By Lonnie Turner
Seems like every game the Dillon Wildcats play, a different player grabs the spotlight. Friday night, Jalen Williams showed the Dillon fans what a true all star player looks like! In fact, he and Johnny Allen put six touchdowns on the board as the Wildcats romped past the Hanahan Hawks, 62-7. Williams three TDs in the first half on runs of 21, 28 and 9 yards and topped the scoring display of the evening off with an 80-yard run with 3:30 remaining in the third quarter.
Allen added a four yard run and caught one of Brayden Hawkins’ 12 passes for a 37 yard score at the beginning of the second quarter. All totaled Williams carried the football 6 times for a game leading 140 yards and Allen ran the football 10 times for 115 yards.
The Cats rushed for 291 yards and Hawkins threw for 212 and two early touchdowns. He started the scoring with a 44-yard pass to KaNore McKinnon with just 8 and a half minutes left in the first quarter and hit Allen with a 37 yarder at the 11:01 mark on the scoreboard to start a 34 point second quarter. Williams scored 24 points and Allen scored 12 to lead the scoring in the quarter.
In the meantime, Hawkins completed 12 of his 15 attempted passes in the first quarter for 203 yards and finished the night with a nine yard pass to McKinnon in the third before leaving the game in favor of J.V. signal caller Jateil Lester, who just handed the football to another J.V. player, Corrian Wright, or ran the ball himself. Between the two of them, they rushed for 42 yards in the fourth quarter.
Defensively, Khw’Dief Manning picked off two of Hanahan quarterback Victor Colbert’s 23 pass attempts twice in the first half and Ty’Quan Porter intercepted another in the third quarter and returned it 44 yards for a touchdown to put the Cats up 55-7 with 8 minutes left in the quarter. Colbert completed 9 of his 23 passes for 126 yards with Aaron Manley on the receiving end of 6 of them for 69 yards. Javante Grant put the Hawks on the scoreboard in the second quarter as he caught a 70-yard bomb from Colbert.
Hanahan finished the game with 188 total yards and only 8 first downs. The Wildcats will take on the Rebels of Strom Thurmond Friday. It’ll be the fourth meeting of the teams.