Hartsville strikes quick and early, routes the Bruins
By Drake Horton, Contributing Writer
Behind a 21-point first quarter, the Hartsville Red Foxes cruised to a 45-6 victory in the opening round of 4A football playoffs against the Orangeburg-Wilkinson Bruins at home this past Friday.
“We played great defense, jumped on them early,” Hartsville head coach Jeff Calabrese said. “I thought AJ (Joyner) came out really smoking hot too. We were able to jump on them and it’s a playoff game so you get up 21 points and it’s certainly a good thing. I’m proud of our kids they played well, played hard. We still have a couple of things we need to clean up for next week, but we will worry about that later.”
Hartsville scored a touchdown on all three of its drives in the opening quarter with Tiyon Evans starting it off with a 49-yard run and ending it with a 72-yard run while Donovan Lambert punched one in from four yards out between Evans’ two scores.
With two touchdown runs totaling 121 yards by the end of the first quarter, Evans added to his stats in the second quarter extending the Red Foxes lead to 28-0 with a 91-yard touchdown run.
Up by four scores at halftime Hartsville sent the first unit back out on the field to start the third period instead of opting for the backups and in doing so Collins Bishop was able to join in the scoring action, cashing in a 20-yard touchdown run with 10:27 still left in the third quarter.
Following Bishop’s touchdown that put the Red Foxes up 35-0 on the Bruins, Calabrese decided to sit his starters for the rest of the game, but just because Hartsville’s second string was on the field did not mean the scoring stopped.
In the fourth quarter the Red Foxes added 10 more points to their lead as kicker Mike Norris connected on a 27-yard field goal and Lacy Josey scored from 18 yards out.
Orangeburg-Wilkinson scored its lone score of the game late in the fourth quarter on a four-yard touchdown run.
With the win, the defending lower state champions now take on the Cane Bay Cobras, who defeated the Wilson Tigers this past Friday 42-25.
Hartsville has home field advantage in the playoffs.
County Recap
The Darlington Falcons football season came to end this past Friday, losing 38-6 to Lower Richland.
Darlington’s overall record finishes at 2-9.
And while Darlington’s season might be over and Hartsville’s still going, Lamar, winners of its region, earned a bye and will begin its quest at making it back to the state championship this Friday as the Silver Foxes take on Hunter-Kinard-Tyner.
