By Lonnie Turner

The Dillon Wildcats picked up where they left all last year on the gridiron as they completely destroyed the North Myrtle Beach Chiefs, 56-16, in their opener Friday night at Memorial Stadium scoring all their points during the first three quarters.

The running duo of Johnny Allen and Jamison Chapman reeled off 135 yards together and crossed the goal line twice each to lead the Cats on the ground, while junior signal caller Avery McCall picked the Chiefs defensive secondary apart, completing 14 of his 17 pass attempts for 269 yards and three touchdowns. To add insult to injury, the 6’1, 195 pounder, kept the ball down close to the goal, lowered his shoulder and rolled over a defender to score another on the ground.

Chapman got the Wildcats rolling when he ran a six-yard touchdown on the Wildcats’ first offensive series following a great goal line stand by the young defense on North Myrtle Beach’s opening drive that took nearly five minutes off the clock. The defense had held at the Cat seven and forced an attempted field goal from 23 yards out that sailed off to the left of the uprights.

After forcing running back Keyshawn Moore to fumble the ball away on the Chiefs’ second offensive series, Allen capped a 23-yard drive by scoring from two yards out on the sixth play of the short drive. Drew Covington, taking over the place kicking chores of Tara Grimsley, who is now at Western Carolina on a softball scholarship, kicked all eight extra points on the night.

On the next three possessions of the first half, the Cats roared down the field scoring on a 10-yard pass from McCall to Eri’Reon Hayes; a 63-yard romp by Allen; and a 9-yard run by McCall. Randal Davis put the Cats up 42-7 at intermission with an intercepted pass that he carried in for the fourth score of the half.

North Myrtle Beach got on the scoreboard on a 74-yard sustained drive with 4:11 minutes remaining in the second quarter.

The Cats scored on their first two possessions of the second half with McCall hitting Daeshawn Davis with a scoring pass that covered 57 yards and a 20-yard toss to Chapman. At that time the coaching staff pretty well emptied the bench to give the rest of the non-starters a chance to play in game situations.

North Myrtle Beach quarterback Kendrick Furness completed seven of 14 passes during the first half for 74 yards and had two picked off, and completed three more passes in the second half to finish the game with 107 yards through the air. The running game for the Chiefs, mostly in the fourth quarter, netted 145 yards on 24 carries to make their total yardage more respectable as they netted 338 yards on offense compared to Dillon’s 471 yards in total offense.

On the defensive side of the ball, Dillon used 27 players with Zach Wilson and Trey Melton leading the way with eight total tackles each from their linebacker positions.

The Wildcats will be at home Friday against the Lake View Gators in one of the longest, if not THE longest running South Carolina high school rivalries that dates back to the 1930s. Game time will be at 7:30 p.m. See you there!