Two wins is all that separates Scotland County from its first football state championship. Not a bad achievement for a program just two seasons removed from a 2-9 record.
Since opening in the fall of 1967, Scotland County has not played for a football state title, while its neighbor to the west— Richmond Senior — has won seven championships and finished second another time.
The Fighting Scots are close to ending a countywide 67-year championship drought. The last squad to capture a title from Scotland County was Laurinburg High School in 1944. The Scots edged Reidsville, 8-7, to win the Class A crown. The following year, Reidsville gained a bit of revenge and blanked Laurinburg, 27-0.
Those Scots appeared in five Class A championship games from 1941 to 1948, winning two titles, finishing as runner-up twice and splitting the other crown with Reidsville after a 6-all tie in 1943.
And now under the leadership of Chip Williams, Scotland County is poised to complete an undefeated season and hoist the trophy at BB&T Field in Winston-Salem in two weeks.
Williams and the Fighting Scots stopped defending 4A champion Hillside last week in decisive fashion. Scotland County scored the game’s first five touchdowns to cruise to a 35-7 victory. The Hornets may not have been the same team without last season’s star Vad Lee, but they rolled into Pate Stadium riding an 11-game winning streak since losing in the opener to New Bern.
The 35 points was the most allowed by the stingy Hillside all season. There was one point in the game when the Hornets knew there was no way it was going to stop Scotland’s high-powered offensive attack.
In the second quarter, Hillside appeared to have quarterback Kwashaun Quick corralled in the backfield for an 8-yard loss when the Shrine Bowl-selection slipped out of a handful of tackles and fired a strike to a teammate for a first down. As one of the Hornets was making the tackle downfield, he looked up with an expression of disbelief on his face, wondering how Quick was able to break away and make a play. It was the same look players from Richmond, Lumberton, Purnell Swett and the rest of Scotland’s opponents wore after facing the Fighting Scots.
Friday’s opponent New Bern could be the next to don the popular expression if Quick and the latest incarnation of the “Greatest Show on Turf” continue to fire on all cylinders.
— Sports editor Shawn Stinson can be reached at 910-997-3111, ext. 14, or by email at sstinson@heartlandpublications.com
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