Fairfield Central Gets Over Bad Start with 35-0 Shutout of Union County

By WORTHY EVANS

HSSR Contributing Writer

Columbia - For the Fairfield Central football team Friday night, there was nothing better to get over a season-opening shutout loss on the road than coming home and getting a shutout win over a traditional opponent.

The Griffins made a switch up at quarterback, enabling junior Kamauri Jones to play most of the snaps under center, while senior Kaden Diggs lined up as a receiver and made an impact at that position.

Jones was 8-for-17 for 194 yards, a touchdown and an interception, and Diggs made 3 catches for 81 yards and a score as Fairfield Central shut out Union County 35-0 at E.K. McLendon Stadium Friday night.

Dre Walker, who caught a short pass from Kenyon Douglas and raced it to the end zone to complete a 52-yard touchdown pass play, had four catches for 104 yards on the night.

The Griffins’ 124 rushing yards on 42 attempts pushed their total yards number to 318.

The win puts the Griffins’ 40-0 shutout at 5A Ridge View Aug. 22 in the rear-view mirror.

“We were able to bounce back. Last week was probably one of the worst losses we’ve had since I’ve been here. We’ve been shut out a couple of times but I can’t remember the last time,” head coach Demetrius Davis said. “The kids bounced back. We’ve still got a couple of kids who’ve been out, (senior linebacker) Doug McLeod’s out, our (senior) starting left tackle Marley Swaby is out, but hopefully we can get them back in a couple of weeks.”

Union (0-2) finished the night with 167 total yards, with 51 yards on the ground and 116 through the air. Fairfield Central limited the Yellow Jackets’ offense to 14 rushing yards in the first half and zero passing yards in the second half.

Fairfield Central (1-1) stopped Union at midfield in the opening series, then needed only one play to get on the scoreboard.

Quarterback Kenyon Douglas was the first of four Griffins under center in the game, and his first play was a pass in the flat to Dre Walker, who turned on the jets and completed the 52-yard touchdown pass play at the 9:22 mark of the first quarter.

Later, Union knocked out a 14-play drive that only went 25 yards and ended then the Yellow Jackets turned the ball over on downs.

The Griffins needed just three plays to go up double digits. Kamauri Jones took the field as quarterback and hit Kaden Diggs in the end zone from 34 yards out with 1:20 left in the first quarter.

Early in the second Diggs scored on a 7-yard touchdown run. Jones connected with Ty’Quarius Shannon for the 2-point conversion to make it 21-0.

The Griffins struck again when Douglas rumbled into the end zone on a bootleg to make it 28-0 midway through the second quarter.

Union knocked out a quick drive in the final minute of the half, moving to the Fairfield Central 10-yard line with 4.4 seconds left. Yellow Jackets quarterback Qa Brannon fired at frequent target Myson grant in the end zone, but Grant dropped the ball and the teams broke for the locker room. 

After a scoreless third quarter, Douglas scored his second touchdown of the night on a 2-yard run early in the fourth quarter.

Diggs rushed for 697 yards and 12 touchdowns and threw for 736 yards and three scores as the Griffins went 12-2 and reached the upper state final last year. Moving Diggs to wide receiver not only showed the athleticism of the senior to play multiple positions, it also opened up the quarterback job to Jones, who completed four passes for 56 yards in 2024.

“We think that Kaden Diggs does a lot to the receiving corps for us,” Davis said. “We were able to put Kamauri in there and put Kaden in at receiver and that helped out a lot. Kudos to them guys.”

Fairfield Central travels to 1A C.A. Johnson—44-18 victors over Branchville last week—Friday. The Griffins play host to Lewisville Sept. 12 before going on the road to play a tough Newberry team that finished 7-4 last year and have outscored its two opponents, Union County and Mid-Carolina, 107-14.

This years Griffins have a lot of talent, but need in-game experience, Davis said. The next three games should give the team lots to grow on before opening Region 4-2A against Mid-Carolina Oct. 3.  

“We’ve got a lot of young kids, a lot of ninth graders,” Davis said. “No.27 (Martez Harrison) is a ninth grader, No.14 (Calen Kulp) is a ninth grader, and they played well for us tonight. We’ve just got a lot of young men that don’t have a lot of Friday night experience. If we can get these kids better each week, hopefully we can be able to make some noise come region.”

Union County                0         0        0         0         –          0

Fairfield Central          13       15       0         7         –         35

First Quarter

F - Dre Walker 52 pass from Kenyon Douglas (Sidney Wilson kick) 9:22 

F - Kaden Diggs 34 pass from Kamauri Jones (kick failed) 1:20

Second Quarter

F - Diggs 7 run (Ty’Quarius Shannon pass from Jones) 10:21 

F - Douglas 12 run (Wilson kick) 5:33

Fourth Quarter

F - Douglas 3 run (Wilson kick) 10:32 

                   UC       FC

First Downs      10             18

Rushes-yds   23-51      42-124

Passing yds     116           194

Att-Com-Int  29-9-1    19-9-1

Fumbles-lost    1-1          0-0

Penalties-yds   5-31      9-71

Punts-avg      3-27.3    2-11.0

Individual Statistics

RUSHING

UC - Qa Brannon 12-23, Dreshaun Mills 11-29.

FC - Kenyon Douglas 21-60, Derek Cammon 10-38,Kaden Diggs 7-27, Kamauri Jones 3-(-7), Dre Walker 1-6.

PASSING

UC - Qa Brannon 9-29-1.

FC - Kamauri Jones 8-17-1, Kenyon Douglas 1-1-0, Kaden Diggs 0-1-0.

RECEIVING

UC - Myson Grant 4-39, A.J. Shaw 3-54, Zion Taylor-Jenkins 2-23.

FC - Dre Walker 4-106, Kaden Diggs 3-81, Ty’Quarius Shannon 1-14, Kenyon Douglas 1-(-7).