Abbeville Wins 13th State Football Championship With Dominant Win Over Cross In Class A Finals

By Billy G. Baker

Publisher

Abbeville—The wire-to-wire Class A number one ranked Abbeville Panthers won their 13^th state football title in dominant fashion with a 58-20 win over Cross at South Carolina State University, on December, 12^th.

The Panthers produced 510 yards of offense on 65 plays making the game among one of their most dominate ever in a state final. On 60 rushing carries they tallied 486 yards.  

The team was led by senior quarterback and South Carolina signee DeMarcus Leach. Leach led all rushers in the game with 118 yards on 11 carries and two touchdowns. Mi’Darius Burton gained 91 yards on seven carries with one TD. Karson Normon had 16 carries for 84 yards and a TD, and Darius Riley added 79 yards on 14 carries and a TD.

Leach set up a touchdown with an 81-yard return of an interception on defense also. 

Two days prior to the Panthers meeting Cross in the finals, head coach Jamie Nickles sat down to talk about the journey of his team during the 2024 season. Nickles has led the program to state titles in 2010, 2011, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2022 and now 2024. His career record to date is a stellar 222-42 making him one of the most successful coaches in South Carolina over the past three decades.

“This has been one of the hardest working group of players we’ve had at Abbeville and while we have been known as a power running team we have passed for over 900 yards this season,” said Coach Nickles.

“Your success always starts with senior leadership and our quarterback/defensive back Demarcus Leach has been a great example on both sides of the football and he will represent Abbeville in the Shrine Bowl and he has signed to play at South Carolina next season,” said Coach Nickles. “Altavious Patterson is a senior defensive lineman who has also been a consistent performer for us and he will represent the team in the North South game at Myrtle Beach.”

Coach Nickles said the talent pool did not drop off at all when the Panthers were realigned by the SCHSL from AA to Class A this season. “In the playoffs we faced some very tough teams like Lamar (won 48-38) and Lewisville (won 42-18) and both of those Class A teams have strong football traditions,” said Coach Nickles. “We got down early (10-0) against Lewisville last week, before we were able to take advantage of some interceptions and fumble recoveries to pull away and win the game.

“Cross is a well-coached team and I have a lot of respect for their head coach, Shaun Wright, and he and served on the same football committee just a couple weeks ago,” said Coach Nickles. “They have a very good defense with playmakers on both sides of the football.”

Speaking of playmakers, Leach rushed for 272 yards and scored five touchdowns in the Panthers shoot-out win over Lamar in the third round of the playoffs. He came into the state finals having rushed for 910 yards on 110 carries with 17 rushing TD’s this season. He also has a strong arm with over 950 yards passing as well.

The Abbeville “A” bone rushing attack produced 4,915 rushing yards and 79 TD’s during the 2024 season. Abbeville had a talented group of running backs who just kept pounding away throughout the game. Behind Leach, on the rushing index, is Karson Norman (867-13 TD’s), Darius Riley (750 & 12 TD’s) followed by Mi’Darius Burton (578 & 10 TD’s), Jha’Louis Hadden (397 & 7 TD’s) and Jamearion Williams (250 & three TD’s).

The offensive line is led by four veteran seniors in Kadon Harrison, Josh Ferguson, Will New, and Cooper Hansen. Kam Jones is the lone junior starter. Leach’s favorite passing target is junior starting WR Jayden Baylor. The starting tight end is Brody Graham, an excellent blocker.

On defense the tackle leader is versatile performer Thomas Ferguson (6-4, 205) who has started at DE, LB, and a SS type this season. Ferguson leads the hit index with 48 tackles including 15 TFL.  Other top tacklers include DB’s Leach and Baylor with 26 tackles each. Justin Rollison leads the defense with three interceptions. The defensive front is led by seniors Altavious Patterson, Gage Evans, AJ Speech and junior Cole Driggers.  In the middle Ferguson is joined by LB Collins Brown.  

In the secondary leadership comes from Leach and senior Levi Paul. Freshman DB starter Khairi Gray has a bright future and junior Jayden Baylor provides a lot of depth in the back also.

In compiling 13 wins this season Abbeville defeated teams 703-216.

In the state finals the top two tacklers on defense were Ferguson with four tackles and Cameron Lee contributed three stops. Altavious Patterson made two tackles and a TFL for 10 yards. AJ Speech also had two tackles and TFL for 13 yards. Leach, Baylor, and Normon each had one interception in the state finals.