By Lonnie Turner
Nemo Squires scored three touchdowns and rushed for 95 yards to lead the Dillon Wildcats to a 47-14 clock shortened Saturday night football victory over the Loris Lions. Six more runners contributed to a 304 rushing total with Tyquan King, Nigel George and Jay Lester getting 78, 48 and 45 yards to their credit.
Corrian Wright started the scoring with an 18 yard run to climax an opening 70-yard drive that began when Justin Green intercepted Lions quarterback Gage Conner’s second down pass at the Wildcats 7-yard line and returned it to the Wildcats 30. Eight plays later Wright was in the end zone. It didn’t take the speedy wide receiver and defensive standout long to get the Wildcats back on the board again. With 3:51 remaining in the first quarter, he picked off another Conner pass at the Dillon 18 and romped 82 yards untouched for his second score and a 14-0 lead for the Cats.
A third pass interception in the first quarter of play by Nemo Squires at mid-field gave the Cats another chance to score, but a fumble by Lester was scooped up at the Loris 23 by Quantavious Soles and 77 yards later, the Lions were on the scoreboard. A two-point conversion for the points after was thwarted when nose guard Roy Covington sacked the quarterback in the backfield.
Squires put the finishing touch on Dillon’s next drive that started at the Wildcats 42-yard line. Carrying four times on the six-play series, Squires had 54 more yards to his credit scoring from two yards out, but the kick for the extra point failed giving the Cats a 20-6 lead with only 12 seconds remaining in he first quarter.
Loris got back on the scorebpard early in the second quarter when Conner found Jahrique Isaiah wide open down the Loris side of the field for a 62 yard touchdown, Conner hit receiver Ragan Grainger in the end-zone for the two-point conversion and Loris was back in the game at 20-14.
The Wildcats scored the next two times they went on offense in the first half with Squires scoring from two and four yards out to finish the half with 83 yards on ten carries.
Things didn’t get any better for Loris in the second half. Jay Lester, who completed 9 of 14 pass attempts for 98 yards in the first half, picked up where he left off, completing three of four attempts to Ahmari Huggins-Bruce for 42 yards and a 19-yard scoring toss with 6:19 left in the third quarter. Lester finished the night with 12 completions of 19 attempts for 140 yards before turning the signal calling chores to reserve quarterback BoBo McKinnon, who entered the game in the fourth quarter to take over the leadership of the offense. McKinnon threw a 36-yard touchdown pass to Nigel George to complete the scoring with 9 minutes remaining in the game. It was his only pass attempt.
The Wildcats racked up 408 yards in total offense while the defense allowed 198 yards. Leading the way for the defense were Dray Thompson with seven tackles and with six apiece were Shakai Jeanty and Roy Covington. The secondary was led by Justin Green with two picks and Corrian Wright joined Tyquan King with one apiece.
The Cats will be at home this week to face the Aynor Blue Jackets in the first home game since September 7.

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Photos by Johnnie Daniels/The Dillon Herald
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