Justin Welch's 39-yard FG with 3 seconds left lifts Dutch Fork over J.L. Mann 31-30

Irmo -- Dutch Fork High School knew it wasn’t playing its best football Friday against J.L.

Mann in the AAAAA upper state championship game.

Mistakes piled up at Dutch Fork Stadium. A muffed punt that led to a Patriots touchdown

in the first quarter. Various defensive lapses in the first half that led to two more scores. Throwing

three interceptions in the second half.

Yet, the Silver Foxes awakened in the second half, and in the final two minutes they erased a 9-point

deficit. First came a Jon Hunt to Boykin Bickley touchdown pass at the 1:17 mark. Then came a 39-yard

Justin Welch field goal with three seconds left to beat J.L. Mann 31-30 and head to their eighth straight

state championship game.

“We played about as bad as we could have possibly played at first, but we just kept battling and

did some really good things,” Dutch Fork head coach Tom Knotts said. “We came out second half lights

out on defense. We kept battling on offense. We can’t make that many turnovers and win, and we

shouldn’t have won the ballgame, but Justin Welch is money. I just knew it was going to be good.”

Of all the football teams Dutch Fork (9-5) could have faced, it will get a familiar opponent in Region

4 rival White Knoll. The Timberwolves (14-0) beat Dutch Fork 17-14 on October 6 enroute to winning the

region championship. They defeated Summerville 21-14 to win the lower state championship on Friday.

“That was kind of what we’d been hoping for,” Knotts said. “We’d been pulling for White Knoll. I think

it’ll be a great ballgame. They beat us the first time, and we’ll see what happens a second time.”

If it were any other team playing J.L. Mann (11-3) on Friday, the Patriots would likely be preparing for

their final game of the season.

After recovering a muffed punt, J.L. Mann got on the scoreboard with a 2-yard Na'Cyus Morrison

touchdown run late in the first quarter.

Dutch Fork responded with a 9-play, 74 yard drive that Trey Starks capped with an 11-yard TD run

at the 9:49 mark of the second.

The Silver Foxes defense had a lot of trouble with J.L. Mann’s misdirection on offense. Quarterback

Ethan Anderson led the Patriots on two scoring drives in the second quarter, throwing a 5-yard

touchdown pass to Caden Hayes and a 22-yarder to Mikel McClellen to give J.L. Mann a 21-7 lead going

into halftime.

To make matters worse for the Silver Foxes, starting quarterback Ethan Offing went down with a

foot injury just before the end of the half. He was on crutches on the sidelines for the rest of the game.

Dutch Fork came out of the locker room on fire in the damp, 50-degree air of the field. The defense

pushed back J.L. Mann 12 yards on its first possession of the second half. After Jayden Westbrook returned

the Patriots’ punt 34 yards to the 1-yard line, Hunt went under center on the second play from scrimmage,

handed the ball off to Trent Lodge, who pushed into the end zone to cut Mann’s lead to 21-14.

Later in the quarter, Hunt handed the ball off to Lodge again. This time Lodge hit a hole the offensive

line had been creating throughout the game. He dashed up the middle and ran 54 yards for the game-tying

score at the 2:58 mark of the third quarter.

“We had talked about it in the tent (about the holes the offensive line was creating),” Lodge said. “I tried

to hit it as fast as I can when I’d seen it, and once I was there, there was nothing stopping me.”

Dutch Fork held J.L. Mann to 12 total yards in the third quarter, but the Patriots went up 27-21

on Anderson’s 7-yard pass to McClellen 12 seconds into the fourth quarter.

Phil Georgeopolis missed the extra point attempt, but Alessandro Santana’s 37-yard field

goal put the Patriots up 30-21 with 2:22 left in the game.

With J.L. Mann holding a 2-possession lead that late, it appeared to at least the large

Patriots crowd on the visiting grandstand that they were headed to South Carolina State’s Oliver

C. Dawson Stadium for the AAAAA state championship game on Friday, December 1.

.

“You could just see that they thought they had it won, and I said, 'Wait a minute, I’ve got

three timeouts in my pocket, and they’re not going to try to do much,” Knotts said. “We’re going to

geta chance to get it back, let’s just see what happens.' ”

Dutch Fork then knocked out a 67-yard drive Hunt finished off with an 8-yard touchdown

pass to Bickey in the right corner of the end zone. J.L. Mann caught the onside kick that followed and

took over with 1:17 to go.

“We refuse to lose,” Hunt said. “That’s just the story of the season. From White Knoll on we’ve

refused to lose, and it’s going to stay like that. Next week it’ll be nothing different.”

The Patriots only held possession for 30 seconds, and after Westbrook’s 30-yard punt return put

the Silver Foxes on the J.L. Mann 40-yard line, Hunt and company moved 18 yards to the 22-

yard line with seven seconds left.

The Patriots called a timeout just before Welch kicked one through the uprights, but the kicker

kept his cool and kicked it straight through the uprights again. His second kick set the Dutch Fork crowd

to roaring and had the sideline jumping up and down in celebration.

“I relied on my training,” Welch said. “I worked on everything I could, think about hitting it straight,

hitting it through the pipes. I’ve been iced before, I knew it was coming. They had a few timeouts, but I

just had to make it. I had to hit it.”

J.L. Mann 7 14 0 9 – 30

Dutch Fork 0 7 14 10 – 31

First Quarter

M – NaCyus Morton 2 run (Phil Georgeopolis kick) :59 

Second Quarter

D – Trey Starks 11 run (Justin Welch kick) 9:48

M – Caden Hayes 5 pass from Ethan Anderson (Georgeopolis kick) 6:07 

M – Mikel McClellen 22 pass from Anderson (Georgeopolis kick) 1:48

Third Quarter

D – Trent Lodge 1 run (Welch kick) 9:12

D – Lodge 54 run (Welch kick) 2:58 

Fourth Quarter

M – McClellen 7 pass from Anderson (kick failed) 11:48

D – Boykin Bickley 8 pass from Jon Hunt (Welch kick) 1:17

D – Welch 39 field goal :03

JLM DF

First downs 20 16

Rushes-Yards 38-74 30-170

Passing yards 226 168

Att-Com-Int 27-19-0 29-14-3

Fumbles-lost 2-2 1-1

Penalties-yards 7-59 9-77

Punts-Avg 6-27.7 2-42.5

INDIVIDUAL

RUSHING

M-Obadiah Jones 11-55, NaCyus Morrison 14-27, Ethan Anderson 7-(-3), Mikel McClellen 6-(-

5). D-Trent Lodge 9-96, Jayden Westbrook 1-26, Trey Starks 3-21, Jon Hunt 4-14.

PASSING

M-Ethan Anderson 19-27-0. D-Ethan Offing 5-5-0, Jon Hunt 9-24-3.

RECEIVING

M-Mikel McClellen 14-196, Toby Wilkins 2-28, Zak Stewart 2-(-3), Caden Hayes 1-5. D-

Boykin Bickley 4-58, Trent Lodge 3-8, Jacob Hamilton 2-32, Leyton Shuler 2-23.