Packers pound defending S.C. state champ Dutch Fork 48-17

Published 12:45 am Sunday, August 20, 2023

MOULTRIE — It didn’t take Colquitt County long to let South Carolina’s top-ranked football team know that it was in for a long South Georgia late summer’s evening on Saturday.

Packers senior linebacker Kenyon Solomon broke through and sacked Dutch Fork quarterback Jon Hunt 11 yards behind the line of scrimmage on the second play from scrimmage and the Silver Foxes never appeared to recover.

The Packers led 28-0 at the half and stretched the lead to 34-0 before Dutch Fork finally put a number up on their side of The Hawg Pen’s new video scoreboard.

The Silver Foxes, who went 14-1 and won their sixth South Carolina highest classification state championship in seven years last season, scored two touchdowns and a field goal in the final 16 minutes, but it was much too little and way too late to stop a 48-17 Colquitt County victory.

The Packers heralded offense had too many weapons for the Silver Foxes.

Senior quarterback Neko Fann threw for three touchdowns and ran for another in the first half alone and added a fourth scoring pass in the third quarter.

Ny Carr caught seven passes for 136 yards and two scores.

Zay Williams and Markese Wilson also had touchdown catches and junior Day’Shawn Brown made the most of his start by capping off a 161-yard effort by dashing to a 26-yard scoring run in the fourth quarter.

The Packers rolled up 488 yards, with 248 on the ground and 240 through the air.

The defense turned in another big play late when Ka’Marian Williams intercepted a pass and took it back 25 yards for the Packers final score.

“It was good to see the defense come out and make a statement,” Packers coach Sean Calhoun said of the group that allowed just nine first downs, two of which were the result of penalties. “We’re breaking in eight starters, so you don’t know exactly what you’re going to get.

“But it was good to see the defense play like they did. Dutch Fork is a good football team. They are going to win a bunch of games. I think this was one of the bigger wins in program history. They have some really good football players and really good coach.”

Calhoun did not sound surprised that his team was able to score six offensive touchdowns against a nationally ranked opponent.

“With what we have coming back, we should be able to move the ball and score,” he said.

And the Packers offensive output could have been greater, but for 15 penalties, a lost fumble and a pair of interceptions.

“Double digits in penalties are way too much,” he said, adding that there also were some lapses in special teams that need to be addressed.

After the Solomon sack led to a three-and-out on the Silver Foxes first possession, the Packers drove to their first touchdown of the season the first time they had the ball with Fann scoring from 17 yards out on a quarterback draw with 8:20 left in the first quarter.

The Packers turned the ball over on downs on the Dutch Fork 25 on their next possession, but later in the first quarter Fann hit a slanting Williams in the end zone for a touchdown that helped get the Packers lead to 14-0.

Early in the second quarter, Colquitt forced the Silver Foxes to turn the ball over on downs on the Dutch Fork 32 and then drove 68 yards to score on a 16-yard Fann-to-Wilson pass.

Colquitt led 28-0 after Fann and Carr combined on the first of their two scoring combinations. It came on a second-and-5 from the Silver Foxes 8 with 4:37 left in the half.

It’s been rare in recent years that Dutch Fork has been shut out for a half, but the Colquitt defense rose up and got another sack from Solomon with just over two minutes left in the second quarter.

Fann threw his fourth and final touchdown pass of the game when he hit Carr in stride on a play that started at the Silver Foxes 41 just three minutes into the third quarter.

Brett Fitzgerald missed the extra point, but the Packers had extended their lead to 34-7.

Brown’s touchdown run and Williams’s pick-six finished off the scoring.

The Packers had more than 450 yards of offense and held the visitors from Irmo to just 59 yards through the air and another 130 on the ground.

Fann completed 18-of-27 passes for 240 yards and four touchdowns. He was intercepted twice.

The senior quarterback also carried the football eight times for 84 yards and one score.

Fann’s four touchdown passes give him 63 in his career. Only Chase Parrish, with 70, has more in Packers history.

The Packers will be back at The Mack at 7:30 p.m. Friday to face Stockbridge. The Tigers opened with a 36-28 victory over Douglas County on Saturday.

In Saturday’s first game of the Georgia-Carolina Challenge, Lowndes led 32-7 at the half and went on to defeat Christ School of Arden, N.C., 46-21. Jacurre Fleming scored three touchdowns for the Vikings.

Four of the five Region 1-7A teams won their season-openers with Camden County downing Columbia 23-12 and Richmond Hill taking down Effingham County 34-7 on Friday.

Only Valdosta lost, falling to Massillon, Ohio’s Washington High 28-17. The Wildcats led 14-0 in the first quarter after its trip to Ohio, but could not hold on.