LowcoSports.com
When the John Paul II Golden Warriors were at full strength this season — which wasn’t often — they were a problem, and that was the case Friday at Florence Christian.
Christian Tilton had a big game in his swansong for JPII, whose defense gave an outstanding effort in a 30-21 loss to the No. 2 seed Eagles in the first round of the SCISA 3A playoffs.
Tilton rushed for 109 yards and two touchdowns on 17 carries and was 2-for-2 passing for 67 yards and a touchdown. He opened the night with a 56-yard touchdown run and added another touchdown run on fourth-and-goal to give the Golden Warriors a 14-6 lead. But FCS rallied for two scores before halftime to take a 20-14 advantage to the break and added a sustained scoring drive coming out of the locker room to extend it to 27-14.
Tilton hit Jackson Sanders for a 49-yard touchdown to cut it to 27-21 going to the fourth, but the Lions mustered a field goal while keeping JPII (2-10) off the board in the final period to seal the win.
Brandyn Horton added 60 yards on 18 carries in addition to his contributions on defense, and Sanders had two catches for 59 yards and a score, while Sebastian Slusne and Alex Mercer each had 10 tackles to lead JPII on defense.
