Defense Propels Fort Dorchester to Homecoming Victory

By Rob Gantt

Special to the HSSR

NORTH CHARLESTON - Fort Dorchester High School’s defensive unit made sure homecoming night was a successful one. 

The Patriots forced three turnovers, returning one for a score, and recorded two goal-line stands in a 21-14 victory over visiting Stratford High School Friday, Oct. 23, in a region game. Junior defensive back Amari Brown sealed it with an interception at the Patriots 5 with under two minutes left.  Fort Dorchester won despite being outgained by around 100 yards.

Brown helped spark the defensive effort in the first quarter, too, stripping a Stratford receiver along the sideline before sophomore teammate Jaxson Ray scooped it up and raced back 35 yards for the first touchdown of the game with 7:42 remaining in the opening period. Ray snagged an interception in Knights territory on their next possession. 

“Defense was lights out,” Fort Dorchester coach Shaun Lorenzano said. “Oh, my goodness, we made plays. We got after it.”

The Patriots complete the regular season with a 5-5 overall record and 4-2 mark versus Region 5-AAAAA foes, good enough for third in the league behind James Island and Summerville. Fort Dorchester is off Friday, Oct. 30, before cranking up the Class 5A playoffs Friday, Nov. 6.

“The sky is the limit for these guys,” Lorenzano said. “They’re very talented. We’ve got the week off. We’re going to recuperate and go over our mistakes, the things we’ve been getting wrong the past couple weeks. I think we’ve got a shot. Depends on who we draw. Whoever we draw, we’re a different team than earlier in the year. We’re getting better.”

Following Ray’s interception, Fort Dorchester gained the field position in what was a defensive battle to that point. Junior punter Marrio Marston stopped a punt at Stratford’s 1 midway through the second quarter and the Patriots’ offensive unit finally hit on a big play following a short Stratford punt.

Junior quarterback Mesiah Rivers, who came on for a freshman after the Patriots’ early struggles, connected with junior receiver Devin Gates in stride over the middle for a 41-yard touchdown pass with 5:09 remaining in the first half.

“Offense just took a while to get going,” Lorenzano said. “We started the young quarterback this week but we just couldn’t get into a rhythm. We went back to the guy who can use his legs a little bit. It kind of opened up a little bit. He threw a nice pass and it kind of inspired him. We got going again. We moved the ball better in the second half.”

Stratford (1-8) showed signs of life on its next drive, too. Junior receiver Zayvon Grant ripped off a 45-yard run to Fort Dorchester’s 4 with under a minute left in the first half. However, the Patriots made three stops to keep the Knights off the board as time melted off the clock.

Trailing 14-0, the Knights forced a Fort Dorchester punt to open the third quarter and again tested the Patriots’ defense in close quarters. Senior running back Kobie Mayes broke off a 40-yard run to the Patriots 8, but Fort Dorchester stood tall again. The Patriots blocked a short field goal to keep Stratford off the board less than three minutes into the second half.

Rivers again connected on a big pass for Fort Dorchester as the Patriots capitalized on their latest stop inside the 10. Following a penalty that backed up the ball to the 10, the junior quarterback found classmate Laurez Matthews 10 to 15 yards down the field.

Matthews did the rest, weaving through traffic before speeding to the end zone for a 90-yard touchdown. Marston’s’s extra point made it 21-0 with 8:31 remaining in the third period.

Sophomore quarterback Dathan Haywood and the Knights continued to swing away, though, and made a game of it. Haywood put the Knights on the board via a 1-yard run with 1:24 left in the third quarter, capping an 80-yard drive, then engineered a 95-yard scoring drive in the fourth quarter. Haywood’s 15-yard touchdown strike to senior receiver Jayden Lee with 5:03 remaining in the game and kicker Renzo Gorritti’s extra point pulled the Knights within 21-14.

The Patriots punted it back with under three minutes left and Stratford used a pair of penalties to move into scoring position again. A defensive pass interference and roughing the passer put the Knights at the Fort Dorchester 28. 

But the Patriots rose up again to save the day.

Dawson squashed the Stratford threat, picking off a pass inside the 10 with 1:51 remaining. The Patriots converted a third-and-8 on their ensuing possession with an 11-yard run by sophomore Liam Chapman and ran out the clock to defeat the Knights for the eighth time in nine meetings.

Lorenzano told his team in the postgame huddle the win was not pretty, but the win was all that mattered. The Patriots didn’t generate much in the run game and were flagged over a dozen times for more than 150 yards. The majority of their offense came on the two chunk plays. Fort Dorchester tallied 242 yards and finished 2 of 11 on third down.

A bye week comes at a great time as Fort Dorchester readies for the postseason.

“We’re doing some stuff that we shouldn’t be doing in Week 10,” Lorenzano said, “but we did enough to win tonight.”

Stratford racked up over 340 yards of total offense. Haywood threw for 79 yards and ran for 47 more. Mayes and Grant added 100 and 96 yards on the ground. Grant and Lee combined for 70 yards receiving.

The Knights host Stall Oct. 30 in their final regular season game.