Darlington misses chances to score in shutout loss to Dillon in Jamboree

By Drake Horton
Contributing Writer

The score might not have shown it, but the Darlington Falcons gave Dillon way more of a fight than the Wildcats anticipated despite losing 21-0 this past Friday night at the Dennis Miller Jamboree of Champions in Bennettsville.

“I just basically saw what we need to work on,” Darlington head coach Raymond Jennings said. “This is your last little quiz, no one is going live special teams, so the transitions, the communications, when you have low numbers, all of that is important. We have to raise the tempo at practice; we have to get a little more intense about getting that ball in the end zone.”

The mention of getting the ball in the end zone that Jennings speaks of refers to the point that not once, but twice, the Falcons got into Dillon’s red zone in the two-quarter jamboree and twice came up empty, turning the ball over on at the Dillon 11-yard line the first time and second, fumbling on the Wildcats’ eight-yard line.

“We had no problem kind of going in the middle of the field,” Jennings said. “We got down near the end zone, it’s time where you can’t fool anybody so we have to be clean on our changes, we got to stick that ball in the end zone.”

A majority of the offense’s success came off of direct snaps to Javorious Williams, the starting running back, allowing Darlington to get an extra blocker in to help open up the running lanes. In the game Williams had two runs over 40 yards and each one came on the drives that stalled in the red zone.

The defense did have its moments as well, forcing a punt and a fumble, but whether it was tackling or being put in a bad situation like starting on their own 16-yard in the second, Darlington’s defense just did not quite have it.

“Defensively, everybody is complaining about this, we don’t tackle well right now,” Jennings said. “We are in the moment we got to go make plays and we didn’t do that very well tonight. Every year, defensively, I see that. We just have to do a better job. We try to put them in the moment in practice and we got to do a better job getting them in the moment and when we got them opportunities we got to put that ball in the end zone and we got to stop them.”

Down just 7-0 at the end of the first quarter, the second quarter had a different feel to it and while the Falcons did begin to bring in their reserves, it was evident that the lack of depth was beginning to show.

On the first drive of the second quarter Dillon marched right down the field and punched the ball in for a touchdown and by the time it happened it was pretty evident that a lot of the players on defense, some who have to go both ways, were tired.

“When you got a short number, you have to … make some decisions in certain things to try and take care of players,” Jennings said. “We probably played a little longer than we wanted to tonight. If we had numbers we wouldn’t need to, but we deal with that in practice. Like I have been talking to you, we had 18-20 in spring ball and 30 during the summer, so it is not a surprise. Those guys, you just have to remind them that they can do it. We have to be in tip-top shape.”

Jennings, however, is not making excuses, despite the lack of numbers, especially for a 4A team. He knows his team had chances and he knows his team has to get better.

“We had plenty of chances tonight,” Jennings said. “They didn’t fool us; there wasn’t any trickery. They are kind of a downhill team. We just have to get a little bit better.”

Lamar recap: Lamar 16, Marlboro County 22

After a first quarter where the Lamar defense gave Marlboro County’s offense all types of problems, the second quarter was a completely different animal as the Bulldogs scored 22 unanswered points before a final Silver Foxes touchdown, winning 22-16.

“I felt like we competed with them from a physicality standpoint,” Lamar head coach Chad Wilkes said. “I just think we ran out of gas and lost some focus there at the end in that second quarter and that let them get going on offense.”

Trailing 15-8 near the end of the second quarter, Lamar began to move the ball again offensively, but its chances ran out and the Silver Foxes ended up turning the ball over on downs with 55 seconds left in the game.

But instead of the game ending on that score, Marlboro County on the very first play scrimmage ran 48 yards for the touchdown and Lamar answered that with a 75-yard touchdown run of its own from the first play following that score, scoring with just 27 seconds left in the game.

Author: Stephan Drew

Share This Post On

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This
x
6
Posts Remaining