WHAT WE SAW: Fort Dorchester 39, Carolina Forest 21
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NORTH CHARLESTON | One of South Carolina’s top quarterbacks stood next to his celebrating teammates and was furiously rubbing his hands together, trying to get warm. Zolten Osborne Zolten Osborne 6'2" | 205 lbs | QB Fort Dorchester | 2023…
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Continue ReadingNORTH CHARLESTON | One of South Carolina’s top quarterbacks stood next to his celebrating teammates and was furiously rubbing his hands together, trying to get warm.
Zolten Osborne Zolten Osborne 6'2" | 205 lbs | QB Fort Dorchester | 2023 State SC certainly wasn’t asked to do much to stay active Friday.
The Fort Dorchester senior and Touchstone Energy Cooperatives Bowl selection attempted just five passes and threw for only 23 yards in Friday’s 39-21 win over Carolina Forest in the third round of the Class 5A state playoffs. And while an argument could be made for simply giving him an easy, impact-free night after missing three games due to injury earlier in the season, the Patriots didn’t need him to be more than a game manager against the Panthers.
Fort Dorchester ran for 400 yards (unofficially) on 46 carries in the victory.
“They know what you need to do in big games,” Fort Dorchester coach Steve LaPrad said. “It’s great to be able to run the ball and throw the ball. That’s a head coach’s dream.
The reason the Pats went so one-sided was because of how well its line did paving the way for its tailbacks.
Junior Davian Brown Davian Brown 5'7" | 190 lbs | RB Fort Dorchester | 2024 State SC (pictured) had 26 carries for 224 yards and two touchdowns.
Senior Zion Reynolds had 13 carries for 120 yards and a score.
Freshman Ryan Campbell Ryan Campbell 5'9" | 175 lbs | RB Fort Dorchester | 2026 State SC – who is only a steady diet of work away from blowing up in his own regard – had five carries for 46 yards and a score.
Tack on an Osborne 6-yard touchdown run and a Darius Bailem end around, and Fort Dorchester’s defense was once again pretty one-dimensional while doing exactly what it needed to in order to advance to the Lower State semifinals.
But running through the Panthers’ defense was only one half of an all-around impressive night from the Patriots’ first-teamers.
PATRIOTS DEFENSIVE STANDOUTS
Like Brown, who transferred in from First Baptist during the offseason – senior defensive lineman DeAndre Jones (a former Summerville standout) had three plays in particular that showed just how good he can be.
With the Patriots already up 26-0 in the second quarter and Carolina Forest trying to get its offense rolling, Jones made a move to split a pair of offensive linemen, got into the backfield and with one hand took Carolina Forest running back Kalil Johnson Kalil Johnson 5'7" | 160 lbs | RB Carolina Forest | 2024 State SC to the ground to record a tackle for loss.
He made the play look easy, as he did about six minutes earlier on successive plays.
After Fort Dorchester kicker Christian Willson drilled a 20-yarder to make it 17-0 early in the second quarter, Carolina Forest took over on its own 19. On the first snap of the series, Jones came off the edge to record his first sack of the game and net a 9-yard loss. On second down, Jones against shed his blockers and tackled quarterback Scott Saylor Scott Saylor 6'1" | 200 lbs | QB Carolina Forest | 2023 State SC in the end zone for a safety to make it 19-0.
Jones had plenty of help Friday, maybe no more so than from lineman Jayden Acevedo. The 5-foot-10, 260-pound junior also recorded two sacks, giving the Patriots four in the game.
CAROLINA FOREST STANDOUTS
A trio of Panther receivers played their final game Friday, and while Anthony Aponte, Owen Hall and Nathan Schuessler would each love to suit up even one more time, their fluidity in what started out as a piece-meal offense ended with each of them making a couple more special plays.
Aponte high-pointed a fourth-down reception on the opening drive of the second half to set up Carolina Forest’s first points of the game. The 23-yard reception was one of four he had against Fort Dorchester. He ended the night with 70 yards and the season with 528 yards and seven touchdowns.
Hall caught just two passes in 2021, but as a senior, he turned into the third member of the receiving triad. Friday, he added five receptions for 72 yards and a score to his ledger, and he finished the year with 36 receptions for 599 yards and four scores. Some 64 percent of his receiving yards game in the last four games of the season.
As for Schuessler, there’s next to no analytic that says he wasn’t the best receiver on the Grand Strand this year. After putting up another four catches for 38 yards, the senior ended his final year with 60 receptions for 1,186 yards and 13 touchdowns.
The fourth horseman, though, was Saylor.
The two-year starter and senior quarterback became the first quarterback in Horry County to throw for 3,000 yards in a season in seven years. His 206 yards against Fort Dorchester gave his 3,097 for the year, a school record. His 3,666 combined passing/rushing yards was also a program single-s