By Lonnie Turner

After stopping the pesky Loris Lions 21-7 in their second meeting of the season, the Dillon Wildcats (11-1) will travel to St. Stephen to take on the Timberland Wolves (11-1) for the lower state 2A title this coming Friday at 7:30.

The top seeded Wolves were 49-20 winners over the 5th seed Edisto Cougars (6-8) last week to set the stage for the battle between the two top seeds in the lower state bracket.

The only defeat at the hands of Timberland came last year in the final seconds of a very emotional game for the Cats, 18-15. It was earlier on the same day that the team had attended the funeral of Jake David, one of their teammates, who was killed in a traffic accident. The two teams had played on three other occasions, all in the lower state playoff bracket.

As in the first meeting with Loris, the Wildcats had to come from behind to earn the trip to St. Stephen. Three turnovers in the first half didn’t help matters for the Cats, even though the Lions failed to convert on any of them for points. The Lions scored first with three minutes left before halftime with the help of a roughing the passer penalty that gave them a first down at the Dillon 28-yard line. Five plays later quarterback Mikel Soles picked his way through the Dillon defense to score from seven yards out.

The Wildcats came right back with a nine-play drive that started at the Dillon 35 following the ensuing kickoff by the Lions. The key play in the scoring drive was a 25-yard pass from freshman quarterback Avery McCall to Tyreek Hayes that set up a first down at the Loris 17-yard line. Two plays later the same combination resulted in a touchdown and Tara Grimsley’s first of three kicks tied the game at 7-7 as the first half came to an end.

In the same fashion as in the first meeting, the Wildcats came out and scored first with two and a half minutes left in the third quarter. Joe Blue, running out of the “Wildcat” formation, bulled his way into the end zone from five yards out to give the Wildcats a 14-0 lead.

On the ensuing kickoff, Ryan Bellamy took a reverse handoff and broke into the clear down the Loris sideline on the way to an apparent tying touchdown, but in the way was Dillon’s female kicker Tara Grimsley, who caught the speedy back low knocking his feet out from under him. It was ironic that the only time Grimsley had been touched in a game this season was on an extra point against Loris in the first meeting when she was knocked to the ground. According to all the fans, it was poetic justice that her tackle prevented the tying touchdown.

After holding the Lions on three plays inside the Dillon 20, Pete Ingram blocked a 32-yard field goal attempt by Orlin Mejia that gave the ball back to the Wildcats.

With 6:45 remaining in the fourth quarter, McCall passed to Hayes, who caught the ball over his shoulder for a 38-yard touchdown to put the game out of reach.

McCall ended the game with 159 yards on 14 of 19 passes, with five being caught by Hayes for 98 yards and two touchdowns.

Anthony Blue, who had run for over 100 yards in the past ten games, was held to 61 yards on 17 carries.

Defensively, Hishawn Blue had a season high of 13 tackles and Joe Blue had nine takedowns. Jalen Washington contributed eight and three other Wildcats registered six tackles each, including Damu Ford, Malique Gregory and Torez McRae.

Said head coach Jackie Hayes about the win, “Even though we made some mistakes early on, I’m pleased with our effort. With a few injuries, we had to make some halftime adjustments and big plays in the second half proved to be the difference.”

If you’re going to St. Stephen for the Lower State Championship game, there are two preferred routes, with the I-95 route being the quickest. St Stephen is on Highway 52 about 100 miles from Dillon, but according to Google, it takes less time to go the I-95 route. One word of caution, though: two years ago there were a lot of traffic tickets passed out leaving the stadium, so keep your speed according to the posted speed limits.