By Lonnie Turner
The Dillon Wildcats beat the Waccamaw Warriors 47-7 on Friday night to give Coach Jackie Hayes his fourteenth consecutive ten-win season dating back to an 8-4 record in 2000. He has never suffered a losing season in his 23 years as head coach. He was also 8-4 in his first year following a 1-21 record in 1990 and 1991 by Lee Segars.
The Wildcats finished the regular season as the top seed in the Division I-2A bracket and will have home-field advantage throughout the playoffs until Championship Weekend, provided of course, they continue to rack up wins. Their opponent this week in the first round will be the Aynor Blue Jackets, 43-14 victims during the sixth week of competition. The Cats have given up only 103 points at this stage of the season, while scoring 479.
The Wildcats found themselves on the short end of the stick in the early going at Waccamaw when defensive back Tyriq Grant scooped up a loose football at the Dillon 18-yard line and went untouched into the end zone. Place kicker Davis Hogan was perfect with the PAT, giving the Warriors a 7-0 lead, but from that point on, the Wildcats scored 47 unanswered points to nail their 10th win of the season and home-field advantage.
Junior signal caller Avery McCall had another 200+ yard game, posting 229 yards on 12 completions to run his season’s total to 2,140, and his two touchdown passes give him 26 scoring tosses.
McCall completed a 41-yard pass to Eri’Reon Hayes to set up the first Dillon touchdown, which was a 35-yard pass to Zareon Hayes in the left corner of the Waccamaw end zone. Drew Covington was good on the first of six PATs for the night.
After holding the Warriors to their first three and out series, McCall hit Eri’Reon Hayes for a 47-yarder on the sixth play of their third possession to take a 14-7 lead with just 50 seconds left in the first quarter.
On the next drive by the Cats, a fumble at the Waccamaw 10 gave the Warriors a first down, but again the Dillon Nasty-Cat Defense put six points on the scoreboard as Randal Davis picked off his sixth interception of the season and took it in from 17 yards out for a 21-7 lead.
The Wildcats would put two more scores in the book before the half ended. Johnny Allen, who ran for 118 yards on 18 carries, capped a 58-yard drive with a 2-yard touchdown run with 4:20 remaining and Drew Covington was perfect with a 35-yard field goal seconds before the half ended.
Allen scored again on a 10-yard run on the Cats’ first possession of the third quarter, which prompted the continuous running of the game clock. Moments later, Austin Moody took over the quarterback position and led the Cats the rest of the way. The 6’3”, 188-pound junior completed his third touchdown pass of the season, hitting junior Morgan Covington with a 51-yard bomb to end the scoring.
The Wildcats offense finished the game with 165 yards rushing and 280 through the air for a total of 445 yards, while the defense allowed just 38 total yards and only four first downs. Linebackers Marquan Fulmore, Zach Wilson, and Trey Melton led the tackle sheet with 9, 8, and 8 respectively.
Game time is set for 7:30 p.m. on Friday.
