NEWBERRY – Junior wide receiver Markell Castle and sophomore kicker Shea Rodgers have won AstroTurf South Atlantic Conference Offensive and Special Teams Player of the Week honors, respectively, after Newberry’s dominant 34-7 win at Lenoir-Rhyne Saturday.
Castle finished his day with six catches for 135 yards and three touchdowns, accounting for nearly 70 percent of the Wolves’ production through the air. He scored Newberry’s first two touchdowns with catches of 12 and 26 yards in the second quarter, then added a 60-yard touchdown early in the fourth for the game’s final score. All six of his catches on the day went for first downs or touchdowns.
The York native moved from a tie for 10th into sole possession of seventh in school history in touchdown receptions during the game. He now has 14 in his career. He ranks 10th in school history with 1,441 receiving yards and is third in the Newberry record books with seven 100-yard receiving games, all despite totaling just four catches for 25 yards and one touchdown as a freshman.
Rodgers was officially 4-for-4 on extra point attempts and punted five times for a 38.6-yard average. He placed one kick inside the 20 with a long punt of 43 yards. The Indian Land High School product is now a perfect 19-for-19 on PAT attempts this season, is seventh in school history with 61 PAT’s made, and is second only to Castle in scoring in 2017 with 34 points on the season.
Rodgers’ selection give the Wolves three different honorees for Special Teams Player of the Week. Chance Walker earned the accolade after the Virginia Union game for his kick return exploits, while Kevin Weber’s successes on field goals and kickoffs led to his selection a week later.
Carson-Newman defensive back Desmond Fairell was named the league’s Defensive Player of the Week after posting two forced fumbles, one recovery, an interception, a pass breakup, and five tackles in the Eagles’ 31-20 win at Limestone.
The duo helped Newberry to its school-record 12th consecutive SAC victory, the sixth-longest streak in league history, and move into a tie for Wingate for first place in the league standings. The Wolves’ last loss in the conference came 724 days ago. Newberry’s next opportunity to extend its winning streak comes Saturday at 1:00 p.m. when Tusculum visits Setzler Field.