White Knoll’s historic season rolls into state title game. Irmo’s magic ends in semis
The White Knoll football faithful could sense victory as the home scoreboard ticked under one minute.
1:01, 1:00, 0:59, 0:58 ...
“One more minute, fellas!” yelled a fan from the front row of The Bank, the Timberwolves’ home stadium in the Red Bank community in Lexington County.
Summerville converted a fourth-down try, but the White Knoll defense halted the Green Wave’s next three attempts and forced another do-or-die situation.
“One more play!” that same fan yelled.
On that fourth-down play, White Knoll corner Caleb Geronomi broke up a Summerville pass attempt to send the Timberwolves (14-0) to a pretty special place: the program’s first state championship appearance.
White Knoll defeated Summerville, 21-14, in the lower state finals Friday. They’ll face region foe Dutch Fork in the Class 5A state championship at 8 p.m. Dec. 1. That game will be played in Orangeburg at S.C. State’s Oliver C. Dawson Stadium.
“One more week,” White Knoll coach Nick Pelham said after Friday’s win, a nod to what he’s asked of the team about waiting until the season’s end to full relive and appreciate the Timberwolves’ historic run.
Pelham, a self-admitted “very negative person,” said his postgame message to his players through many of their 13 previous wins this year might’ve sounded something like this: “That wasn’t great.” Or, “That wasn’t good enough.”
“I’m not going to say that tonight,” he said Friday. “I’m going to say, ‘Great job. Celebrate with your family. Celebrate with all the people that came to White Knoll tonight. Enjoy it and we’re going to get back to work Sunday.’ ”
And for a solid 30 to 45 minutes Friday night, Pelham and the Timberwolves soaked in the moment worth celebrating on their home field with hundreds of fans, friends and family.
Was this the scene Pelham envisioned when he took over the program ahead of the 2021 season?
“I’ve tried really hard not to look ahead. I’ve tried really hard not to think about what this would be like,” Pelham said. “But to see people proud of being from White Knoll and proud of being from Red Bank, it’s unbelievable.”
Quarterback Landon Sharpe completed a touchdown pass (to wide receiver CJ Earl) and ran for a score in Friday’s win. Tailback Tiyon Fanning added 62 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Linebacker Mondo Domenech’s fourth-quarter interception set up White Knoll’s fourth-quarter score that put the team up 21-7 with under eight minutes to play.
The Timberwolves’ playoff run includes wins over Cane Bay, Fort Dorchester, Sumter and now Summerville. They’ll face perennial state title contender and region foe Dutch Fork next week for the Class 5A championship.
White Knoll defeated Dutch Fork, 17-14, in their Oct. 6 region matchup. Pelham worked as a Dutch Fork assistant for five seasons before taking over the Timberwolves’ program.
“It’s amazing: White Knoll is going to the state championship in 5A,” Pelham expressed with a sort of “Pinch me, I’m dreaming” tone. “Now it’s my job that our kids enjoy it, but we’ve got get back to work. We’ve got one more to do this right, to finish this story. It would be a shame if we didn’t finish this off the right way. And that’s my job to make sure we do so.”
Class 4A: South Florence 28, Irmo 21
Irmo’s shot at an unbeaten season and first championship appearance since 2010 ended at the hands of the South Florence Bruins.
South Florence jumped out to a 28-7 lead Friday and held off a fourth-quarter Yellow Jackets rally to win the Class 4A lower state championship. The Bruins (14-0) will face Westside in the state title game Dec. 2 at noon.
Irmo (13-1) trailed 28-7 to start the fourth quarter, but quarterback AJ Brand threw a pair of touchdown passes, the second a 58-yarder to Donovan Murph, to cut the deficit to 28-21 with 3:18 left.
Irmo got the ball back one more time and started the drive on the SF 43. But a Bruins sack pushed Irmo back and Brand was incomplete on fourth-and-18 to end it.
