Life imitated art for a large group of Newberry High parents that followed the team buses Friday to Batesburg-Leesville. The Bulldog fans skipped a trip to regionally-famous Shealy’s and instead ate at the game.
The “business” trip continued as NHS scored nine points in the final 28.9 seconds of play in its 16-7 win to remain undefeated in region play at 3-0.
Although it never rained during the game, the field of Panther Stadium was completely saturated the entire evening due to the Twin Cities getting rain every day that week as well as extremely poor drainage.
By the time the players got through pre-game warm-ups, there wasn’t a single clean jersey to be seen on the Newberry sideline.
Newberry’s six first-half possessions ended in four punts and two interceptions.
Batesburg-Leesville put together a two-play 56-yard scoring drive as Ricky Adams scored from 48 yards out for the Panthers’ only touchdown of the evening with 2:15 left in the second quarter. Austin White provided the PAT for BLHS.
BLHS had 88 yards of first-half offense while NHS had 54.
The Panthers, having a seven point lead, were receiving the third quarter opening possession needed to put another scoring drive in the books as they were going to have terrible field conditions during the fourth quarter going towards their end zone.
BLHS put together a 6:03 drive, but a soggy field and a high snap didn’t help with White’s 44-yard field goal effort as it fell at least 10 yards short.
The Panthers didn’t get within 31 yards of the end zone for the rest of the evening.
After holding BLHS to its last of three three-and-outs on the evening, NHS was able to bring its very vocal supporters, which almost numbered as many as the home stands, to its feet when Marcus McMorris ended a three-play, 47-yard drive with a 15-yard run along the right side. Aaron Ransdell’s PAT tied the score at seven apiece with 11.6 seconds left in the third stanza.
McMorris was the night’s leading rusher with 129 yards on 14 carries. For his career, he has 928 yards on 146 carries.
The first two plays of the fourth quarter gave the NHS faithful something to cheer about as Malik Lyles sacked Elliott Jeffcoat for a three-yard loss. On a second-and-thirteen, Devonte Brooks intercepted a KJ Johnson pass at his own 49, returning it 13 yards.
Newberry worked its way down to the five-yard line before a false start penalty took them back to the 10.
Three plays later, McMorris took the Bulldogs down to the one-yard line before he was forced out of bounds, setting up a 4th down.
Bulldog quarterback Tyler Bishop fumbled the snap, losing three yards in the process, giving the Panthers the ball with 7:10 left in the game and 96 yards in front of them.
BLHS called a time-out with 1:40 left in the game as they were looking at a 4th-and-3 from the Newberry 31.
Instead of attempting a potential 47-yard field goal, the Panthers decided to go for it. Going back to pass, Johnson’s arm seemed to have been bumped while he was throwing, resulting in an incomplete pass.
A new clock operator that seemed to be receiving on-the-job-training, failed to stop the clock after this turnover as more than 10 seconds rolled off the time before the officials were able to get the clock stopped. They agreed to put 97 seconds on it as the Bulldogs were hoping to win outright instead of having to go into “working overtime.”
Tyrone Neal’s only carry of the evening saw the sophomore move the ’Dogs 11 yards, giving them a first down at the 34.
McMorris seemed to have given Newberry another first down at the 22, but the Panthers were penalized instead 15 yards for having 12 players on the field when the ball was snapped…putting NHS at the 19.
Two plays later, McMorris made his final carry of the evening with a 15-yard run, giving the ’Dogs a first down at the four with 30 seconds to go in the game as they still had one time-out to use.
There were seven bad exchanges between the BLHS center and quarterback on the evening while NHS had two.
When it mattered the most though, Daniel Nicholson and Bishop made a perfect exchange as Montagus Caldwell scored one play later as Newberry had its first lead of the night with 28.9 seconds to go in the game after Ransdell converted his second PAT.
Caldwell ended the night with 59 yards on 12 carries and now has 1,948 career yards on 291 carries.
While the BLHS fans were contemplating on rather to leave or not, the NHS fans were all on their feet celebrating until an accidental open microphone had everybody on both sides wondering what in the world the speaker meant.
Whether he was talking about the play of Newberry, Batesburg-Leesville, the officiating or something completely innocent, shouts of “scoreboard” came from the visitors after the stunned and silenced crowd heard “I am not impressed” over the speakers.
Having 20.3 seconds and 77 yards to get a touchdown, BLHS had to go to the air, but was penalized 15 yards for intentional grounding after huge pressure from Lyles on Johnson, moved the ball back to the three.
Johnson was probably seeing moons and stars after he literally got his bell rung by an unchallenged James Tribble in the end zone for the safety with 9.1 seconds to go in the game.
The NHS Bulldogs have long been known for being one of the more respected teams in this state in regards to sportsmanship. The BLHS radio crew seemed to know all about that as after the kick-off they went to a commercial break because they knew Bishop would take a knee to end the ball game…which he did.
“Our kids really stepped up in showing their character,” said NHS Head Football Coach Sam Baird. “They showed a lot of heart as this win was really a good confidence builder. Our crowd was really loud and into the game as this really gives our players a big boost when they do this.”
Newberry High has now won four straight games as it improves to 6-2 on the season. Friday the Bulldogs will travel to Johnston to play Strom Thurmond High, a team which is also undefeated in the region.
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