With two perennial powerhouses on the field in Dillon and Cheraw, Friday’s third-round Class 2A playoff game at Meiklejohn Field left no room for error.
The Braves kept their mistakes to a minimum and forced the Wildcats into more than a few of their own.
Cheraw’s defense pressured Dillon all night, forcing five turnovers, en route to a 24-6 win.
The Braves (11-2) will host Central at 8 p.m. Friday for the 2A lower state championship.
The win extends the Braves’ home playoff winning streak to 15 games and halts Dillon’s consecutive lower state title appearances at five.
“This was a tough football game against a great team,” Cheraw coach Johnny White said. “Neither team could get much going consistently, and our defense played a terrific game and we were opportunistic on offense.”
The Braves picked off three Dillon passes and forced two fumbles. Jaron Brown had two picks and caused a fumble. Two of Brown’s turnovers resulted in touchdown for the Braves.
“We turned the ball over a couple of times and we got beat up front pretty bad,” Dillon coach Jackie Hayes said. “We never could get in sync on offense, and they did a great job on defense all night. We didn’t execute and that was the difference in the game.”
Defense and mistakes dominated the first half. Dillon and Cheraw each fumbled the ball once, and the Wildcats were intercepted twice.
Cheraw took advantage of good field position in the first quarter for the half’s only score. On Dillon’s 47-yard line, Cheraw quarterback Josh Henderson scampered for 17 yards. Travis Small found another hole for 12 yards, and Montrell Evans finished the drive with a 16-yard touchdown run. Cheraw led 7-0 with 7:33 to go in the first quarter.
With Cheraw up by the same score in the third quarter, the Braves took over in Dillon territory, and Ben Hutson made it a two-score game with a 32-yard field goal.
“I thought that was big,” White said. “If we got the opportunity, we wanted to go for the field goal, and we were finally able to get it in the third.”
Brown’s forced fumble on the next Dillon possession gave the Braves another scoring opportunity. Henderson cashed in on a 14-yard pass to Bernard Kendall, and Cheraw went up 17-0.
Brown made his presence felt again on the Wildcats’ next drive. Sammy Merriman hit Dillon quarterback Travis Murphy and Brown intercepted the lame-duck pass, returning it 78 yards to the Dillon 4. Small punched it in from there to give Cheraw a 24-0 lead.
Dillon added a late touchdown to deny the Braves their fifth shutout in the last six games.
Small rushed for 85 yards to lead Cheraw.