By Lonnie Turner
The Dillon Wildcats were shut out in the first half by the Timberland Wolves Friday evening. But after intermission, it was an entirely different game as the Cats reeled off 28 unanswered points in the third quarter on four straight touchdowns. The the scoring rampage continued into the fourth quarter with their fifth score of the game to eliminate the Wolves, 35-7 to notch a trip to Cayce to play the Brookland-Cayce Bearcats for the Lower State Championship this coming Friday evening at 7:30.
Timberland coach Art Craig stated earlier in the week, ” Not many folk give us a chance to beat them in Dillon and we have to play our best game of the season and just hope Dillon doesn’t play as well!”
The Wolves came ready to play and shut the powerful offensive with a tenacious defensive front line allowing the Cats only 85 yards rushing and an unbelievable one yard total passing. Dillon quarterback Brayden Hawkins was one for seven in the half, well off his 66% completion percentage.
“We weren’t ready to play and they were,” said tight end Jackson Hayes, “but we turned it around in the second half!
The Wildcats kicked off to  start the second half and held the Wolves to a three and out series and took advantage of a 14-yard punt that went out of bounds at the Timberland 24. Four plays later, Zareon Hayes scored on a 4 yard run out of the Wildcat formation.
The Timberland series starting point was a result of a Drew Covington kick that went to the Wolves 10 yard line and an off side penalty that backed them up even more. The Timberland kicker, Matthew Rembert hurried his punt and it slid off the side of his foot and traveled out of bonds to the Wolves 24.
Covington was successful with his first of five extra points to tie the game at 8:45.
Another series lasted only three plays for Timberland and resulted in another short punt for 26 yards. Taking over at the Dillon 44, the Cats, with the aid of a personal foul, had a first down at the Wolves 27
–and two plays later Zareon Hayes took a direct snap from center and lunged 15 yards into the end zone for the second touchdown within three minutes and the first lead for the Cats at 14-7.
The swarming Wildcat defense continued to dominate in the quarter causing Timberland quarterback Jaquez Mitchell to scramble and throw an errant pass on their next possession. The Quarterback was flagged for intentional grounding for the second time in the game forcing another punt from Rembert that covered 40 yards. After a three yard run by Jalen Williams, Dillon QB Brayden Hawkins found wide receiver Murishi Irankunda streaking down the visitor sideline and hit him in perfect stride for a 41-yard touchdown and a 21-7 lead with nearly two minutes remaining in the third quarter.
Before the quarter would end, Wolves quarterback Mitchell attempted a lateral and it fell to the ground at the Timberland 25, where Ty’Quan Porter scooped it up and ran for another touchdown in less that a minute for a 28-7 lead. All totaled the Wildcats came out of the locker room at half time and put 28 unanswered points on the scoreboard in the third quarter alone.
At the beginning of the fourth, KaNore McKinnon fielded a punt at he at the Timberland 42 and ran it back for an apparent touchdown, but a holding penalty brought the ball back to the 23 yard line. Three plays later Zareon Hayes, again running out of the Wildcat formation, scored his second TD of the game with a 15-yard run.
Hawkins finished with 4 completions out of 11 attempts for a total of 63 yards and behind the running of Johnny Allen and Jalen Williams, the Cats netted 166 yards on the ground.
Timberland speedster Kevin Williams rushed for 114 yards on 18 carries and scored the only touchdown for the Wolves with a 43-yard run with 5:17 left in  the second quarter. The Wolves had 182 yards on the ground and Mitchell completed only one of three passes for 2 net yards. The Wolves were guilty of 17 penalty flags for 126 yards.
Defensively for the Wildcats, five different players registered  eleven tackles or more in  the game. Leading the way were Hayes, who played both ways for the Cats, and Shamar McCollum with 14 take downs. McCollum recorded a quarterback sack and recovered a fumble and with eleven tackles each were Dray Thompson, Jermaine McDaniel and Jatoreus Manning. McDaniel also had a sack running his season’s total to nine.
Brookland-Cayce is up next and their record is the same as Dillon, 12-1, so should be a great game in Columbia this week.