Lake City at Wilson notes

South Carolina State’s Marching 101 provided the music for Thursday night’s game be-tween Wilson and Lake City.
For the first half of Wilson’s 27-7 win, though, it seemed to me that both teams were paying more attention to S.C. State’s Champagne Girls than the game itself. In fairness to the teams, however, both defenses showed up.
Wilson’s defense keyed on Lake City’s budding superstar Shon Carson all game. If Car-son had the ball, there were at least four Tigers in the area ready to punish him for carry-ing it.
On the other side of the ball, however, Wilson had trouble closing the deal. The Tigers spent most of the first half in Panther territory but they only got seven points on five drives that ended within Lake City’s 30-yard line.
That could be a problem for Wilson. The Tigers next two games are against Crestwood and Marlboro County, and Darryl Page’s team needs to finish drives when they get op-portunities.
The Panthers have bigger issues to deal with. Head coach Justin Gentry told me after the game that his team’s loss to Crestwood last Friday left his team deflated as they entered the Wilson game.
However, he also said to me that they did not lose that game. They were victims of a bad call in overtime that went the Knights’ way. While that may be true, Lake City wouldn’t have been in that position if they had held on to a 28-6 fourth-quarter lead. Take care of business on your end, and you won’t have to worry about the refs hosing you later.
The Panthers need to wake up, and fast. Next Friday’s game at the condemned graveyard known as Darlington could very well determine the final playoff spot out of Region 5-3A, and Gentry needs to have his team ready.

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