Hammond heavyweights! Skyhawks win fifth straight championship
New coach, same ending for the Hammond football team.
The Skyhawks won their fifth straight SCISA Class 3A championship with a 48-15 win over Trinity Collegiate on Friday at Charleston Southern. It is the school’s 19th state championship in football, and 13th since 2006.
But it is the first for Jon Wheeler, who was named coach on Jan. 8 when Erik Kimrey left to become tight ends coach at South Carolina after leading the Skyhawks to 12 titles in 17 seasons. Wheeler was at Hammond as an assistant for two different stints, the most recent in 2015-16.
As the seconds ticked down, Hammond players drenched Wheeler with the Gatorade shower and Wheeler soaked in the moment watching his players get the championship in the postgame celebration.
“Not a lot of people believed they could do it without coach Kimrey for good reason because of who coach Kimrey was,” Wheeler said. “It is a testament of coach Kimrey and the culture he left behind with these assistant coaches and players. They deserved all the credit and that is the God’s honest truth.”
Trinity led 15-14 halftime but Hammond’s defense shut out the Titans in the second half. The Skyhawks’ defense has been outstanding for much of the year. Hammond came into the game giving up just 31 points all season and 120.1 yards a game.
Quarterback Dylan Richardson was 14-of-18 for 287 yards and three touchdowns. Richardson also ran for three scores.
The junior began the year at safety but was moved to quarterback after an injury to Jack Weston against Oct. 8 against First Baptist. Richardson said Wheeler told him to be ready at the beginning of the year in case McCall went down, and put in extra time getting ready.
“Coach Wheeler came to at beginning of season and said if Jack goes down you have to be our guy. I just kind of laughed at him because I never played quarterback before.,” Richardson said. “So, I started throwing with Jack every day, and Jack helped me learn the signals when he went down. Coach Wilson brought me in his office every day, ran me through plays and made sure I knew the signals. It was all them. I just had to put it everyone was and they had to do everything else.”
Weston, who returned at the end of season, caught an 81-yard touchdown pass from Richardson in the second half.
With Trinity content on stopping Hammond running back and Michigan commit CJ Stokes, that opened the deep passing game for the Skyhawks in the second half. Richardson connected with Cam Scott on three long passes in the second half, including two for touchdowns as Hammond pulled away.
Scott finished with six catches for 135 yards. Weston had three catches for 112 yards.
“We made a few adjustments knowing we couldn’t run the ball as good,” Scott said. “Knowing we had to go over the top, I made most of my opportunities. It is just instinct for me to go drive for the ball or go get it wherever it is.”
Stokes finished with 62 yards rushing and TD to cap off the Skyhawks’ scoring in the fourth quarter.
This was the second meeting between the two teams. Hammond won, 14-0, at Trinity on Oct. 1. That was one of the Skyhawks’ seven shutouts of the year.
The Titans jumped out to a lead on their drive as Carter Hardee scored on a 1-yard run and two-point conversion made it 8-0.
Hammond answered with a pair of Richardson touchdown runs to put the Skyhawks up 14-8 with 8:36 in the second. The Titans took the lead back late in the second quarter on Hardee’s pass to Reggion Bennett to make it 15-14 with 1:50 left in the second quarter.
Bennett, who has rushed for 6,000 yards in his career, was held to 46 yarrds. The Titans played most of game without 1,000-yard rusher Tre McLeod, who left game in the first quarter with a hamstring injury.
Scoring Summary
FIRST QUARTER
TC - Hardee 1 run (McLeod run), 6:08
SECOND QUARTER
H -- Richardson 1 run (Aiden Palisin kick), 9:45
H -- Richardson 3 run (Palisin kick), 8:36
TC -- Bennett 13 pass from Hardee (Cam Jordan kick), 1:50
THIRD QUARTER
H -- Richardson 1 run (Richardson kick), 10:35
H -- Jack Weston 81 pass from Richardson (pass failed), 2:49
FOURTH QUARTER
H -- Scott 16 pass from Richardson (Richardson kick), 10:21
H -- Scott 36 pass from Richardson (Richardson kick), 7:21
H -- C.J. Stokes 7 run (Palisin kick), 2:05
This story was originally published November 19, 2021 at 9:50 PM.
