By Lonnie Turner
The Dillon Wildcats beat the Darlington Falcons, 49-14, but it was oh so costly. Four senior starters were lost in the battle, including running back Jamison Chapman who suffered a knee injury. The other half of the one-two punch, Johnny Allen, was lost a week ago due to a four-wheeler accident and with Chapman’s injury, the coaching staff will have to concentrate on finding other candidates to carry the pigskin in the next few weeks. Not only did the offense take a loss, three defensive players are going to be on the sideline.
When Falcon quarterback Frankie Johnson scrambled to get open to throw a pass, he jumped up into the air and Malcolm Buie, the Wildcat defensive tackle, lowered his head and caught Johnson squarely on the hip in an awkward position that resulted in a fractured neck. The throw was completed for a 41-yard touchdown. Linebackers Trey Melton and Quamel Laurenceau are also out right now with knee injuries. Upon looking at the video of the game, neither of the knee injuries came from a hit, they just bent them enough to put a lot of strain on them.
“We’ll just have to do the best we can with what we got,” explained Head Coach Jackie Hayes. “Right now, whoever their back-ups were will be the starters and it will be up to us (the coaching staff) to develop more back-ups. None of them will be able to play this week and Buie, who is wearing a neck brace, is through for the season,” he continued. “They were thinking surgery was going to be necessary late Friday night at the hospital, but the neurosurgeon said it wouldn’t be necessary. It was a freak injury, the way it happened and it’s bad enough to lose one player with an injury like that and here we are with Johnny and Malcolm just a week apart.”
The game on paper looked as if the score would have been a lot closer, but the Wildcats scored early and often, getting touchdowns on their first three possessions on offense and the defense set up the fourth tackling the Falcon punter near the goal line in a punting situation. A high snap was momentarily bobbled and the punter was able to get out of the end zone to the four-yard line. On the first play afterwards, Chapman went in standing up for a 28-0 lead. With six minutes remaining in the first half, the Cats turned their fifth offensive possession of the half into six more points after the Falcons were able to score their first touchdown. The Darlington head coach, John Jones, opted to try an on-side kick, but the ball failed to go the required ten yards giving the Cats the ball at the Darlington 49-yard line. Dillon quarterback Avery McCall quickly hit Morgan Covington with a 15-yard gain to the 5 and then threw to KaNore McKinnon for a 35-7 lead with six minutes left in the half.
After the Falcons were whistled for a running into the kicker penalty on the extra point attempt, kicker Drew Covington, sent the ball through the end zone from the Darlington 45-yard line to set up a Darlington drive that covered 80 yards on twelve plays for their second score of the first half.
The Wildcats would score two more touchdowns in the second half with Diaz Alexander getting both scores. Alexander, who got the call as running back when Chapman left the game, carried twelve times in the second half and was on the receiving end of three McCall passes for 35 yards to go with his 40 on two catches in the first. He scored the first in the third quarter on a 16-yard toss . The Darlington defense intercepted McCall when a pass over the middle was bobbled and fell into the arms of return specialist Bryson Allen’s hands. The interception was nullified be cause of a holding penalty giving the Cats a first down at the Sixteen. After a pass attempt by McCall to Daeshawn Davis fell incomplete, Alexander took a pass in stride for his first touchdown of the evening.
The final score was set up again on a mishandled punt attempt in the fourth quarter at the Darlington 21. Alexander ran three of four plays to get his second TD of the night and the final score of the evening. Drew Covington, who had missed a couple of games due to an ankle injury, was back with the kicking tee and was perfect with seven consecutive PAT tries. Ahmed Dawad, who took over the kicking chores when Covington was injured had been successful in twelve of thirteen attempts.
The Wildcats and Falcons had 19 first downs apiece and the rushing yardage for both teams was just one yard off, with the Cats getting 144 on 34 carries and the Falcons reeling off 145 yards on 45 touches. In the passing game, McCall had 18 completions out of 31 attempts for 215 yards and three touchdowns, while Johnson completed 21 of 34 for 187 yards and one touchdown. KaNore McKinnon caught a season’s high 8 passes for 91 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Defensively, Jermaine McDaniel, a 6’2, 224 pound junior, took the honors as defensive player of the game with 13 solo tackles and three assists, plus two knocked down passes. Other notables were Daeshawn Davis with 11 total tackles to go with his two rushing touchdowns on offense; Zareon Hayes with 8 put downs, a quarterback sack and a tipped pass;  Jazuun Outlaw and Jordan McDuffie with one quarterback sack apiece.
“We’ll have to do some coaching for sure this coming week to get ready for Marlboro County,” explained Coach Hayes. “We’ve got some good young players so we’ll be ok. We just need to do some work!” There should be a big crowd at the park for this one, so get to the park early. There are still Booster Club tickets available if needed.

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