Camden Rolls Over Dillon in Season Opener AA vs AAA Clash

Larry Gamble

Contributing Writer

Dillon – Two traditionally strong teams, both ranked in the preseason polls next to the top of their classifications, that’s a great mix for exciting opening day football game.   The Camden Bulldogs traveled to Dillon to play a rescheduled game due to the afternoon thunderstorms on Friday. The AAA Bulldogs opened their season with a 35-13 win over the AA Wildcats. 

Dillon is known for a competent running game and this year sophomore Nibras Harrison (5-10, 165) moved from receiver to field general as their starting quarterback. In his debut game, Harrison was 6 for 14 and 50 yards passing, plus added 12 carries for 50 yards, plus a TD. Leading the Wildcats on the ground, senior running back Noah Singletary (5-10, 185) had 17 carries for 115 yards and a TD with his longest run being 20 yards. Junior WR, Jamarion Campbell ((5-9, 149) had two catches for 17 yards.  Senior Trayvon Brown (5-8, 165) had 7 carries for 44 yards. On defense, Junior MLB Malachi Nelson had 6 tackles, 11 assists, and one TFL.

Wildcats head coach Kelvin Roller stated game one, “our quarterback played well for his first varsity game especially for a sophomore. Our offensive line blocked well up front.” When asked about season opening game results, Roller commented, “there’s a lot of areas in the game of football that we got to improve, and we got beat by a very good [Camden} team.”  “All we can do is go back to practice and get better, find the things on film that we need to work on, and I’ve got a great coaching staff that will do just that.” He concluded with this thought about early season play, “Football is a marathon, it’s not a sprint. It’s about getting better as you go along.”

For his team’s first regular season game, head coach Brian Rimpf stated, “the first half was about turnovers, and we scored on all three offensive possessions.” When asked about the matchup between the two team, Rimpf commented “this was a top ten match up. They were #1 in AA and we’re #2 in AAA, so it was a big match up and I thought our guys really played well.” 

Senior QB Greyson Rimpf went 8-13-0 for 155 yards and two TDs plus 3 rushing attempts for 17 yards and a TD.  Senior WR Isiah Smith went 24 yards around the left side for an early Bulldogs TD.  Later, Rimpf completed 5-yard pass to Smith in the flats who then sprinted 69 yards to score his second TD for the game.   Aaden Manning carried the ball 11 times for 64 yards, 5.8 yards/carry.  On fourth and long, Maddox Freeman turns a left sweep into a 4^th Down TD conversion with two broken tackles before finding a lane to the goal line.   On defense Harrison Arnett tied with 12 plus 1 sack and Lavay Penny had 12 plus an INT.

For August 28^th, Camden travels to play at Lugoff-Elgin Demons next and Dillon is on the road to play the Myrtle Beach Seahawks.

Team Stats

Rushing:

CHS: 38-187 yards (187.0 yards/game; 4.9 yards/carry)

DHS: 40-205 (205.0 yards/game; 5.1 yards/carry)

Passing:

CHS: 9-14-0 160 yards (160.0 yards/game; .643 comp. pct.)

DHS: 6-15-1 52 yards (52.0 yards/game; .400 comp. ptc.)

Total Offense:

CHS: 52 plays, 347 yards (47.0 yards/game)

DHS: 55 plays, 257 yards (257.0 yards/game)

First Downs:

CHS: 18 (18.0 per game)

DHS: 15 (15.0 per game)

Third down efficiency:

CHS: 6-10 (.600 pct.)

DHS: 4-9 (.444 pct.)

Fourth down efficiency:

CHS: 1-2 (.500 pct.)

DHS: 0-2 (.000 pct.)

Fumbles-lost:

CHS: 0-0;

DHS: 2-2