Dutch Fork rolls past Gaffney 35-10 to advance to AAAAA upper state final

Irmo -- As head coach Tom Knotts said, Dutch Fork High School football loves to play in November.

"In their third-round matchup in the AAAAA playoffs against upstate rival Gaffney on Friday, the

Silver Foxes routed the Indians 35-10 at Dutch Fork Stadium.

“This is our time of year,” Knotts said. “We’re clicking right now. We think we’ve got the pieces

put together. I don’t know who we play next week (J.L. Mann)  but I’m used to playing on Thanksgiving, I

love playing in my favorite week of the year. I just appreciate these seniors and the team for

allowing me to get a Thanksgiving practice again, there’s nothing better.“

It was Dutch Fork’s second straight win over the Indians in the postseason. Gaffney beat the

Silver Foxes 22-19 in the AAAAA state championship game in 2021, but the next year Dutch Fork

knocked off the Indians 51-28 in the playoffs enroute to its seventh state championship last year.

“They were certainly the better team tonight,” Gaffney head coach Dan Jones said. “You don’t

go to a playoff game and score three points on offense and expect to win.”

Dutch Fork (8-5) plays host to J.L. Mann (11-2) in the upper state final ON Friday. The Patriots eliminated Hillcrest (10-

3) 21-13

.

Ethan Offing, starting at quarterback for Jon Hunt, who was out for a second week with a pulled

hamstring, rushed for two touchdowns and passed for a third. Offing was 17-for-28 in passing for

188 yards. He also ran 18 times for 51 yards.

“Ethan was a little bit inconsistent but as a sophomore quarterback I’m very pleased with him,”

Knotts said. “I think he’s only going to get better.”

While Offing and the Dutch Fork offense scored when they needed to, the Silver Fox defense

shut down quarterback and former Gray Collegiate standout Riley Staton and the Indians

offense.

Staton, who came into the game passing for 2,683 yards and 13 touchdowns, had a 59-yard run

but was otherwise rendered ineffective. He had just 54 yards passing on the night.

“We hadn’t run the quarterback that much and he just pulled it on the inside zone and took off

with it,” Jones said. “Later on we needed him to pull the trigger a little more and instead of

worrying about running it, but evidently they weren’t open and they were putting pressure on

him early.”

Jaden McDowell, who rushed for 1,282 yards 13 TDs this season, had just one yard on one

attempt.

“I thought we controlled the ball like we needed to, we hit some big passes, made some runs

when we needed to, but defense won the game,” Knotts said. “Lights out, got down here and

held them to field goal (tries) and they missed one, but that’s a good quarterback (Staton) and a

good overall wide receiver group as there is in the state, and we shut ‘em down.”

the only time Gaffney (9-4) saw the end zone was when Crysstaan Ellis scooped up a blocked

punt and returned it 25 yards for a touchdown in the first minute of the game.

The Silver Foxes may have opened with a blunder, BUT they had three long scoring drives in the first

half and a pair of red-zone gut checks that led to two of those touchdowns.

When Dutch Fork got the ball back after the Gaffney score, Offing led an 8-play, 65-yard scoring

drive that he capped with a 17-yard touchdown run.

That drive seemed to get the Silver Foxes back into the game plan and gave the defense

something to fight for.

Gaffney drove inside the 20-yard line on two straight possessions, but netted only one Jake

Spadavecchia field goal, a 23-yarder.

With the Indians leading 10-7, Dutch Fork faced a fourth-and-1 at the Gaffney 11-yard line.

Justin Welch was on the field preparing for a 28-yard field goal try, but Dutch Fork called a timeout.

When they lined up again, Offing was under center. He took the snap and ran into the end

zone untouched for the go-ahead score.

Another fourth-down situation happened when the Silver Foxes had the ball at the Indians’ 30-yard

line. Rather than try for a short punt, Dutch Fork called another timeout on fourth-and-15 and came back

into play with Offing under center again. This time, Offing took the snap, scrambled and found Jacob

Hamilton for a 16-yard gain. Five plays later, Maurice Anderson bulled into the end zone from one yard out

to make it 21-10 Silver Foxes.

“I was just going to get the points (field goals) and everybody screamed at me,” Knotts said

about the two fourth-down situations. “I’m too old to be screamed at, so I said, 'Well, go for it. But

you better freaking get it though.' "

With that score coming at the 1:56 mark of the second quarter, Dutch Fork’s defense pestered the

Indians on the last possession and didn’t have a chance to respond with a score.

Neither offense could find a rhythm in the third quarter, but by the fourth quarter Dutch Fork’s

running game wore down the clock. Most of Trent Lodge’s 72 yards came in the fourth quarter,

and the running back caught a touchdown pass and ran for a touchdown to close out the win.

Noting Dutch Fork’s dominance over the Indians, Knotts said this team has come a long way

from its 2-5 start to the season.

“We couldn’t get out of our own way at the beginning of the season,” he said. “It didn’t matter

what we did. I was bad, they were not as good as what I usually would like. It lasted a lot longer

than I thought that it would, but we still believed that we thought we’d be here in November.”

Gaffney 7 3 0 0 – 10

Dutch Fork 7 14 0 14 – 35

First Quarter

G – Crysstaan Ellis 25 blocked punt return (Jake Spadavecchia kick) 10:54

D – Ethan Offing 17 run (Justin Welch kick) 8:11 

Second Quarter

G – Spadavecchia 23 field goal 11:48 

D – Offing 10 run (Welch kick) 6:44

D – Maurice Anderson 1 run (Welch kick) 1:56

Fourth Quarter

D – Trent Lodge 11 pass from Offing (Welch kick) 7:57

D – Lodge 2 run (Welch kick) 2:37 

GHS DF

First downs 9 22

Rushes-Yards 21-112 34-155

Passing yards 54 188

Att-Com-Int 24-7-0 28-17-0

Fumbles-lost 1-0 0-0

Penalties-yards 7-56 7-60

Punts-Avg 6-27.7 3-20.7

INDIVIDUAL

RUSHING

G-Riley Staton 8-80, Jaiden McDowell 12-31, Zion McBeth 1-1. D-Trent Lodge 8-72, Ethan

Offing 18-51, Maurice Anderson 7-28, Trey Starks 1-4.

PASSING

G-Riley Staton 7-23-0, Jaiden McDowell 0-1-0. D-Ethan Offing 17-28-0.

RECEIVING

G-Jamarcus Smith 5-46, Emazon Littlejohn 1-7, Jaiden McDowell 1-1. D-Leyton Shuler 3-56,

Trent Lodge 3-42, Jacob Hamilton 3-25, Boykin Bickley 2-31.