By Lonnie Turner

The Swansea Tigers will bring a 9-2 record into Dillon Memorial Stadium Friday to face the undefeated Wildcats in the third round of the State AA Lower State playoffs. It will be the first meeting of the two teams.

The Tigers went 5-0 in Region 5-2A with wins over Silver Bluff, 20-14; Edisto, 17-7; Barnwell, 31-3; Pelion, 8-7 and Barnwell, 31-17 in the regular season. In the second round last Friday, the Tigers beat Wade Hampton, the 11th seed, 38-6, in Swansea. In non-Region games in the early weeks of the season, they shut out Gilbert, 35-0, and Wagener-Salley, 48-0, and edged Keenan, 23-20. The only losses came out of the region to Chapin, 9-6 and A.C. Flora, 26-23.

The Wildcats, winners of the last 11 straight, have allowed only 12 points all year and have shut out a record 8 teams in the process. The defense is led by linebacker Joseph Blue with 93 total tackles. He leads the team with six quarterback sacks. The 220 pound sophomore also plays on offense as a deep back in the Wildcat formation and has scored eight touchdowns. He is fourth in overall scoring with 52 points. The defensive secondary has picked off opposing quarterbacks 13 times and has returned two for touchdowns. Linebacker Hishawn Blue, a 227 pound junior, is second on the tackle sheet with 72 put downs and senior end Archie Gilchrist, weighing in at 248 pounds, is third with 68 tackles.

Tailback Jabo Lee inched a little closer to the 1,500 Yard club for the season with 248 yards to put him at 1411 on only 119 carries. The speedster ran four touchdowns against Manning in only three quarters to run his total to 24 on the ground and has scored on two punt returns and has caught a pass for another to top over 160 points with 27 TDs and a two-point conversion pass.

Hykine Davis suffered an injury in the final game of the regular season against Waccamaw and after recuperating for two weeks, hopefully will see action against Swansea. Davis has shared the running chores with Lee and has rushed for 465 yards and scored 7 touchdowns on the way.

As a team, the Wildcats have rushed for 2,408 yards this year in eleven games compared to 2,951 a year ago at season’s end after 15. Lee led the Cats in 2010 with 1,540 yards and 20 TDs on 184 carries and currently has scored 24 rushing TDs on 119 carries for 1,411 yards, averaging 11.9 yards per carry.

University of South Carolina bound Kwinton Smith had twice the number of receptions and yards gained in 2010, but his 18.7 average per catch this year is basically the same as last season’s 19.3. The 6’4” 210-pound wide receiver has scored nine six-pointers compared to 15 last year.

Junior quarterback Thomas Grossetti, even though his numbers are considerably lower than the ones put up by Tyquan Hayes in 2010, has completed 68% of his passes for 999 yards and 14 touchdowns. Hayes finished the season last year with 2,029 yards and a record 32 touchdowns. Grossetti has thrown the ball 91 times this season without an interception; whereas Hayes put the ball in the air last year 203 times and was picked off three times.

The unsung heroes of any team with running backs like Jabo Lee, Hykine Davis, and Malique Gregory are the players on the offensive line. The trio of backs have found running room all year through holes made by guards Joshua Jacobs (5’7”, 236 pound sophomore) and Darren Barnes (6’, 293 pound senior) and by junior tackles Bryce King (6’5”, 280 pounds) and D.J. Park (6’6”, 317 pounds).

Then there’s the “Nasty Cat” defense, which is led by sophomore linebacker Joseph Blue (5’11”, 220 pounds) with 93 tackles and six quarterback sacks. Opponents have rushed the ball 358 times this season for 393 net yards for an average of only 1.1 yards per carry and one touchdown. The secondary has allowed only a 35% completion rate of 114 passes and has picked off thirteen, led by Lavaris Hargrove with four.

Senior Carlos Trejo continues to be accurate with extra points. The first year place kicker has been successful 68 times out of 71 attempts and has a 36 yard field goal to his credit to put him second in scoring with 71 points.

Game time for Friday is set for 7:30 p.m. Tickets for Dillon’s playoff games are $7 each.