By Lonnie Turner
The Dillon Wildcats participated in two scrimmages on Thursday and Friday to get some game style practice before the regular season gets underway in Lumberton this coming Friday evening .
The Cats took on the Fighting Scots of Laurinburg in the Battle of the Carolinas last Thursday at the home of the Lumberton Pirates and it took little time to find out how good the highly acclaimed tailback Zamir White really is. On his first carry, after the Wildcats put six points on the scoreboard following a fumble recovery at the Scot’s 16 yard line, the Georgia University bound senior got behind one block to the outside and rushed 66 yards to tie the score and the extra point gave the Scots a 7-6 lead.
His 43-yard run on his next carry and an eleven yard run later in a ten-play second possession set up a touchdown pass in the corner of the end-zone from QB Warren Bell to Trey Dixon to account for all the scoring in the two 20 minutes halves. Dillon’s only score was a run out of the Wildcat formation by Zareon Hayes for 9 yards following a fumble by Bell on his first snap from center. The Wildcats had another scoring chance swapping fumbles deep inside Scot territory at near the halfway point of the second 20-minute segment, but the Dillon’s offense couldn’t into the end-zone.
Scotland County won the contest, 14-6.
In Bennettsville the following evening, Dillon and Lamar battled to a 14-13 scrimmage with each quarter consisting of 12 minutes each. The Wildcats scored first on an 8-yard pass at the 10:21 mark on the clock from Jatiel “Jay” Lester to TyQuan Porter and tacked on a two-point conversion with a pass completion from Lester to Ty Rogers Rogers. The Silver Foxes came roaring back with a 69-yard touchdown run just two minutes later, but the point after failed. At the 6:05 minute mark, the Foxes scored again on a 39 yard run and the kick for the point after was successful giving Lamar a 13-8 lead. Jalen Williams put the Wildcats in position to score with a 55-yard scamper to the Lamar 10 yard line with just under 5 minutes to go in the scrimmage. From there Jaquez Manning carried twice to get into the end-zone to take a 14-13 lead. The point after failed and the Wildcats later were driving to score again when the quarterback was told to take a knee to preserve the win. In the final drive, Isiah Benjamin rushed four times for 31 yards. Leading the rushing numbers was Jalen Williams with 92 yards on 10 caries and Lester threw for 53 yards.
The Wildcats will travel to Lumberton to take on the Lumberton Pirates in the first game of the regular season for both teams beginning at 7:30.