Dillon defeated Brookland Cayce to take the 2016 Lower State Title. Here is a photo gallery by Johnnie Daniels/The Dillon Herald:

By Lonnie Turner
What is the old saying, “I’d rather be lucky than good any old day?” Maybe Brookland-Cayce football coach Rusty Charpia was thinking that this past Friday night in Columbia when his Bearcats led the Widcats 21-7 during the first half of the Lower State Championship game at their new $9,000,000 stadium across the river from the statehouse in Cayce.
luck on his team’s behalf resulted in an early 7-0 lead for the Cats when super frosh quarterback Reed Charpia’s fumble on first down at their own 25 and was recovered by Dillon at the 4 leading to a 2-yard touchdown by Zareon Hayes a minute later, the coach was smiling from ear to ear when  the luck turned his way. On a fourth and two play, he went to his trickery playbook and came out with a questionable play that resulted in a tying touchdown. A pass to Sammy Lykes, who came streaking from the sidelines into an open field that covered 55 yards for a touchdown is still being talked about this Monday morning.
“Man, that’s illegal,” folks were saying afterwards. “I didn’t see him break from the huddle and go to the sidelines and stay on the field. Apparently the sideline judge didn’t see it either, because it looked as if the runner scared him when he went by him! Any way, the touchdown counted and the game was tied. In a little over a minute elapsed and a fumble was picked up by defensive back Cam Brown at the Dillon 49 and he scored to give the Bearcats a 14-7 lead.
In probably the most unusual play, lucky, one might say, quarterback Charpia, who has to be one of the most exciting players to watch, scrambled, slipping out of the arms of at least six Wildcat defenders and as he was finally going down to the ground, with a flick of his wrist as if getting rid of the ball, the ball wound up in the arms of a receiver, who fumbled the ball away at the Dillon 16, only to have another Bearcat scoop it up and score putting the home team up by 14, 21-7.
With all that excitement, especially for the Brookland-Cayce fans, the Wildcats scored 27 unanswered points from that time to score a second straight come from behind win, 34-21 and a Lower State Championship.
A 12 yard pass from Brayden Hawkins to Ty’Quan Porter with a minute and nineteen seconds remaining in the first half, pulled the Wildcats to within 7 points at intermission.
Johnny Allen got the 2nd half comeback going with 3:47 remaining in  the third quarter when he broke through the defensive line and outran the Bearcat defenders for a 66-yard touchdown. Drew Covington’s third of four extra points tied the score at 21. The folks in the press box were confident that the BC secondary would overtake Allen, but not on this night. When he got into the clear, he was like a race car getting into clean air and pulled away from any would be tackler.
On the first play of the fourth quarter, Hawkins found KaNore McKinnon open and passed 30  yards to him, who spun from a defender and scored the go-ahead touchdown. McKinnon’s catch was his fifth of the game and 42nd of the year giving him 942 yards for the season and 14 touchdowns to lead the team in the receiving department.
On the final drive of the game for the Wildcats, Jalen Williams carried the ball on eight successive plays and scored from 19 yards out to put the game out of reach, 34-21, with a minute left in the game. Covington’s attempt at his fifth PAT was off the mark.
With all the evasive running of quarterback Charpia in the backfield, one would have thought his numbers would be up near the 100 yard neighborhood, but he had only eleven net yards rushing, but he completed 14 of 26 attempted passes for a healthy 197 yards. He also threw two interceptions with McKinnon picking one off and Shamar McCollum getting the other.
Leading the Wildcats on the ground was Allen with 84 yards on 8 carries that runs his total for the season to 1,563 yards and 23 rushing touchdowns.
He has also caught 32 of Hawkins passes for 488 yards and four TDs.
Quarterback Brayden Hawkins completed 12 of 16 passes for 115 yards that gives him 2,145 and 28 touchdowns for the year.
The defense was led by Zareon Hayes with 14 total tackles and Jermaine McDaniel racked up 11 tackles and his 93rd take down of the year. He also was credited wit  his 10th sack of the season. Also registering sacks against Brookland-Cayce were Shamar McCollum and Jatoreus Manning with one apiece. Hayes, with his 14 total tackles Friday, now  has 100 for the season.
Drew Covington has upped his punting average to 31.5 yards per kick and is fourth in scoring with 74 points.