By Lonnie Turner
Brayden Hawkins and KaNore McKinnon teamed up for three touchdowns and Johnny Allen scored three more to lead the Wildcats to a 51-19 thumping of the Strom Thurmond Rebels and a shot at the Lower State Championship coming up on Friday. The team that the Cats will face will be a very familiar foe in the playoffs, the Timberland Timber Wolves of St. Stephens. It will be the tenth meeting and the Wildcats hold an 8-1 edge, with the only loss coming back in 2011, 18-15. The Cats played the Wolves in 2003 and again in 2005 in the 3A classification and when both teams were re-classified to 2A, they met and played from 2008 through 2013, with Dillon winning all but the 2011 game. The Wildcats won again last season by a 49-21 score.
Johnny Allen set the tone in the running game with a five yard touchdown in the opening drive, while Hawkins and McKinnon combined for 55 yards to get the Cats down in scoring position. Hawkins hit McKinnon again on the second possession for the Wildcats for a 40 yard touchdown. On the first touchdown, Drew Covington’s PAT attempt was blocked and a Hawkins pass for two points fell to the wayside.
The Hawkins-McKinnon combination gave the Cats a 19-0 lead on the third possession of the Wildcats on a 69 yard toss. McKinnon took the pass in the middle of a group of defenders and outran them to pay-dirt.
The Rebels took over in the second quarter and with the aid of a fumbled punt, ran off eleven plays to score their first TD, a 3-yard run by Jalen Simpkins. Lawson Reels kick was good and the Wildcats led 19-7 at the half.
The Wildcats took the opening kickoff of the second half and marched 67 yards in six plays with Zareon Hayes running into the end zone out of the Wildcat formation for a 26-0 lead after Covington kicked the PAT. The key play of the series was a 48-yard run by Allen, who finished the game with 276 yards.
The Wildcats continued their offensive show on their next possession with Allen going 26 yards for his second TD, but a fumbled snap left the score 32-7 with 5:38 gone in the third quarter.
The Wildcats took advantage of a fumble recovery by Tramale McKoy and a return off 33 yards to the Strom Thurmond 36-yard line. On the first play from scrimmage Hawkins and McKinnon did it again for 36 yards and a 38-7 lead.
Strom Thurmond drove 77 yards in 11 plays to pull the Rebels to within 25 points of the Cats with Tyrece Nick finding finding Ty Johnson wide open in the middle of the end zone for 15 yards and a touchdown with 10:22 left in the game. It was a bad night for kicking extra points as Rebel kicker Lawson Reel missed leaving the score 38-13.
The Wildcats turned the ball over on the third play following the kickoff when Amani Jones, who played both ways, came down with a Hawkins interception at the Rebel 47 and returned the ball to the Wildcat 45 for nine yards. Strom Thurmond kept the football for nine more plays, but failed to get any points on the possession.
It took Dillon only 22 seconds to put thirteen more points on the scoreboard. Allen took a hand-off from Hawkins at the Wildcat 21 yard line and in a mater of a few seconds, the speedy senior tailback had reeled off 79 yards for his third touchdown of the evening. Covington’s PAT gave the Cats a 44-13 lead with 4:55 left in the game. On the first play after taking the ensuing kick-off at the Rebel 37, the Dillon defense got in the scoring column when Jalen Williams intercepted an over-thrown pass by Nick at the Dillon 47 yard line and returned it 56 yards for still another TD. Covington’s kick gave the Cats their fifth victory with over 50 points scored this season.
With a good many non-starters in the game on defense, the Rebels, led by Nick, marched 72 yards in eleven plays with the quarterback sneaking into the end zone from the three yard line as the clock expired.
Strom Thurmond ran 87 plays against 33 for the Wildcats. Nick threw thirty times completing 19 for 257 yards and the backfield had 185 yards on 52 carries.
Defensively for the Wildcats Zareon Hayes recorded 16 tackles, eight of which were solo take downs, including a QC sack, which runs his  total to 4.5 sacks the season, second to Jermaine McDaniel’s 7.
In addition the Hayes, four other Wildcats had at least 10 tackles including Jadarius McDaniel (11) and with ten each were Xavier McMillon, Quamel Laurenceau and Jermaine McDaniel. After 12 games, McDaniel and Hayes have 72 stops apiece. The Wildcats had 461 total yards and the Rebels netted 442 in a wide open offensive showing!