The Timberland Wolves overwhelmed visiting Burke on Friday to open a new era with a 30-0 victory.
It was the first win in St. Stephen for Wolves coach Gregory Wright, who took over the program when longtime coach Art Craig left for Hanahan after 19 seasons.
“It’s definitely good to get a shutout,” he said. “When you keep people off the board it gives you a chance to be successful.”
The Wolves got multiple hats to the ball all night in recording the shutout and limiting the Bulldogs to negative yardage. Timberland has outscored Burke 120-0 in the last three meetings.
Sophomore linebacker Omari Jenkins led the way with 11 tackles, while senior linebacker Jermayne Wigfall made six stops. Senior defensive tackle Sam Moultrie and sophomore linebacker Langston Reed added five tackles each. Senior linebacker Chris Williams and senior defensive end Jamaal McKinney chipped in four tackles apiece.
McKinney sacked the quarterback twice and Williams recovered a fumble. The Wolves also recorded a safety.
“There were definitely a lot of bright spots,” Wright said.
Offensively, Williams was the catalyst for freshman quarterback Kylen Brown and a new group of offensive linemen. He rushed 17 times for 98 yards and three touchdowns while junior running back Roman Wadford tacked on the other touchdown and returned two punts for 84 yards.
Junior kicker Tyrese Shirer booted a couple extra points.
Timberland hosts Lake Marion on Friday. The two teams have not met since 2017, when the Wolves won 54-0 in Santee to earn Craig his 200th career victory.
Timberland won all six encounters from 2012-2017 and four of those were shutouts for the Wolves.
“They’ve got a young group,” Wright said. “Numbers might be an issue for them but we don’t take anybody for granted. It doesn’t matter if it’s a state championship or a scrimmage we’re going to bring our hard hat and go to work.”
The Wolves play at Philip Simmons on Oct. 16.
“We’ve got some small things we want to clean up: technique stuff here and there and some missed assignments” Wright said. “There is always room for improvement.”
