By Lonnie Turner
The Dillon Wildcats weathered another big storm in Georgetown Friday night. The Bull Dogs were indeed ready for the top rated 3A team in the state, staying neck to neck with the 6-1 Wildcats in quite a see-saw battle. The Dogs had a big defensive front that held the potent Dillon runners to 73 yards on the night and the offensive line was equally impressive, making holes for the Bull Dog running backs.
Dillon’s Brayden Hawkins out-shined opposing quarterback, Tyler McAlister, completing 20 of 26 passes for 250 yards and three touchdowns, but threw two interceptions. McAlister threw 25 times and completed 15 while racking up 199 yards and one touchdown.
The Bull Dogs lost their leading rusher, Tony Lara, with an ankle injury with 5:21 left in the first half. He rushed 11 times for 46 yards before leaving the game. Substitutes Christian Johnson and Shammond Holmes entered the game and with McAlister also rushing for 31 yards, Georgetown netted 105 yards rushing.
The Wildcats got on the board first on a 6-yard pass from Hawkins to Ty Porter to put the finishing touches on a 7 play, 47 yard drive in the first quarter and Lara tied the game in the second on a 15-yard run up the middle of the Wildcats defense.
KaNore McKinnon and Hawkins combined for a 68-yard touchdown with 1:14 left in the half to take a 14-7 lead into the intermission. Drew Covington was successful on two PAT chances in the half.
Georgetown drove 79 yards on their first possession on the second half with Johnson going the final 10 yards on the ground. McAlister hit Deakidd Anderson with a 2-point play to give the Dogs a 15-14 lead with 4:54 remaining in the third quarter.
The Wildcats came right back with a 10-play, 46 yard drive to retake the lead and KaNore McKinnon caught a pass in the corner of the end-zone for a two-pointer and a 22-15 lead.
It took only three plays fro the Bull Dogs to tie the game. On third and ten, deep in Georgetown territory, McAlister found Deakidd Anderson open and the speedy junior caught the pass in stride and outran the Dillon secondary for an 86-yard TD osh Jones was perfect for the point after and with 8:10 remaining in the game, the game was tied, 22-22. Anderson caught 7 passes for 155 yards to lead the Bull Dogs.
After fumbling the ensuing kickoff, the Wildcats recovered and marched 55 yards in 8 plays to once again take the lead, 29-22, on a 22-yard toss by Hawkins to Porter, who went high in the air to come down with his second TD of the night.
With time running out, McAlister and company found themselves with a 3rd down and 6 yards to go at the Bull Dog 23.
Running out of the shotgun formation all night, McAlister was directing his wide outs when the center snapped the ball past him The Wildcats covered the ball at the Georgetown 4 yard line and following a false start penalty and an 8-yard run by Allen, the senior runner went in from the one to break the back of the bull Dogs. Covington ‘s fourth kick of the night gave the Cats a 36-22 lead with 4:47 minutes left in the game.
Covington, for the third time in the game, kicked off into the end-zone and after 8 plays, time ran out at the Bull Dog 27-yard line with a minute remaining on the scoreboard clock. The Wildcats were able to run out the clock with Hawkins taking a knee on the last two plays.
It was a fairly evenly matched game with the Wildcats winning the statistics game with 323 yards to 304 and 15 first downs to 13. Johnny Allen led the Dillon backs with 77 yards in 18 carries and Dillon’s receivers were led by Khw’Dief Manning and Allen with five catches apiece. Ty Porter and Ty Rogers ended the game with 4 catches each
Leading on defense was Jermaine McDaniel with 9 tackles, including six solo take-downs. Leading the Bull Dogs was Shelton Blake (#44) with ten tackles and in the secondary, Shammond Holmes and Jahbriel Walker had an interception apiece.
The Wildcats travel to Lake City Friday to take on the Panthers, which will more than likely determine the Region Champion. Both teams have identical records.
The Wildcats hold a 12-4 lead in the series since 1965 and have won the last five meetings. The last win by Lake City was in 2000, 34-9.
