By Lonnie Turner

Anthony Blue ran for four touchdowns and Avery McCall threw for two more, all in the first half, to lead the Dillon Wildcats to a rain soaked 53-0 win over the Marion Swamp Foxes at Fox Field Friday evening. The win sets the stage for the showdown with the Loris Lions next week at Memorial Stadium for the right to have home field advantage throughout the post season play offs up to the state championship game in Columbia.

Dillon scored touchdowns on all eight possessions in the first 24 minutes of the game and Coach Jackie Hayes, with his team leading 46-0, went to his bench to start the second half to give his reserves some game experience.

Blue’s first touchdown came on the fourth play of the Cat’s opening drive after McCall passed for the initial first down of the game, hitting DaQuan McRae with 24-yard toss to the Fox 23-yard line. Two plays later Blue ran in from 19 yards and Tara Grimsley hit her first of four PATs for a 7-0 lead.

Marion took the ensuing kickoff at their 25 and after three plays netted seven yards, was forced to punt on fourth down, but the ball sailed over the punter’s head back to the Fox 11. Two plays later, Blue trotted in from a yard out.

With the rain falling, 14 fumbles marred the event. Marion fumbled nine times, but was able to fall on seven of them and the Wildcats, counting the mishandled snaps on extra point attempts, recovered five that they put on the ground. The biggest play off a fumble was when Zach Wilson took the ball out of the arms out of Marion running back Davis Rashaud at the Dillon 34-yard line and returned it 66 yards for the only score in the third quarter.

In a run that could easily make the ESPN highlight reel, Blue’s third touchdown was an impressive jaunt that covered 42 yards with would be tacklers falling to the ground. The senior tailback registered his final six-pointer on the tail end of a partially blocked punt by teammate Marcus McCollum two minutes later to go up 40-0. Blue finished the first half and game with just 10 carries for 84 yards.

McCall’s numbers were also impressive in the first half, hitting 8 out of 12 attempts for 129 yards. He passed to DaQuan McRae for his first of two touchdown tosses to give the Cats a 21-0 lead on the final play of the first quarter and later in the second stanza connected with C.J. Sowells for seven yards.

With just under two minutes remaining in the first half, Eri’Reon Hayes showed his running skill when he took a handoff from McCall at midfield and went fifty yards for his second rushing touchdown of the season.

The Wildcat defense, led by Shy’Keem Blue with eight tackles, held the Swamp Foxes to minus 29 total yards in the first half and the defensive reserves allowed only 86 yards in the second 24 minutes, including a goal line stand that denied the Foxes a score after getting to the Wildcat 2 on their first possession of the third quarter. The Wildcats had 19 defensive players making tackles in the game.

This Friday, the Wildcats will host the Loris Lions at 7:30 p.m. Loris has all their defensive players back from last year and haven’t allowed a point in 14 quarters. The winner of Friday’s game will claim the Region 8-2A title and a shot at a number 1 seed in the playoffs. Make plans to attend to support our Wildcats!

Photos by Wallace Moody. Click images below to view at full size!