By Lonnie Turner
For the second straight week, the Wildcats have struggled early falling behind to Loris, 14-0, in the first quarter at home and then again Friday night at Aynor, tied at 14 all at the end of the first half. Each time the Cats have bounced back playing the way they are capable. In a see-saw battle through the first 24 minutes with Aynor, the Wildcats took control and scored 24 points in the third quarter and pulled away nearly effortless and it could have been worse. There were two dropped passes in critical moments and a touchdown was called back for a questionable block in the back penalty. The Wildcats went on to win 45-14 with the final score coming late in the fourth quarter on a pass from Jay Lester to tight end Jackson Hayes.
“We played really well in the first half,” commented Aynor head coach Jody Jenerette,”and for the first times since I came here, we didn’t have a continuous running clock against Dillon. In the second half, they made some adjustments on defense and read the option a little more a nd on offense, their quarterback got loose.”
Jay Lester, only a sophomore in his first full season starting role at quarterback, had only 15 yards rushing on two carries in the first half, but came back strong with 92 yard on seven carries to finish the game with 107 yards, a touchdown and three more through the air.
Aynor leading rusher Noah Seaver toted the ball 33 times for 81 yards, which was a little off on his rushing numbers, but scored both touchdowns on 23 carries during the first half. Not since Dillon’s Stan Manning has a runner been called on more to run the ball.
“He’s a great kid and all our players like him,” said Jenerette of his star junior running back. “They love to block for him and he acknowledges his line all the time. He led the Blue Jackets coming into the game tonight with 908 yards and 14 touchdowns.”
The Blue Jackets took the opening kickoff and marched 74 yards on 14 plays with Seaver running in from the one after keeping the football for eight minutes. In the process, the Jackets converted on one fourth down play and two on third for first downs.
The Wildcats came back after a short kickoff gave them the ball at the Aynor 47. Lester found Ahmari Huggins-Bruce on back to back first down tosses for 16 yards and topped off the two-play drive with a 31-yard scoring toss to the freshman receiver. Ahmad Dawad continued with his accurate kicks for the PAT to tie the game at 7-7.
Dillon came back with 6:37 left on the clock with another drive that took only three plays to go 35 yards after a fake punt resulted in a lost fumble. Jadarius McDaniel forced the fumble on a hit of Timothy Fairley and recovered the loose ball as well. Ty Rogers took a first down hand-off at the 24 and sprinted by the Blue Jacked defenders around his right side into the end zone.After Dawad’s second PAT, the Blue Jackets put together another 74-yard long drive, keeping the ball another eight minutes with Seaver bulling in from four yards out. Place kicker Jaren McQueen made it two perfect kicks in a row with the point after to tie the game for the second time.
After the opening drive of the second half stalled at the Aynor 8, Ahmad Dawad was called on to try his second field goal in two games, and was perfect with a 25-yarder to put Dillon into a lead that they would never relinquish, 17-14.
After the Dillon defensive team held the Jackets for two straight 3 and out series, the offense put two more TDs on the board within three minutes to take a commanding 38-14 lead. Lester scored on a 31 yard keeper up the middle of the field after Rogers scored his 8-yard tochdown. After holding Aynor on fourth down at their own 38, Lester threw his second scoring toss to Corrian Wright to end the third quarter scoring. In the final quarter, from the Dillon 43, Wright broke lose for a 52-yard run to set up the final score of the evening. On third and six, Lester sprinted to his right and threw back across the field to a wide open Jackson Hayes in the end-zone.
It was the senior tight end’s first scoring reception Dawad put his 9th point on the scoreboard with a perfect kick to give the Wildcats their 45-14 win and eighth of the season.
Jay Lester accounted for 107 yards rushing and threw for 132 more for 239 all purpose yards in offense, while defensively, with the tight running space of the Blue Jackets, three players led the tackle sheet with Jadarius McDanniel recording 15 take downs, Dray Thompson with 12 and Ty’reek Cabbagestalk had 11 stops. In all, Aynor ran 65 offensive plays, netting a total of 287 yards and the Cats finished with 39 plays for 407.
The Wildcats, 8-0 and 3-0 in the Region 6-3A, will be at home against the Georgetown Bull Dogs, a team that is also 3-0 in the Region and 5-3 overall.
