Watkins keeps Rebels on title track

When Strom Thurmond High School head coach Lee Sawyer addressed his team before Friday night's game with Emerald, he didn't shy away from the thing that was on all his players' minds - the loss of the Rebels' top offensive threat, Darius Hammond, with an ankle injury.

The veteran coach told his team that without Hammond - who ended the season with 775 rushing yards and 384 receiving yards, along with being one of the biggest return threats in the state - every player would have to pick up some of the slack.

"Nobody has to do it all," said Sawyer. "But everybody has to raise their level of play to make up for one of the pieces that is gone."

Apparently Malcolm Watkins wasn't listening. The senior running back didn't wait for his teammates to replace some of the missing production. Instead, he took care of it himself.

Now the featured back in the STHS offense, Watkins rushed for 164 yards and a pair of touchdowns on just 17 carries to lead the Rebels to a 49-21 victory and clinch a spot in the Class AA, Division I semifinals against Woodruff. He also earned Aiken Standard Player of the Week honors in the process.

"We definitely needed him to step up," said Sawyer. "He kind of accepted the challenge and put the team on his back. That was huge, and we needed it.

"He doesn't say a whole lot, but you could tell that he knew he had to be the man."

Watkins set that tone on the fourth play of the game when he took a handoff from quarterback Raleigh Yeldell and broke through the Emerald line and into the secondary. The play ended when he plowed over an Emerald safety, leaving the defender flat on his back.

That play sent a message about what to expect the rest of the way, and it wasn't until Monday morning that Sawyer learned that it was a planned delivery from his senior.

"Coach, I saw the safety there, and I could have put a move on him," Watkins told Sawyer. "But I just decided I was going to run him over, so he could understand what he was in for."

That painful reminder may not have even been necessary if Emerald watched much tape. It's not as if Watkins came out of nowhere. He's the team's leading rusher with 988 yards and 16 touchdowns on 134 attempts.

"I guess Darius is a little more flash, because he catches the ball out of the backfield and is big in the return game," said Sawyer. "So people kind of forget that Malcolm has been our leading rusher.

"He had a pretty decent year for us last year, but his vision has gotten so much better. He's made some unbelievable cuts. If nothing else, I think he's a lot more comfortable in the offense. He's learned where his cutback lanes are, and he's seeing them. He's always been strong, but he's developed a good ability to see things a little better."

Now, with Hammond out and Strom Thurmond facing an undefeated Woodruff team with a trip to the state title game at Benedict College on the line, Watkins is going to have to do even more.

"He's going to be asked to catch the ball more, and he's going to have to carry the ball more, too," said Sawyer. "His touches are going to have to be more and more.

"I think he can do it. We're going to find out."

Woodruff just hopes it doesn't get the answer the same way Emerald did.