By Lonnie Turner
The Dillon Wildcats were working on all cylinders in Lumberton Friday evening when they stopped the 4A 3 River Conference Pirates, 42-0.
In their first meeting ever, the Wildcats took the opening kickoff and marched 79 yards in eight plays to put seven points on the scoreboard with Zareon Hayes running the final 2 yards into the end-zone from the Wildcat formation.
Ahmad Dawad, the soccer style kicker, who was back-up last year to place kicker Drew Covington, kicked the first of six extra points on the night. The drive was aided by three encroachment penalties.
Hayes, who also plays defense at outside linebacker, and tailback Jalen Williams combined to carry the football 20 times for the Wildcats for a net total of 282 yards and four touchdowns, three for Hayes and one for Williams. Williams led the charge with 154 yards on 12 touches and Hayes finished the night with 128 yards on 8 carries, including a 96 yard run to give the Cats a 21-0 lead.

With the offense scoring four touchdowns, the defense put two more six pointer on the board with Ty’Quan Porter running in a pass interception for a 30 yard touchdown near the end of the first half to take a 28-0 lead into the intermission. Seven minutes into the second half, Porter watched a punt roll to a stop at the Pirate 38 and when nobody attempted to down the ball, he picked it up and zig-zagged his way into the end zone to give the ‘Cats a bulging 35-0 lead.
Another turnover gave the Wildcats still another score in the third quarter when Jalen Williams broke through the Pirate line and outran the defense for a 36 yard run and a 42-0 score, which prompted the Lumberton coaching staff to instruct the officials to keep the clock running continuously with 3:36 remaining in the third and all the way through the fourth quarter.
The defense for the Cats made ten tackles for losses, including four quarterback sacks that netted minus 48 yards, giving the signal caller a net total of minus 37 yards for the evening. Quarterback Braylan Grice threw sixteen pass with the only completions going to Porter at his defensive back position and linebacker Jadarius McDaniel.
The Pirates finished the game with a minus 23 yards on the ground and none through the air and only three first downs, with one of them by penalty. Both the other first downs came in the fourth quarter.
Shamar McCollum and Dray Thompson led the tackle sheet with 7 put downs apiece and McDaniel made 6 stops. With quarterback sacks were Shakai Jeanti with 1.5, Zareon Hayes, with 1 and registering 1/2 sacks were McCollum, Rodney Owens and Rae’Kwon McKoy.
The Wildcats will now go on a four-week home stand, entertaining Mullins next week, followed by Latta, Wilson and Marlboro County. The next travel game will be September 29 when the Cats go to Waccamaw at Pawley’s Island. Booster tickets are still available.

PHOTOS BY STEVEN LANE
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