Abbeville beats Cross 58-20 to claim Class A football state title

         Orangeburg – Jamie Nickles has seen a lot of successful execution of his game plans in his time as the football head coach at Abbeville High School.

         However, even he was impressed with what he saw from the Panthers in the Class A state championship game on Thursday.

         “They were unstoppable at times,” Nickles said. “They really executed the A bone as well as you could.”

         “The A” ran up 429 rushing yards and fihsined with 510 yards of total offense as it defeated Cross 58-20 on Willie E. Jeffries Field at South Carolina State University’s Oliver C. Dawson Stadium to win its ninth state title in 15 years.

         Abbeville, which finished the year with a 13-1 record, spread the wealth on the ground. Quarterback Demarcus Leach ran for 118 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries, running back Di’Marius Burton had 91 yards and one score on seven carries, Karson Norman had 16 carries for 84 yards and a TD, and Darius Riley had 14 carries for 79 yards and a TD.

         Leach, who has signed to play with the University of South Carolina, said he and his teammates simply executed the game plan presented to them.

“We just did everything we knew we had to do,” Leach said. “The coaches drew up the game plan and I trusted it. We don’t ever question it. I just go do it and it worked out pretty good.

"It’s just matter of doing whatever the coaches want us to do. I know they have our best interest. They want us to win it all, so I never question what the game plan is. I just go in and do what they ask me to do.”

And when the Panther coaches asked Leach to throw the football, he did OK in that department as well. Leach completed 3 of 5 passes for 81 yards, one of them a 74-yard TD pass to wide receiver Jaden Baylor.

That gave Leach 199 yards of total offense. Nickles said it would take awhile to discuss what Leach has meant to AHS.

“Oh my goodness, we don’t have that much time,” Nickles said. “He’s meant so much to our program, so much to me personally, so much to our coaching staff. He’s just fun. He works out hard in the weight room, and I wish nothing but the best for him.”

Abbeville led just 7-6 entering the second quarter before putting up 23 points in the second quarter to take a 30-12 halftime advantage. Trojans head coach Shaun Wright pointed out that was nothing out of the norm for the Panthers.

“I feel like defensively we were just on our heels most of that second quarter,” said Wright, whose team finished with an 11-3 record. “We did try to tighten it up right before the half and make it interesting, but they came out and punched it in and that’s what they do. That’s a credit to Abbeville. They’ve been doing that to everybody all year long.”

AHS outscored the opposition by almost 500 points on the season. It allowed just 230 points while scoring 710.

         It was CHS that scored the first points though. Cross received the opening kickoff, and William Grant returned it 45 yards to the Abbeville 31-yard line. The Trojans then gave the ball to star running back Karmello Jones five straight times. The final one went for 16 yards and the touchdown. After a missed extra point attempt, the score was 6-0 with 9:00 left in the first quarter.

         Nickles pointed out that the Panthers had trailed by double digits in two of their four playoff games, so there was no panic.

         “When we got down 6-0, they didn’t blink,” Nickles said. “They just went to work.”

         “We just know we need to keep working, keep grinding,” said senior defensive back Levi Paul. “It’s bend, but don’t break.”

         The Panthers didn’t break again and didn’t bend that much, for that matter. Cross rushed for 109 yards and had 89 passing yards for 198 total yards.

         Meanwhile, Abbeville responded with a 10-play, 68-yard scoring drive on its initial possession. The touchdown came on a 16-yard run by Riley. Parker Henderson added the PAT to make it 7-6 with 5:09 left.

         The Panthers forced a 3-downs-and-out series for CHS on the ensuing possession. A 29-yard punt gave AHS a short field as it started at the Cross 37. Abbeville used nine plays to score with Leach going in from five yards out. Leach then run for the 2-point conversion to make it 15-6 with 1:47 to go in the second quarter.

         Trojans quarterback Tyler Harris was intercepted by Norman on the first play of the next drive and the Panthers started at the CHS 35. Norman got to do the honors to complete the drive, scoring from two yards out. Leach had another conversion run to make it 23-6 with 9:11 remaining in the first half.

         Cross was on the move the next time it got the football, reching the AHS 29. However, Leach intercepted a pass and returned it 81 yards to the Cross 16. Running back Jha’Louis Hadden scored from five yards to make it 30-6.

         “We just made some turnovers, some costly turnovers, that I thought gave them a short field,” Wright said. “A team like that you can’t give them anything. You have to make them earn everything.”

         The Trojans managed to cut the lead to 30-12 at halftime as Harris connected with wide receiver Caden Ramsey for a 46-yard touchdown pass.

         Any comeback hopes the Trojans may have entertained were shot down as Abbeville receied the second-half kickoff. The Panthers put together a 10-pay drive that ended with a a 40-yard touchdown from Leach.

         AHS scored twice more in the third quarter, a 23-yard run by Hadden and the TD pass from Leach to Baylor, who also finished with an interception on defense. When Burton scored on a 25-yard run early in the fourth quarter to make ot 56-12, that instituted the start of the running clock for the remainder of the game.

         MahKy Green had a 49-yard run for the Trojans’ final touchdown. Harris then threw to Ramsey for the 2-point conversion.

         Green ended up with a team high 62 yards. Jones, who entered the game with 1,881 yards, finished with 54 on 11 carries.

Harris completed 5 of 14 passs for 89 yards and a TD against three picks. Ramsey had three catches for 76 yards. Ramsey also had nine tackles on defense, while Preston Fuller had seven.

Despite the loss, Wright had nothing but praise for the season the Trojans had.

“We’re grateful that we were able to represent the lower state in this game,” he said. “These seniors, the five that we have, those guys played hard all year long, played with a lot of character, good character.

“We’re just going to let this one sit for a while and get back to work and see if we can get back here again.”

The state title was the 13th in school history for Abbeville. The Panthers have won seven in the past 10 years with four of those coming in succession, 2015 through 2018.

Leach said he will always remember being part of two title teams.

“Playing for Abbeville was a dream growing up,” he said. “To be able to come and win a state championship my senior year and win another as a sophomore is a great feeling. There is no better feeling.”

“It means so much, just to win with these guys,” said Paul, who finished with two tackles. “I love all my guys. We’re bringing the trophy home.”