By Lonnie Turner
The Dillon Wildcats made their final trip to play the Waccamaw Warriors Friday evening, since the new realignment will have Marion in their place and Cheraw will take the place of Georgetown in 2018. The game at Pawley’s Island was as good as over before the first half ended with the Cats leading by a score of 35-0. The final score was 42-8 with the Cats scoring another touchdown after a minute and forty-six seconds into the third quarter.
Jalen Williams, the leading ground gainer for the Cats with 732 yards through the first 5 games, left after just one play with a hurt ankle and Jay Lester took to the air throwing five times in the remainder of the first quarter for 49 yards and a 35-yard touchdown pass to Ty’Quan Porter. With Williams on the sideline, the Cats rushed only eleven times in the first 24 minutes, gaining 108 yards. Super soph Isiah Benjamin led six other players during the half with three carries for 39 yards, but in the second, the speedy back rushed nine times and ended the game with 131 yards, a season’s high for him and led seven others in the game.
Lester threw 14 times in the first half and six more in the second for 214 yards and three touchdowns in a game that could have been a lot more lopsided that it was. Zareon Hayes had a six-pointer called back on a holding penalty that was well behind the play. In fact, the Cats were whistled 11 times in the first half alone for 100 yards. A total of four holding penalties and two for pass interference could have been costly, but the score was already well in favor of Dillon. Four flags were thrown against the Warriors. The Wildcats finished the game with 15 penalties for 130 yards and the Warriors still had only minus 7 yards rushing and Waccamaw quarterback Brandon Stecz completed only five of 20 attempts for 31 yards. The junior finished the night with five completions out of 26 attempts and had two picked off by junior cornerback Corrian Wright.
The longest series for the Warriors was for 55 yards on their second possession of the game on eleven plays, which was prolonged by three major penalties for the Wildcats and a false start for the Waccamaw offense.
On the second Wildcat possession, Quez Manning romped 35 yards on first down and Lester took care of the rest of the scoring drive with one rush and a pass completion of 35 yards for a touchdown to Ty’Quan Porter. Ahmad Dawad was perfect for a 7-0 lead and the senior place kicker finished the night with a perfect six for six kicks.
Corrian Wright got into the interception division with two picks and picked off his first of the season on the third possession of the Warriors and returned it 45 yards for a touchdown. That was the third of the season for the Cat defensive backs. Ty’Quan Porter has picked off 7 and returned two for scores. In all, Dillon has been on the receiving end of opponent quarterback’s passes eleven times, with Jadarius McDaniel registering the other two.
In the second quarter, the Cats overcame three major penalties and two consecutive sideline warnings to take a 21-0 lead on a one-yard plunge by Quez Manning. The big play in the drive that started at the Dillon 49 was a 20-yard pass to Porter to set up the score at the one.
The Wildcats scored the next two times they had the ball with Benjamin carrying four plays for a total of 49 yards on the first drive, ending with four yarder for the score. Lester hit Manning with a 31-yard pass after holding the Warriors to a three and out series, to take a 35-0 lead to the intermission.
With many reserve players on the field to start the third quarter, Lester hit one, Freshman Amari Huggins-Bruce with a 17-yard scoring toss and Dawad ended the scoring for the Cats with his sixth PAT boot with 10:14 remaining in the quarter.
The Warriors were held to one three and out series and Wright had his second pick on the third down of the next to cut that drive short. Running two plays to end the quarter, the Warriors started the fourth with two more plays and a punt.
The Warriors finally got on the scoreboard late in the fourth quarter when the Waccamaw head coach inserted sophomore quarterback, Walker Palmer, in the game with 6 minutes remaining in the game. “We decided to try somebody different,” said head coach Shane Fidler. “We put him in at quarterback and he went right down the field to score. We won the second half and scored more points that has ever been scored against Dillon.”
The Wildcats will entertain the Loris Lions Friday evening at 7:30. It will be the 17th meeting of the two schools since the 1969 season at Dillon High School.
