NEWBERRY — Newberry College(4-3, 3-2 SAC) scored two fourth quarter touchdowns to pull away late from Catawba(3-4, 1-3 SAC) and win 38-31 on homecoming. Setzler Field was packed inside and outside of the stadium for the 4:00 pm kickoff as both teams entered the contest coming off losses in their previous match-ups.
The Wolves opened the game by scoring on their first offensive drive. Jy Tolen led the offense on a 75-yard touchdown drive that ended with a 27-yard touchdown reception by Dwayne Wright.
The Indians answered with a long scoring drive of their own. Marquece Williams scored on a three-yard run inside of the red zone.
Early in the second quarter, Tolen used his legs to score on a 18-yard touchdown run to put the Wolves up 14-7. The two teams then traded field goals. The Wolves held a 17-10 lead at halftime.
The Indians came out after halftime and scored on back-to-back offensive drives. Preston Brown found Conner McCarthy for a 22-yard touchdown through the air to tie the game at 17-17. Then, Williams scored his second rushing touchdown from three-yards out to give the Indians a 24-17 lead late in the third quarter.
The Wolves then scored 21 unanswered points to reclaim the lead and never give it back. Late in the third quarter, Wright scored his first rushing touchdown of the evening to tie the game at 24-24.
The offense kept things going after Trakell Murray capped off a 90-yard touchdown drive with a nine-yard touchdown run in the early parts of the fourth quarter.
Then, Wright put the Indians away with a five-yard touchdown run to give the Wolves a 38-24 lead with 1:35 left in the game.
The Indians scored a late touchdown to make things interesting but failed on the onside kick. Wright finished with 21 carries, 128 rushing yards, 45 receiving yards and three total(two rushing) touchdowns. Murray had 110 yards rushing and a rushing touchdown as well. The two combined for 228 rushing yard and three rushing touchdowns. The team rushed for 372 total yards.
“In the running back room, we come together and encourage each other. We can’t give all the credit to us though. We have to give the credit to our O-line, receivers and tight ends that are blocking for us. They are doing their job and we are running behind them,” said Wright.
Tolen got his second start of the season at quarterback for the Wolves. He finished the game 10-of-17 with 122 passing yards and two(one rushing, one passing) total touchdowns. He spoke after the game about how it feels to be finally get his chance to be the starter.
“It’s been feeling pretty good, honestly. I’ve been enjoying the ride and doing what coach tells me. They been putting us in the right situation at the end of the day. Just doing what we’ve been doing, execute the best way we can and I’ve been taking advantage of it,” said Tolen.
The Wolves also had their best offensive game of the season by scoring the most points(38) in a game all season. Head coach Todd Knight was pleased with the outcome and sending his seniors off with a win on their last homecoming.
“It was big for us. A theme this week that we talked about it all week, ‘this was the last homecoming for the seniors, so don’t you dare let these guys walk away here tonight with a loss.’ This was big and important for the program. So we said let’s go get this thing done for our seniors and our kids did,” said Knight.
The Wolves will be back in action at Setzler Field on next Saturday to take on Lenoir-Rhyne at 4:00 p.m. The full game recap will be available in the print edition of the newspaper on Wednesday, Oct. 18th.
Reach Greg Hollis @ 803-768-3117