On a Cool October Friday Night in 2011, Twelve Seconds Changed the Entire Course of the Wolverines’ Magical Season
By: Garrett Mitchell, Staff Writer
What could you do in 12 seconds?
How quickly could you react? How fast could you run? Could you alter the course of history in such a small amount of time?
Ken Drummond did.
The scene was not an unfamiliar one. Friday, October 14, 2011, was your typical brisk autumn night at W.L. Varner Stadium, with a packed house cheering on one of Woodruff’s most dynamic teams in the program’s storied history. On the other side of the field were the upstart Saluda Tigers, a team intent on writing their own narrative and playing spoilers to a Wolverine squad that was 7-0, ranked among the top three teams in 2A, and who seemed well on their way to another region championship and potential state championship run.
Only things do not always go as planned.
On this night, Saluda was on the verge of shocking the South Carolina high school football world. For three quarters, the Tigers’ defense had stymied and stuffed a Woodruff offense which entered the evening averaging a staggering 45 points per game. As the fourth quarter commenced, Saluda possessed the ball at the Wolverines’ 1-yard line, facing a fourth and goal, leading 7-6.
At best, a stop would give Woodruff the ball back, but with 99 yards in front of them and an offense that had been unable to find its footing, that seemed like a daunting task. It was a conundrum totally foreign to Brian Lane and his team, and with their backs to the wall, it was a dire proposition.
Woodruff needed a hero. And 12 seconds.
Furthermore, the game was being broadcast across the Southeastern U.S. on Charter Cable as its game of the week. On the call were WSPA sports anchor Fred Cunningham and Mickey Plyler. As Saluda stepped to the line, the Wolverines’ defense squared up to face them inside their own endzone.
Saluda senior quarterback Walker Noteboom went under center, flanked by two tailbacks and fullback Dan Myers. Noteboom received a clean snap, turned, and immediately pushed the ball into Myers’ hands as the tailbacks ran into blocking position.
Cunningham made the call as the sophomore defensive back Drummond made history.
“Noteboom will hand it off to, I believe that is Myers…”
Indeed, the handoff had come to the Tigers’ hulking, 230-pound fullback out of a wishbone formation. Drummond saw the play unfold as the defensive line of the Wolverines crashed down and swarmed to the ball carrier.
“Saluda had a split receiver, so (Coach Lane) had me out wide,” Drummond recalled. “In my mind, I was like, we have to get this stop because if they score, I think it would have drained the momentum for the rest of the game. I figured it was a run play, but I was the youngest player on defense, so I couldn’t do anything because I had to cover my man in case it was a pass.”
“He’s fighting his way and still on his feet….”
Drummond saw an opening. Be it luck or intuition, he made a split-second reaction, the result of which is still talked about in Woodruff football circles a decade later.
“When the ball was snapped, and I saw it was a run play, I scooted inside because I realized my guy was a decoy,” Drummond explained.
The defensive line stood Myers up at the line of scrimmage, driving the big man backward. The Wolverines had stopped the play in its tracks, but it would do nothing for an advantageous field position. As Myers fought a losing battle against a host of Maroon-clad defenders, and the play in danger of being whistled dead, Drummond saw his chance.
“I was always a ball hawk, so I was always going after the ball,” he said. “When I saw the defensive line stand (Myers) up, I decided I would try to come in and rip the ball out. If not, I was going in headfirst with my helmet to try and knock the ball loose. He exposed the ball, which I wasn’t expecting, and once I saw it, I knew I had to go get it.”
“The ball is taken away! Taken away by one of the Wolverines…”
Myers’ exposure of the ball was but a fleeting moment, but it was all that Ken Drummond needed. The fastest defensive player in Brian Lane’s arsenal, Drummond broke towards Myers and brought his right arm down on the football. What happened next was pure pandemonium.
Drummond ripped the ball free from Myers’ grasp. Still, it was not initially clear what had happened until he broke away from the pile of humanity at the goal line and began running. Drummond already had 20 yards behind him before the Saluda offense understood what was happening. By then, it was too late, as long as Drummond remained upright.
“This is Ken Drummond!”
With the football now in his grasp and speed in his favor, Drummond raced towards the opposite endzone, an agonizing 99-yards away. Still on the call, Cunningham was as stunned as the 6,000 fans crammed into Varner Stadium. As Drummond ran, that disbelief gave way to utter exuberance.
“I realized after about ten yards that I had the ball,” said Drummond. “(Saluda) had stopped running, so I thought maybe the play had been blown dead, but when I turned around, I realized they were trying to catch me, so I just took off.”
Drummond never looked back again to see how close his pursuers were, when in fact, none were probably close enough to read the number five on the back of his jersey. There was only the matter of not running out of steam on his dash into Woodruff football immortality.
“As you can see on the video, I almost stumbled,” laughed Drummond. “I was a clumsy player and kept telling myself not to fall the whole way down the field. I kept expecting someone to be there chasing me down, but when I realized there wasn’t anyone there, that’s when I slowed down a little bit and was able to keep my balance.”
Stumbling briefly as he crossed midfield and approached the 35-yard line, Drummond quickly righted himself as he closed in on the goal line.
“Ken Drummond is on his way to the endzone! Ninety-nine yards, touchdown! Touchdown Wolverines!”
Even before Drummond broke the goal line plane, Varner Stadium had already reached an ear-crushing decibel. As Saluda stood in stunned disbelief, the celebration became utterly unhinged.
Finally reaching him in the back of the endzone, lineman Javarius Leamon was the first teammate to arrive and threw his 6-foot-8-inch, 305-pound frame onto Drummond, starting a massive dogpile. He was followed by Tae Mack, Chris Rutter, and D.J. Jones as Drummond lay beneath a heap of his fellow defenders.
Still stunned himself, Cunningham was even at a loss for the right word to describe the insanity of the moment unfolding in front of him.
“No penalty flags are down, and the look on the faces of the Saluda players is un-credible!”
But at that moment, all Drummond needed was some breathing room.
“I was happy, but at the same time, I was like, guys, get off of me,” quipped Drummond. “I just wanted to get to the sideline and get some water because I was just tired. The entire play was just pure adrenaline.”
In the immediate aftermath and ensuing pile-up in the back of the endzone, another, perhaps unthought about concern was running through the head of the then-Woodruff athletic director Scott Lawson. Do not get a penalty for excessive celebration.
“I remember it so well,” Lawson said. “The officials trailing the play were way behind, and I was trying to get the players gone before we got a penalty. The last of our guys were getting up right as the first official finally got there.”
Added Drummond, “Javarius was laughing the entire time everyone was on top of me, but I yelled enough that they finally let me up.”
“What a turn of events!”
That simple, five-word sentence was undoubtedly the most accurate words spoken by Cunningham at Varner Stadium that night.
Woodruff attempted a two-point conversion, but by that point, the damage for Saluda was already done. The Tigers never recovered from the shock of Drummond’s play, managing just a single first down on offense the rest of the night. On the Wolverines’ final drive, Taylor Green added a short field goal to end the scoring with just over three minutes to play.
The final score: Woodruff 15, Saluda 7.
The ramifications lasted far beyond the end of the ballgame, however.
Entering the game that night, Woodruff was locked in a three-way battle for the region championship with Saluda and Mid Carolina. Mid Carolina had defeated Saluda in conference play while the Wolverines and Rebels were undefeated. Mid Carolina won the same night, meaning a Woodruff loss would have set them back a full game in the standings, with their next game looming against the Rebels on the road.
Had that particular scenario come to pass, not even a victory the following week could have potentially saved Woodruff’s region title hopes. A tie between three teams, whose losses all came against the other two, would have resulted in a tiebreaker situation in which defensive points allowed would decide the fate of each combatant.
Simply, the Wolverines could have finished second or even third and never hosted a home playoff game in 2011.
History, however, will never forget what followed in the coming weeks. Then-head coach Brian Lane indeed does.
“In a situation like the one we were facing, you just hope somebody can get in there and make a play,” said Lane. “I’m glad Ken was able to. It was a game and season changer for us and propelled us down the stretch.”
Woodruff traveled to Prosperity seven days later and dispatched Mid Carolina 41-21, coming from behind in the second half to clinch the region championship outright. The Wolverines capped their undefeated regular season a week later against Broome and, following a first-round postseason bye, sent Newberry and Cheraw packing as well.
Facing down fellow undefeated Strom Thurmond at Varner Stadium the day after Thanksgiving, in front of arguably the largest crowd in school history, was the final culmination of Drummond’s heroics.
Lose to Saluda, and one of the greatest football games in Woodruff history may never have happened. At least not on the Wolverines’ home field. But it did. Woodruff defeated Thurmond, scoring with a mere 61 seconds on the clock to punch their ticket to the state championship game for the first time in 18 years.
Looking back, Drummond needed only a fraction of that time to set the stage for a magical night to come six weeks later.
From the moment he stripped the ball from Myers’ hands to the instant he crossed the goal line, only 12 seconds elapsed. It was 12 seconds nobody will ever forget.
“It’s funny,” added Drummond. “Every year around October, people start posting the video of that play (on social media). I’m never going to forget it or live it down. I was blessed to make a lot of great plays in my career but that’s the one that everybody is going to always remember.”
Now the head coach at Clover High School, Lane knows what his young sophomore pulled off that cool, fall night at W.L. Varner Stadium will always be a part of the legendary history of Woodruff football.
“It was a great play for us and a great moment for Ken,” he said. “It’s a good story for Woodruff football lore, and it will live on forever.”
Forever lasts a lot longer than 12 seconds.
Author: Tracy Sanders
