By Lonnie Turner
Against the North Myrtle Beach Chiefs a week ago, the Dillon Wildcats rushed for 357 yards in a 54-14 romp, but on Friday, the Wildcats showed the other side of their offense with Avery McCall and Austin Moody racking up 356 yards in the air on the way to a 49-6 win over the Lake View Wild Gators.
McCall completed 13 of 15 attempts in the first half for 273 yards, but connected for only one touchdown and that came on the second play after the Wild Gators had taken advantage of a fumble recovery to take an early 6-0 lead over the Cats. McCall’s first pass attempt fell incomplete, but the senior signal caller tucked the ball under his arm and started down field for a apparent run on second down. He spotted wide receiver Morgan Covington wide open and hit him in stride for a 63-yard touchdown. Place Kicker Ahmed Dawad, in the game for injured Drew Covington, kicked his first of seven extra points to take a 7-6 lead and the Cats never looked back.
Eight different receivers caught at least one pass for 9 or more yards with Covington leading the way with 125 yards on only three catches. Daeshawn Davis led the team with for grabs for 65 yards. Austin Moody’s only pass in the second half was a 39-yard bomb to sophomore Tim Ratley for the final score of the game at the 2:38 mark of the stadium scoreboard clock.
The Wildcats were on the scoreboard again with 2:32 remaining in the first quarter with Jamison Chapman running in from three yards out. McCall had completed two pass attempts for 35 yards to set up the touchdown.
The Wildcats scored two touchdowns in the second and third quarters and added the last in the final 12 minutes on Moody’s pass to Ratley..
The Wildcats fell victim to the fumble bug losing two in the first half and one more in the second, but the Dillon defense held the Wild Gators scoreless after the first quarter. Leading the way on defense were linebacker Trey Melton and end Zareon Hayes with eleven take downs each. Tackle Jermaine McDaniel and safety Daijuwan Smith added seven tackles apiece and McDaniel ran his quarterback sack numbers to 3 and 1/2 for the early season.
The arm of McCall set up the first score in the second quarter hitting three of four passes to Covington, Kanore McKinnon and Diaz Alexander for 40 yards before running into the end zone for a 1-yard quarterback sneak midway through the quarter.
After holding the Wild Gators to three and out, McCall went back to work through the air from the Dillon 34 to the Lake View 2 yard line on passes to Chapman and Covington. Following a false start penalty that backed them up five yards, Dillon was on the scoreboard for the final score of the first half on a run by Daeshawn Davis out of the “Wildcat” formation.
The Wildcats fumbled the football away at the Lake View 2-yard line on third down just into the second half, and sophomore running back Diaz Alexander ran four plays for thirty yards and a 5-yard touchdown and a 35-6 lead.
Lake View mounted a drive following the Dillon TD that ran out the third quarter, but the Wildcats force a punt on the sixth play of the drive.
It took only four plays for the Wildcats to travel the 46 yards to pay dirt with Chapman scoring his second TD of the game from five yards out with 8:34 remaining in the game.
Moody went to work from his own 41-yard line to score his passing touchdown to Ratley, his second of the season.
Alexander led the Dillon runners with 58 yards on 6 carries and Chapman was second with 42. McCall finished the game with six rushes for 37 yards.
The Wild Gators were led by Albert Wheeler with 26 net yards on 7 carries and Delvon Bethea added 23 on seven touches.
The Wildcats will be at home for the first time this season to take on the Latta Vikings, which were big 34-6 winners under their new coach over the Mullins Auctioneers in Mullins Friday.
Dillon Booster Club tickets are still on sale. Tickets can be purchased at the high school office or from any booster member. Yours truly has quite a few left if you need one!