North Charleston, S.C.- Friday night the Camden Bulldogs’ season came to a close with a 52-22 loss to the North Charleston Cougars in the second round of the AAA Lower State Playoffs. The Bulldogs finish the season with an 8-4 mark, including a second place finish in Region VI-AAA play.

The game started on a sour note for the Bulldogs (8-4, 4-1) as on the opening kickoff North Charleston recovered the ball, setting themselves up in excellent field position. But a turnover on downs gave the ball back to Camden and then embarked on a 4-play, 59 yard drive that came up again on a turnover as SaVonn Wingate fumbled the ball at the North Charleston 14-yard line. The Cougars would then proceed to march 86 yards on 11 plays and get into the endzone on a 26-yard pass from Denzel Myers to Denzel White and with the two-point conversion the Cougars took an 8-0 lead with 4:50 remaining in the first quarter.

After a series of possession exchanges, Camden finally got on the scoreboard when at the 10:45 point of the second quarter Wingate found the endzone on a 24-yard scamper. The two-point conversion failed and the score was 8-6 in favor of North Charleston. But Camden would take the lead on their next possession when quarterback Josh Council ran it in from 6 yards out and then connected with Alvonta Jenkins on the two-point conversion to give the Dogs a 14-8 lead with 4:01 showing before the half. But North Charleston wouldn’t go quietly into the break as they scored on their very first play from scrimmage on the ensuing possession as Myers connected with Hishene White for an 82-yard bomb. The two-point play was good to give the Cougars a 16-14 lead at half time.

Third quarter Camden came out firing and took the lead for the first, and only time on the night, as Wingate again scored from 17 yards out, and with the two-point conversion it gave the Bulldogs a 22-16 lead. But the Cougars would tie things up later in the third when Myers found the endzone from 16 yards out to make it 22-22 as the fourth quarter got underway.

But then in the fourth it was all North Charleston as they were able to score on every possession and shut down the Camden offense. The Cougars in all with 207 offensive yards in the fourth quarter in addition to a 63-yard interception return for a touchdown, and 30 points later made the score 52-22 in favor of the home team.

Camden on the night finished with 368 total yards; 325 of those coming on the ground. Wingate on the night had 20 carries for 179 yards and two touchdowns. Council finished 6 of 17 passing for just 43 yards and an interception. He also carried the ball 25 times for 90 yards and a score. Senior offensive lineman Blake Miles was named Sports Connection Player of the Game.

Camden finishes at 8-4. North Charleston improves to 11-1 and will go on the road next week to face the Myrtle Beach Seahawks in the AAA Lower State Semi-final game.