By Craig Brown
The Dillon Christian School Warriors defeated the Calhoun Academy Cavaliers 21-14 Friday night in Dillon.
The game went down to the wire with the Warriors getting the go-ahead score with 1:32 left in the game.
Call it first-game jitters or blame it on the extreme humidity that made receiver hands and ball too wet to handle but numerous passes by Warrior quarterback Avery Sherman were dropped.
Sherman, along with Jackson Outlar and Ron Bracey, led the offense while Colin Davis, Jansiel Baez, and Braxton Cummings led the defensive effort.
Outlar has improved the Warrior kicking game and sent the opening kick deep.
The Cavaliers used a lot of trick plays and had the Warrior defense confused and moved the ball 85 yards with Jackson Bronson finishing the drive on a 12-yard touchdown run. Colt Layton ran in the 2-point conversion to put the Cavaliers up 8-0 with 6:46 left in the first quarter.
Using only 21 second, the Warriors were on the board with a 42-yard pass from Sherman to Jackson completed by an 18-yard touchdown run by Sherman. The conversion failed holding the Cavaliers to an 8-6 lead with the first quarter ending with this score.
Early in the second quarter, Sherman and Jackson finished the dive as they teamed up with a 16-yard touchdown pass. Amir Boston ran in the 2-point conversion to put the Warriors up 14-8 with 11:07 left in the second quarter. The first half would end with this score.
With 6:59 left in the third quarter, Bronson evened the score at 14-14 with a 62-yard TD run. The conversion failed leaving the game tied. The quarter would end with this score.
As the defensive battle continued with about three minutes left in the game, Warrior defensive back Shawn Locklear intercepted a Cavalier pass. With 1:32 Locklear caught the 30-yard TD pass from Sherman in the corner of the endzone. Outlar added the point after kick to give the Warriors the 21-14 lead.
The Cavaliers fumbled the kickoff allowing the Warriors to run out the clock and get the 21-14 win.
On offense, Avery Sherman was 11 of 28 passing for 161 yards with a touchdown and had 25 yards on two carries with a touchdown, Jackson Outlar had 96 yards on five receptions with a touchdown and had 10 yards rushing, Amir Boston had 34 yards on 12 carries, Shawn Locklear had three catches for 44 yards with a touchdown, Ron Bracey had 17 yards on three carries, Hayden Moody caught a pass for 11 yards, CJ Bailey caught a pass for seven yards, and Ellis caught a pass for six yards.
On defense, Colin Davis had 15 tackles with a quarterback sack and an assist; Jansiel Baez had 10 tackles with a QB sack assist; Braxton Cummings had eight tackles; Shawn Locklear had six tackles with two interceptions; Ron Bracey had four tackles; Zack Ellis and Kaden Locklear had the tackles each; Amir Boston, CJ Bailey, Jackson Outlar, Reese Bracey, and Lincoln Dial had two tackles each; and Andy Snyder added a tackle.
Although small and young, the players have dialed into Coach Stanley’s and his very competent staff’s style of coachin,g and this could be a very promising season for the Warriors.
The Warriors travel to Lake City Friday for a game with Carolina Academy with game time set for 7:30.

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Photos by Craig Brown
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