Lights out! Dutch Fork defense dominates Fort Dorchester in third-round playoff win
Home or road, it doesn’t matter for the Dutch Fork football team.
The nationally-ranked Silver Foxes extended their unbeaten streak to 38 games with a 48-0 win at Fort Dorchester on Friday in the Class 5A playoffs.
Dutch Fork hosts Carolina Forest next week with a trip to the state title on the line. The Silver Foxes are going for their fourth straight championship.
“We picked a good time to play lights out,” Dutch Fork coach Tom Knotts said. “Our defense was incredible, turnovers, big hits and taking care of their responsibilities. Our offense was solid and meticulous and took care of the ball. I was really pleased.”
Dutch Fork running back Jon Hall ran for 188 yards and four touchdowns and the Silver Foxes turned in a suffocating performance on defense. Tyrik McDaniel picked off two passes, returning one 40 yards for a TD to make it 28-0 early in the third quarter.
McDaniel’s TD came two plays after Fort Dorchester returned the opening kickoff of the second half for a touchdown. But it was called back because of holding.
Except for one drive in the first quarter, Dutch Fork dominated. The Silver Foxes held the Patriots to just 91 yards of offense with 59 coming on one drive in the first quarter. That drive ended with McDaniel’s first interception of the game.
Dutch Fork turned that turnover into a touchdown with a 1-yard run by Hall to make it 13-0.
“Coach Pelham always puts into a good defensive plan and they by into it and they get after it,” Knotts said. “We were all over the field, we were everywhere and they didn’t know where we were coming from Made it easy to play offense. They gave their best shot at first but we settled down and the defense did a great job.”
McDaniel credited the team’s defensive performance to practice and film study during the week.
“Every week, we are trying to grow better and better,” McDaniel said. “We balled out and did what were supposed to do every single play in practice and showed on the field.”
The Silver Foxes also relied more heavily on their ground game, led by Hall. The senior finished with 188 yards on 19 carries.
Hall scored his second TD of the half on a 2-yard run with 59 seconds left. He added two more in the second half, the last one coming on a 50-yard run a play after a fake punt to make it 48-0 with 10:04 left.
Dutch Fork quarterback Ty Olenchuk was 11-of-23 for 123 yards and a TD.
Scoring summary
DF 7 13 21 7 - 48
FD 0 0 0 0 - 0
First Quarter
DF - Hyatt 5 pass from Olenchuk (Newboult kick), 7:47
Second Quarter
DF - Hall 1 run (kick failed), 11:15
DF - Hall 2 run (Newboult kick), 0:59
Third quarter
DF - McDaniel 40 interception (Newboult kick), 11:01
DF - Hall 30 run (Newboult kick), 7:47
DF - Taylor 1 run (Newboult kick), 1:52
Fourth Quarter
DF - Hall 50 run (Newboult kick), 10:04
Individual statistics
Rushing - DF: Hall 19-188, Olenchuk 9-43, Knights 3-14 Hyatt 1-8, Taylor 4-8. FD: Sabb 12-32, Wright 7-25, Wilder 2-18, Simmons 1-3
Passing - DF: Olenchuk 11-20-0 123. FD: Sabb 3-6-2 34, Osborne 3-8-1 (1-1)
Receiving - DF: Spencer 3-28, Hyatt 3-23 , Spencer, Wilkinson 2-30 Jacobs 1-23, Hall 1-10, Green 1-9. FD: Simmons 3-2, Desaussure 1-18, Washington 1-15
This story was originally published November 22, 2019 at 10:52 PM.
