By Lonnie Turner
As the 2013 football State Playoffs begin, the Dillon Wildcats find themselves idle as they get a bye in the first round of the 2A Division I playoff picture. The Cats will take on the winner of the Battery Creek/Wade Hampton game next week at Memorial Stadium.
In the meantime the Lake View Wild Gators (4-6) are seeded #2 in the division II bracket against #7 Denmark-Olar (2-8) at Lake View and the seventh seeded Latta Vikings (7-3) in Division I will have to travel about 95 miles down I95 to Exit 97, then cut 58 miles cross country through Orangeburg and on down to Fairfax to meet the second seed Allendale-Fairfax Tigers (7-2). According to Google, the trip should take close to 3 hours. If interstate travel is preferred, go on to Exit 57 and cut cross to Fairfax. The Dillon Christian School Warriors are also at home and Holly Hill is coming into Dillon for this contest.
The Wild Gators will be looking for continued impressive play out of Junior running back Christian McDaniel who has come on strong of late scoring 12 touchdowns and has run for close to 800 yards for the season and Sophomore quarterback Weston Rogers is getting better each week. On the other hand Denmark-Olar features a pair of running backs who have rushed for over 600 yards apiece. Sophomore quarterback Ricco Parler is a running threat as well as a dangerous passer. He leads the team with 638 yards rushing and has passed for 762 yards. Senior Xavier Reed has the second most yards rushing with 604 yards. The Vikings lost the first seven games, but has won two of their last three.
The Latta Vikings are led by running back R.J. McClam, who is the number six rusher in the state with over 1,600 yards and 24 touchdowns. Even though playing through an injury last week against the Lake View Gators, McClam scored both touchdowns in a 14-0 win to get into the playoffs.
Latta head coach Kelly Williamson’s son Kel has made himself very comfortable at the quarterback position completing over 50% of his pass attempts for over 400 yards and eight touchdowns.
“Kel’s play has really come along well this season,” he said. Not only has his passing improved, but he has become a good team leader.”
Then there is “big” Donell Stanley, with the emphasis on “BIG.” The South Carolina Gamecock commitment stands at 6’5 and 290 pounds and, like Clowney of the Gamecocks, his presence on offense and defense is made known whether he makes a tackle or not. He was leading the team going into the Lake View game with 87 total tackles, including seven quarterback sacks and a blocked punt. He and McClam are best buddies and he is one of the forces behind the speedy back’s large chunk of yards this season.
Allendale-Fairfax is led by tail back Brandon Jordan with 1,054 yards and 14 touchdowns. The 5’9, 180 pound senior averages 12.3 yards per carry and has averaged 117 yards per game. The only losses for the Tigers came early in the season with back to back losses to Midland Valley (38-32) and Edisto (23-20).
In SCISA Playoffs Dillon Christian will be at home against the Holly Hill Raiders, a team that is considered a contender for the Class A title this season. They are led on offense by running back J.B. Casey and receiver Charlie Carpenter, who two weeks ago, had 99 yards receiving and 42 yards rushing. The Warriors enter the playoff with and the Raiders sport a record of 5-4.
Will Brown and Jim Carr share the duties at quarterback for the Warriors with Carr completing 37 of 90 passes for 548 yards and 4 touchdowns. Brown has thrown only 34 times and completed 16 for 167 yards. The leading rusher on the team is Kelvin Stackhouse, who has carried the football 222 times this season for 1,400 yards and has scored 15 TDs and was named SCISA player of the week by the High School Sorts Report last week.
