On Cloud 9: Dutch Fork defeats Summerville to win latest football state championship

The Dutch Fork football dynasty rolls on.

The Silver Foxes captured their third straight championship and ninth overall with a 35-21 victory on Friday over Summerville in the Class 5A Division I title game at S.C. State’s Oliver Dawson Stadium.

All nine of Dutch Fork’s championships have come since 2013. The title is head coach Tom Knotts’ 16th of his career. He won seven championships in North Carolina before taking over the Dutch Fork program in 2011.

Dutch Fork’s nine state championship tie them for sixth all-time in state history with Clinton, which won the 2A championship on Thursday. Knotts’ nine state championships in S.C. are one behind former Summerville’s John McKissick and Willie Varner’s 10 titles.

“There was a good foundation when I got here. We just needed to take it over the top, and I think we have done that,” Knotts said. “The climb to the top of the mountain is much easier than staying on the top. We got to find ways to innovate and keep them motivated.”

Knotts will find ways from Friday’s game to keep the team motivated. He admitted he wasn’t pleased with how his team played near the end of the game with several penalties but said “They will be adressed.”

Dutch Fork battled through all kinds of challenges last season in wining the title, but this year’s championship largely happened more in dominant fashion. The Silver Foxes wrapped their fifth perfect season and used a record-setting defense to do it.

Dutch Fork recorded a school-record six shutouts and had given up just 73 points coming into the championship game. The 94 points given up this season ties the school record mark set in 2020, which was done in just 10 games.

Quarterback Ethan Offing threw for 252 yards and two touchdowns on Friday. The junior Clemson baseball commit missed last year’s title game with an injury but shined in moments against the Green Wave.

Running back Maurice Anderson rushed for 146 yards and three touchdowns. It was Anderson’s fourth 100-yard rushing game of the season.

Summerville, which was making its first title appearance since 2007, tested the vaunted Silver Foxes in every way. Dutch Fork trailed 14-6 in the second quarter after Jayven Williams’ 43-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter.

But Dutch Fork answered when Offing hit Boykin Bickley on a 19-yard TD pass. Bickley finished with seven catches for 149 yards.

“We have good chemistry together, and it paid off,” Offing said of Bickley. “He’s a great player. College coaches pick him up. He is dynamic.”

The Silver Foxes took a 21-14 lead on Anderson’s 8-yard run with 1 minute, 53 seconds left in the second quarter.

Summerville played much of the game without starting quarterback Jaden Cummings, who left the game with an apparent knee injury near the end of the first quarter. The Dartmouth signee and North-South all-star selection came into the game with 2,329 yards and 30 touchdowns.

Cummings had an 18-yard pass to Jaiden Kelly-Murray to put Summerville up 7-6 in the first quarter.

Cummings was replaced by junior Cooper Kafina, who played well in the senior’s absence. Kafina hit a wide open Kelly-Murray on a 77-yard touchdown pass to cut Dutch Fork’s lead to 28-21 with 6:28 left in the third.

Summerville got the ball back on its own 20 with 7:07 left and a chance to go down and tie the game. But Dutch Fork’s Julian Walker had pair of sacks and forced a Green Wave punt.

“We needed to make a play to end that game the way it did,” Walker said. “They were driving down the field on us with big plays, so we were like go make the stop and that is what we did.”

The Silver Foxes sealed it on the next drive as Anderson scored on a 38-yard touchdown run with 2:07 left.

“We knew we were a great team, so we needed to keep fighting and keep playing hard. That’s what we did,” Offing said.

Kafina finished with 173 yards passing with Kelly-Murray finishing with seven catches for 152 yards. Williams rushed for 133 yards.