By Lonnie Turner
Five straight state titles? Who has ever heard such a thing? Never in the history of high school football has a team accomplished the fete, but the Dillon Wildcats are poised to make it happen Saturday afternoon at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia. The Chapman Panthers, 13-3, a team that the Cats have never played, are standing in the way of the history making game. Talk about incentive! Just think, this is a situation that comes along once in a century. Hopefully Coach Jackie Hayes will have little trouble getting the Cats, 13-1, ready for this one.
The Panthers have scored 625 points this season, including 77 in a slug-fest with the Camden Bull Dogs, 77-61. Where in the world was the defense…on both sides? They lost the first game of the season to Union County, 48-32, 44-42 to Woodruff seven weeks into the season and 28-27 in their first meeting with Newberry six weeks ago. Defensively the Panthers have given up 361 points in 14 games.On the other hand, the Wildcats have scored 613, but have allowed only 172 points.
Panther junior quarterback, Colton Bailey has been very effective with screen passes and junior running back D.J.Twitty has had little trouble plowing through the opposition’s defensive line with his 6′, 195 pound body.
Dillon has had to bounce back in the last two weeks after being down at the intermission with a tenacious defense and running of senior running back Johnny Allen, who has gone over the 1,500 mark at 1,563 and has scored 23 touchdowns on the ground. While he and Jalen Williams have taken turns on the ground, junior quarterback Brayden Hawkins and senior receiver KaNore McKinnon have been consistently connecting through the air. Williams has 704 yards rushing and McKinnon is up there close to 1,000 yards trough the air. Hawkins has completed 66% of his passes (135 of his 205 attempts) for 2,145 yards and 28 touchdowns.
Zareon Hayes and Jermaine McDaniel have combined for 197 tackles and 14 and a half sacks from their defensive end positions and linebackers Quamel Laaurenceau, Damario Currie  and Dray Thompson have combined for 206 takedowns.
Also making some very impressive numbers on defense are Jatoreus Manning (82 tackles and 2 sacks) and Shamar McCollum (76 tackles and 5 sacks).
The kicking game is still solid with senior Drew Covington taking care of punts, kick offs and PATs. He consistently kicks inside the ten and has averaged 31.3 yards per punt, while booting 68 of 79 extra point attempts through  the uprights.
Kick off time is 3 o’clock Saturday afternoon at the stadium where the South Carolina Gamecocks call home and a great crowd is expected from Dillon for a great game and the chance of a lifetime to be recorded in the SCHSL football record book. Hope to  see you all there rooting for the Cats to make history.