By Lonnie Turner

The Dillon Wildcats roared into the Lower State Division I 2A final game on Friday evening with a resounding 56-0 drubbing of the Waccamaw Warriors in front of a fairly empty Dillon Memorial Stadium.

The Wildcat fans, who have loyally followed the Cats this season, were there in force, but the folks from Pawley’s Island opted to stay home. What a disappointment for those young men who finally made it to the post-season playoffs. This writer feels especially bad for the Waccamaw players, but on a more happier note, our Wildcats advance to take on the Loris Lions, another of three teams from our Region that we have to play twice in order to get to the State title game in two weeks at River Bluff High School in Lexington.

It took only six plays and two minutes after taking the opening kickoff to take a 7-0 lead and the Cats never looked back. Three running plays for 40 yards and consecutive first downs by Johnny Allen and a 7-yard gain by Avery McCall set up the first score, a quarterback plunge by McCall behind the left side of the Dillon line. Drew Covington, for the second time this year, was perfect with the first of eight consecutive PAT kicks in a single game.

McCall would put his name in the Dillon High School Record Book with four more touchdown passes to run his season’s total to 34, two better than Tyquan Hayes completed for scores in 2014. Two of them were thrown in the direction of senior wide receiver Eri’Reon Hayes for scores of seven and 56 yards, which ran his record shattering total to 21 touchdowns, six better than the 15 caught by Kwinton Smith, also in 2010.

Randal Davis found himself wide open over the middle to haul in a 21-yard scoring strike from McCall to cap a 53-yard drive with five minutes remaining in the first quarter to give the Cats a 14-0 lead, and then the bottom fell out with the Wildcats putting 28 points on the scoreboard in the second quarter to take a 42-0 lead into the halftime intermission.

Because of a pair of offensive penalties, the Cats were forced to punt on their third possession of the quarter, but Warrior return man Bob Ferraro mishandled the catch at the 43-yard. The Cats recovered at the Warrior 36 and following a 29-yard run by Jamison Chapman to start the second quarter, McCall lobbed a 7-yard pass to Hayes in the end zone to take a 21-0 lead.

Following a 20-yard punt on the next Waccamaw possession, the Wildcats went 39-yards on five running plays with Daeshawn Davis running the final one yard into the end zone to light up the scoreboard again with his first rushing touchdown of the season.

McCall and Hayes hooked up for a second touchdown after the Nasty Cat defense held the Warriors to their fifth three and out series of the first half. On the first play following Trace Mills’ fourth punt of the game, Hayes caught a pass near the Dillon sideline and went 56 yards for his second touchdown of the night.

Omar McCollum’s first interception of the season led to the final touchdown of the first half. McCollum picked off Trace Mills’ third pass attempt of the game at the Dillon 15 and returned the ball to the 17 with a little over three minutes remaining before the break. On three successive pass completions to Chrishon Jordan, Que Bethea, and Jamison Chapman, McCall had the Cats at the Waccamaw 33 for a first down. He hit Jordan for a second time in the drive who took the ball across the goal line with just 2:44 remaining in the half for a 42-0 lead.

With the scoreboard clock running continuously at the start of the third quarter, back-up quarterback Austin Moody took the Cats 50 yards on two plays to score the seventh time in the game. Que Bethea found himself on the scoring end of a 49-yarder from Moody. It was the junior signal caller’s third scoring toss of the season and Bethea’s second.

The final score of the night came as a result of the fourth turnover by the Warriors. Quarterback Mills lost a fumble near the end of the third quarter at his own 16 and on the first play of the fourth quarter, Moody sneaked in from the one for his first rushing touchdown of the season.

McCall finished with 12 completions out of 16 pass attempts for 214 yards and four touchdowns and ran a third. The Cats had a total of 433 net yards, 264 in the air and 169 on the ground, while the Dillon defense, led by linebacker Daeshawn Davis with 15 total tackles, held Waccamaw to 86 yards rushing and 40 passing for 126 total yards.

The Lions of Loris High School will roll into town Friday evening and surely they will have a good following to support them. Hopefully it won’t be quite as cold as it was Friday, so get out and pull the Cats through and send them on to play in another state championship game.

Photos by Johnnie Daniels/THE DILLON HERALD. Click the images below to view at full size!