By Lonnie Turner
With only two weeks remaining in the 2016 regular football season, the Dillon Wildcats will travel to Loris to meet the Lions for the 16th time since 1969. The Cats hold a 15-0 record, 3 of which were wins in post-season playoffs. The Wildcats have won the last twelve straight, winning last year at Dillon Memorial Stadium, 52-0.
The Lions are 4-4 overall this season with home wins over St. James, 30-14 in the first game of the season and after losing two on the road to North Myrtle Beach (46-7) and South Columbus, NC (35-14) returned to the friendly confines of Loris High School, knocked off Green Sea-Floyds by two touchdowns, 28-14. The Lions dropped a 28-0 white washing just a week before Hurricane came floating and roaring into Loris and a week earlier lost to Carolina Forest, 21-0 at Carolina Forest. Currently the Lions are riding a two-game winning streak with both wins coming on the road on the heels of the devastation caused by “Matthew.” They took care of Waccamaw down at Pawley’s Island, 21-18 and edged the Aynor Blue Jackets last week, 15-14 with all points being scored in the second and third quarters.
Junior Tyrek Williams leads the Lions with 4 rushing touchdowns and has 241 yards on 58 carries, but senior fullback Tevin Livingston is the running workhorse with 78 carries on the year with 318 total yards. The quarterback for Loris is a 6’2, 180 pounder who normally throws more often than tucking the ball in and running.
For the Wildcats, senior runner Johnny Allen had a big night against Lake City averaging 10.5 yards a carry, rushing 28 times for 295 yards and three touchdowns. Junior signal-caller Brayden Hawkins threw for three more TDs completing eight of eleven attempts for 145 yards. KaNore McKinnon caught two of the scoring tosses while piling up 93 yards.
There was a lot of offense 70-42 slug-fest at Lake City with the Lions accounting for 502 total yards and the Wildcats finished with 497. Eight of Dillon’s touchdowns were 16 or more yards long, including a 99-yard interception return by Ty Porter and a 75-yard kick-off return by Jaylen Williams.
At Aynor, the defenses prevailed with linebacker senior, 5’11, 190 pound Precise Owens making 11 tackles and junior Andrew Wilson (Junior, 6′, 275 pound (tackle/nose guard) accounting for 8 solo and 2 assists leading the way. For the Wildcats, Appalachian State committed Jermaine McDaniel registered 6 solo tackles and 1-1/2 sacks in the first half. Zareon Hayes and Damario Currie led the tackle sheet with eight take-downs apiece and Ty Porter picked off two passes in the secondary.
The Cats are looking for a good crowd to make the trip to Loris, which is in the neighborhood of 40 miles according to the route you take. Come out and follow the team, which should be pulling out around 4:30.
