The Lexington Wildcats knew going into their first-round playoff game at Fort Mill that they had a tall task ahead of them.  

The Yellow Jackets are one of the top-ranked teams in the state and were hungry for their first playoff win in nearly thirty years.  The Wildcats were also banged up after a tough loss to River Bluff in the regular season finale last week. 

If Lexington was going to pull off the upset, they’d have to be at the top of their game.

Instead, the Wildcats committed four turnovers, could not get their offense going until it was too late and could not stop a Fort Mill ground game that ran over the team’s defensive line.  

In the end, Lexington was too young, made too many mistakes, and lost the game 58-21.

“I was asked what the keys to victory were, and some were going to be tangible and some were going to be intangible.” Lexington coach Stewart Young said after the game.  “The tangibles we did not reach.  We turned the ball over four times, three inside our own twenty, and you can’t do that and beat that team”

Lexington’s first mistake came on the third play of the game, when quarterback Easton Crocker threw his first interception.  Fort Mill returned the ball to the Wildcats seventeen-yard line, then scored three plays later.  With less than two minutes gone in the game, Lexington trailed seven-nothing.  

Lexington’s defense kept them in the game early.  On Fort Mill’s second drive of the game, the defense forced fumbles on back-to-back plays, recovering the second one at the Fort Mill one-yard line.  

From there, Zy’ron Whitt ran it in from one yard out, and the game was tied at seven halfway through the first quarter.

On the following Fort Mill possession, the Wildcat defense once again played tough, forcing a punt.  However, Ian Danson muffed the catch, setting up the Yellow Jackets with a short field again.  Another touchdown, followed by another one after another Crocker interception, and Lexington trailed 21 to 7 at the end of the first quarter.

The second quarter was not much better for Lexington. They gave up two more scores, including on a play where the Fort Mill quarterback fumbled a handoff attempt, but recovered the ball and found a wide-open receiver in the end zone for a touchdown.  

The Wildcats got stuffed on a fourth-down conversion attempt in their own territory, and could only manage 25 yards of total offense in the quarter.  At the break, it was 35 to 7.

In the second half, the Fort Mill size advantage really started to show.  The Yellow Jackets adopted a run-heavy offense, and their size on the offensive line allowed their running backs the chance to get to the second and third layers of the Lexington defense before being stopped.  Both Fort Mill possessions in the third quarter resulted in points.  

With the score 45-7 late in the third quarter, the Lexington offense finally put a quality drive together.  The Wildcats marched 69 yards down the field on a ten-play drive, ending with Easton Crocker calling his own number and scrambling into the end zone from four yards out. Lexington trailed 45-14.

Fort Mill would respond on their next drive by handing the ball off seven straight times to backup running back Aiden O’hara.  He accounted for all seventy-six of the Yellow Jackets' yards on the drive, and scored on a 5-yard run.  

Lexington would answer with an impressive 44-yard scoring run from Sannon Lytes.  However, O’Hara would score again on the final Fort Mill possession of the game.  Lexington’s next drive ran out the clock in the game and on their season.  

The Wildcats finish their season with a 6-5 record, their first winning season since 2023.  They also return plenty of talent next season.  

In spite of the rough end, Lexington Coach Stewart Young says there’s plenty to build on for next season.

“This season was a lot of fun.  We took huge steps in the right direction.  We doubled our win total from last season and beat some teams we didn’t beat the year before.  We got a chance to build on it for sure.”

For Fort Mill, their first playoff win in 28 years gets them a trip to Irmo to take on Dutch Fork in the second round of the playoffs.  The Yellow Jackets offense will pose a challenge to a Silver Foxes defense that has given up more than 20 points only once this season.