SANTEE - Tommy Brown is still looking to see a complete game from his Orangeburg-Wilkinson football team.

The Bruins started out slowly in their first three games, only to perform well in the second half. On Friday, O-W played a dominating first half only to get sloppy in the second half before defeating Lake Marion 49-25.

Quarterback Cyril Davis threw five touchdowns in leading the Bruins (2-2) to their second straight victory. O-W jumped out to a 35-7 halftime advantage and increased its lead as many as 34 points before the Gators were able to capitalize off 10 O-W penalties for 83 yards and score three, second-half touchdowns.

“We’re just thankful to get out of this thing,” Brown said. “We came out in the first half and then, in the second half ... for some reason, we didn’t play well. Lake Marion, give them credit. They came out in the second half and didn’t quit. They did what they had to do.”

O-W controlled the clock in the first half, limiting Lake Marion (0-4) to just four offensive possessions. Just before halftime, the Bruins scored two touchdowns in the span of 35 seconds.

Seconds after going up 28-7 with 58 seconds left, the Bruins got an interception to set up another score. With 23 seconds left, Davis dropped back and found backup quarterback K’sone Williams in the end zone for a 19-yard touchdown reception.

“The first half we did a good job of taking what they gave us and capitalize on that and made some plays,” Brown said.

The second half started in similar fashion for the Bruins. On second down at his own 49, Davis dropped back and found an open Kentrell Disher who split through Gator defenders enroute to a 51-yard touchdown to make it 41-7.

Lake Marion remained resilient, however, answering with a nine-play, 69-yard drive capped by a 9-yard touchdown run by Nicholas Ravenell with 6:34 remaining in the third quarter.

Quarterback Chris Jenkins sparked the scoring drive with his running, carrying the football 18 times for 142 yards to go with 10 of 15 passing for 69 yards.

Jenkins continued to break free for long runs on the Gators’ next series which began from their own 13. The 11-play, 87-yard scoring drive, which ended with the first of two Jenkins’ touchdown runs, was aided by several O-W penalties, including an unsportsmanlike conduct call on Brown after disputing a facemask penalty.

Lake Marion capitalized off a botched punt attempt by O-W with a 6-yard touchdown run by Jenkins to make it 41-25 with 9:03 left in the game.

“I thought offensively, we moved the ball well,” Lake Marion head coach and O-W graduate Chris Carter said. “But it happened a little too late.”

Davis immediately returned to the game and proceeded to march O-W downfield with a pair of completions of 17 yards to Cairston Berry and 29 yards to Melvin Clark to set up a 1-yard touchdown pass to Disher.

The two hooked up again seconds later with 5:17 left on a leaping two-point conversion to close out the scoring.

“We got a little sloppy,” Brown said. “But here again, we’re a young football team and we’re learning how to win. When you’re young, you don’t know how to handle success. We had too much success first half and I told them we’ve got to come out to play. But, we’ve never been there, we never done it before. You don’t know how to handle it. So we’re still trying to learn.”

O-W opens Region 5-AAAA play at Irmo, while Lake Marion travels to Irmo.

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