Reeltown grinds way into semifinals

REFORM — If old-school football is dead, someone forgot to tell Jackie O’Neal.

In an era where the spread offense and basketball-esque point totals are all the rage, O’Neal’s Reeltown Rebels proved on a chilly Friday night that the Wishbone offense and a stifling defense can still produce winning football.

The Rebels outlasted home-standing Pickens County, 15-7, in the Class 2A state quarterfinals at G.S. Spruill Stadium.

Reeltown, now 12-1 and seeking its first state title since 2001, moves on to the state semifinals, where it will host two-time defending 2A champion Leroy.

Pickens County finished its season 11-2.

“We kind of thought it would be a defensive game coming in,” O’Neal said. “They were giving up something like 11 points per game, and we were giving up 6.5. We didn’t think it would be an offensive explosion. We were putting 10 people in the box, so that was making it hard on them.”

Reeltown set the defensive tone for the game early on as Willie McKenzie intercepted a Deion Curry pass on Pickens County’s second play from scrimmage.

The harassment never stopped.

Pickens County, which put up 26 points on Isabella the week before, never could find its footing against a defense that was just as quick and athletic as it was.

“There was a lot of hitting going on out there,” O’Neal said.

Pickens County could muster only 174 yards of total offense and was held scoreless for almost three full quarters of play.

It’s not that the Tornadoes were completely stagnant offensively. They moved the ball at times, but in critical situations, Reeltown would come through with a timely sack or Pickens County would hurt itself with a penalty.

“They just played great defense all night,” Pickens County coach Patrick Plott said. “We just never got going offensively.”

Reeltown got all the points it would need with 2:02 left in the first quarter when Anarius White tossed a 9-yard touchdown pass to Calan Waver and then Joshua Newman ran in the 2-point conversion.

The Tornadoes answered back early in the second quarter with a 2-yard touchdown run by Reggie Jones. Keith Hall’s PAT cut the deficit to 8-7, but that’s as close as Pickens County would get.

With 3:41 remaining in the second quarter, Ki-shawn Powell peeled off a 25-yard touchdown run to make it 15-7 at the break.

Neither team generated much offense in the second half, although Pickens County did provide some late-game drama with one last offensive push.

Curry hit a couple of big pass plays to help move the Tornadoes to the Reeltown 36, but a block-in-the-back penalty killed the Tornadoes’ momentum.

On fourth-and-long, Curry threw incomplete, turning the ball over to Reeltown with 1:49 remaining and sealing the outcome.

“That’s just the way this team is,” Plott said. “We never quit, and I’m proud of them for that.”

McKenzie finished with 74 yards on 17 carries to pace Reeltown’s Wishbone attack, while the super elusive White added 61 yards on 14 carries. The Rebels finished with 204 yards on the ground.

“I’ve been dancing with that girl for a long time, and I’m not about to get rid of her now,” O’Neal said of the Wishbone offense, which he’s been running for 20 years.