Eagles soar for last laugh

Two years removed from 31-game losing streak, Scott’s Branch wins state title

By STEVE WISEMAN - swiseman@ thestate.com

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ORANGEBURG — Scott’s Branch High’s football turnaround is complete.

Saddled with a 31-game losing streak two years ago, the Eagles took home the big trophy Friday night.

Quinten Singleton’s two fourth-quarter touchdowns, including a 34-yard, game-winning scamper with 1:11 to play, lifted Scott’s Branch to a 14-6 victory against Williston-Elko in the Class A Division II state championship game at Oliver C. Dawson Stadium.

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“We worked hard for this,” said Singleton, a junior running back. “We worked for two years to stop being a laughingstock of the state. Now we’ve proven ourselves.”

The Eagles seniors experienced most of the grief that came with the losing streak, which Scott’s Branch ended in 2006. But it was younger players, Singleton and freshman defensive back Johnny Williams, who turned in the biggest plays that delivered the school’s first state football championship.

Singleton rushed for 115 yards, giving him 2,395 for the season. His two touchdowns increased his season total to 29.

Williams intercepted two passes, including one with 49 seconds left that ended Williston-Elko’s final possession. Williams also picked up Dexter Staley’s fumble at the Scott’s Branch 30 with 3:04 to play.

“I had a feeling he was going to have a good night,” Scott’s Branch coach Leonard Johnson said. “I just didn’t know if it was going to be on defense or offense. I felt he was going to have a breakout game.”

That breakout game broke Williston-Elko’s heart as the Blue Devils fell short of their first state championship since 1980.

Staley’s 3-yard touchdown run in the first quarter gave Williston-Elko a 6-0 lead which it carried into the fourth quarter. By that time, however, Scott’s Branch’s massive offensive line, featuring three players more than 300 pounds, began to assert itself.

Singleton knotted the score at 6 with a 3-yard touchdown run with 5:19 that completed an 8-play, 49-yard touchdown drive.

“We stayed on the field way too much on defense,” Williston-Elko coach Dwayne Garrick said. “As big as those guys are, I knew they were going to pop one sooner or later.”

Williston-Elko threw a counter-punch at the Eagles behind Staley’s hard running. The sophomore, who gained a game-high 120 yards, broke free on a 21-yard run into Scott’s Branch territory.

But Staley was stopped on what turned out to be the two biggest defensive plays of the game.

On third-and-3 from the 32, Staley was stopped after a 2-yard gain. On fourth down, he appeared to have enough for the first down. But the ball came loose and Williams recovered.

Singleton took over from there. He ran the ball four consecutive times to the Williston-Elko 34, where Scott’s Branch faced fourth-and-2.

With 1:11 to play, Singleton ran into the line and appeared to be stopped. But he squirted through and sprinted 34 yards for the game-winning touchdown.

“I just kept my legs moving,” Singleton said. “I had my head down. When I looked up, I saw the open lane and I started running as hard as I could.”

Reach Wiseman at 803-771-8472