold Hilton. Hilton, a was honored as the WRDW News Channel 12 Player of the Week in this article after scoring three touchdowns in the Thoroughbreds’ 55-0 season-opening win in Week Zero over Silver Bluff.
"He's just a really good football player." Chris Hamilton told News 12’s Kevin Faigle. "Then you add on top of that he's really fast, that's a dangerous combination. He's got good football sense on the field and then with his speed, he can make a lot of things happen."
Here are tonight’s big Aiken County high school football matchups:
- White Knoll (1-0) at South Aiken (1-0)
- Strom Thurmond (1-0) at Aiken (1-0)
- Williston-Elko (0-1) at Silver Bluff (0-1)
- Midland Valley (0-0) at Greenwood (0-1)
- North Augusta (1-0) at Evans (Ga.) (0-0)
- Ridge Spring-Monetta (0-1) at Saluda (0-1)
- Pelion (1-0) at Wagener-Salley (1-0)
PHOTO CREDIT: Image of NAHS player DeJuan Bell used courtesy of The Augusta Chronicle/Todd Bennett.