By Lonnie Turner
The Camden-Dillon rivalry began during the Paul Chapman era at Dillon High School in 1970 when the two schools were in 3A with the Wildcats winning both years, 22-14 and 34-0. Re-classification put them both in 4A in 1974 and it stayed that way through the 1979 season with Dillon winning three out of the four games in the top league at that time. In 1996, the two schools dropped back down to 3A with the Wildcats winning both games in the nineties. Then fast forward to the year 2000 and still in 3A, the Bulldogs won in 2000, 2001 and 2002. Now, nineteen years later the rivalry resumes this coming Friday night with a Cat and Dog fight for the Lower State title.
The Wildcats missed the entire first half of the season because of the COVID-Pandemic but have won nine consecutive games and are making the trip cross-country to the home of the Camden Bulldogs for what should be one of the season’s better games.
The Bull Dogs have lost only twice this season, losing the opening game, 26-6 to Gray Collegiate Academy of West Columbia and by a field goal, 3-0, to AC Flora, also of the Columbia Area.
In the meantime, on a winning note, they shutout Lugoff-Elgin, 50-0, beat Hartsville at Kelleytown Stadium, 43-37 and came out on top of Lakewood, 27-6 before losing to AC Flora. The Lake City Panthers gave them a battle before losing by a baseball score of 11-6 and Crestwood came to town and fell to the Bull Dogs, 35-6. Marlboro County entertained Camden in the fight between the Bull Dogs following the Crestwood game and dropped a 40-20 decision to Camden. The Dogs shutout Manning, 46-0 and won the first two games of the playoffs by blanking Bishop England, 59-0, and Aynor, 13-0 to advance to the third round against Brookland-Cayce, the other number 1 seed in the bracket. The Bulldogs travelled to Columbia last week and beat the home team by a field goal, 27-24 which sets the stage for the Lower State Championship at Zemp Stadium in Camden.