By Lonnie Turner
It seems like every year in football, the Timberland Timber Wolves and Dillon Wildcats meet to determine which team will take the December trip to Columbia for the state title game.
It all started in 2005 when the two teams were in the 3A playoffs and the Wolves made their first trip to Dillon for the Lower State Championship game. In a barn-burner, the Wildcats edged Timberland on the strength of place kicker Nate Stephens kicking one of two PAT attempts. The cats took a 7-0 lead in the first quarter and the Wolves came back late in the second quarter with a touchdown, but the Wildcat defense held on a two-point conversion attempt to carry a 7-6 lead into the intermission.
Covington’s second touchdown came in the third quarter, but Stephens missed on the point after try. Timberland had a chance to tie that game after scoring in the fourth quarter, but again the defense turned them back. The Wildcats went on to lose 35-7 to Strom Thurmond in Columbia.
The two teams didn’t meet again until the 2008 season when they both dropped down to the 2A ranks. That year the Wildcats beat the Wolves 28-27 in two overtime periods in the “boonies” for the Lower State title. It is a long way out in the tall timber country near St. Stephens, but the trip home was great because the Cats came away with the win and went on to win their first State Championship with a 7-6 win over the Central-Pageland Eagles at Clemson’s Tiger Stadium.
In that game, Travis Murphy hit a 94-yard touchdown pass to Antwan Blue and T.J. Grimsley’s extra point was the kick that won the championship. Central had a chance to tie in the third quarter on a touchdown with six minutes on the clock, but the point after attempt was missed and the Wildcats defense held on to take the crown.
The Wildcats took the Wolves 10-7 in the third round of the 2009 season and went on to capture the second straight State Championship over Central with a 21-20 win at Columbia‘s Williams-Brice Stadium.
In one of the most one-sided games between Timberland and Dillon, the Wildcats traveled to Timberland to pull out a 31-14 third round victory before losing 20-17 to Central in the final seconds of the championship game at Williams-Brice in 2010.
In 2011, following the burial of teammate Jake David, who lost his life in a traffic accident, the Wildcats lost an emotional 15-18 game at home to the Wolves to give Timberland their first win in their fourth try over the Cats in the Lower State Championship game.
Last year, the Wolves made the trip out of the woods at St. Stephens to Memorial Stadium and went back home with their worst defeat of the 7-game series, 48-13. The Cats went on to defeat Fairfield Central 21-6 in the State Championship game to capture their third state title in five years.
This season, the Wolves beat Loris 34-14 last week to get the right to face the Wildcats an eighth time.
“They’re a methodical team,” explained defensive coach Gerald Reeves. “They are primarily a running team with a spread wing-T formation and will throw only when it is necessary. They don’t make many mistakes either, so to beat them, we’ll have to limit our mistakes and play at our best.”
Dillon will host Timberland at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, November 29. There should be a big crowd for this important game, so in order to get through the security checks, it would be a good idea to get an early start to make sure you’re in the stadium by kick-off!
