By Lonnie Turner
The Dillon Wildcats advanced to the second round of the South Carolina AA State football playoffs Friday night with another one-sided 51-0 win over the Waccamaw Warriors. Again, the young men from Pawley’s Island had to go it alone against the Cats with very few fans or parents in the stands to cheer them on. The win by the Cats sets the stage for the showdown with the Timberland Wolves at Dillon Memorial Stadium Friday evening at 7:30. The Wolves (9-2) have won their last six games since losing 42-32 to the Berkeley Stags in September, and after beating Wade Hampton, 65-0, last week, they are looking forward to Friday’s match up with the Wildcats.
The Cats jumped off to a quick 21-0 lead in the first quarter against the Warriors on the strength of Avery McCall’s touchdown passes to Daeshawn Davis and KaNore McKinnon and a 9-yard run by Jamison Chapman, who rushed for 60 yards, all coming in the first half. McCall completed seven of eight attempts for 151 yards in the first half, including another touchdown toss over the middle to Morgan Covington on the first possession of the second quarter.
The “Nasty Cats” defensive unit was responsible for two scores in the game. Tackle J.T. Carmichael (5’7, 210 lbs) blocked a punt attempt by Colin Floyd to start the second quarter into the end zone, where Quamel Laurenceau covered for a touchdown and later in the third quarter Jermaine McDaniel duplicated Carmichael’s feat by batting another attempted punt out of the end zone for a safety.
Austin Moody threw for a touchdown and ran for another, throwing to McKinnon for a 36 yard score just seconds before the first half ended. Moody scored the final touchdown of the evening running a quarterback option into the end zone for 22 yards. Drew, who has hit on 50 of 53 PATs on the season was perfect on eight attempts in the game and reserve kicker Ahmed Dawad followed Moody’s touchdown with his 17th PAT out of 18 tries.
Waccamaw kicker was successful to start the game with an onside kick that was fumbled at the Dillon 49 giving the Warriors first possession to start the game, but the Dillon defense forced a three and out series, that led to the first Wildcats score, a 42 yard pass from McCall to Daeshawn Davis.
McCall’s 35 yard scoring toss to Kanore McKinnon followed seven plays later on the second Wildcats possession and the second straight rout of the Warriors in two games was well on the way. McCall set up the third score with a pair of completed passes to McKinnon, who completed the game with 4 catches for 88 yards and two touchdowns. With a first down run to the Warrior nine yard line, Jamison Chapman, picked and weaved his way through the Warrior defense to score with a minute left in the quarter and with Covington’s kick, the Ctas were up 21-0.
Laurenceau’s fumble recovery on the Carmichael’s blocked put and the PAT gave the Wildcats a 28-0 lead
After picking up their initial first down on a running play, Waccamaw was forced once again to kick the football away. Taking over at the Dillon 44, McCall passed complete to Khy’Dief Manning to the Warrior 49 and on the following play fired over the middle to a wide open Morgan Covington, who literally waltzed into the end zone putting the Cats up, 35-0, at which time the game. officials instructed the electric clock operator to keep the game clock running continuously at 9:35.
Moody’s touchdown pass to McKinnon as time was running out in the first half gave the Cats a 42-0 bulge at the break.
The Wildcats out-gained the Warriors 257 total yards to minus 2 in the first half, which was highlighted by Moody and McCall completing 9 of 10 passes for 192 yards.
In the second half, Dillon was on the board with the safety off the blocked punt by McDaniel, who has credit for three safeties on the year. With the clock moving continuously, only 7:27 remained in the third quarter, even though the Warriors had run only four plays.
With plenty of new faces running the ball on the field, the Wildcats ran off 71 yards in eleven plays with Moody running the final 22 yards for his second rushing touchdown of the year. Getting an opportunity to run the football, Ty Rogers, who played running back for the Junior Varsity this season, carried six times for 34 yards and place kicker Ahmed Dawad accounted for 10 yards on five carries. Defensively, former JV players Dray Thompson and Tyrik Cabbagestalk had 4 and 1 tackles, respectively.
The Wildcats finished the game with 309 total yards and Waccamaw finished 4 net yards, which was 21 yards better that the regular season game.
There will be an article comparing Timberland and Dillon in Thursday’s edition of the Dillon Herald. Both teams feature explosive offenses and fairly stingy defenses.
