Wolves’ offense looks impressive in huge home win over Barton

NEWBERRY — The Wolves’ offense explodes on Barton to earn their second consecutive win. Newberry College(3-4, 3-2 SAC) gets a huge 41-25 win over Barton(2-6, 1-5 SAC) at home on Saturday.

The Wolves’ offense have turned things around in the last few weeks of October after starting off with back-to-back losses and only scoring a total of 12 points in those two games. They had their second best scoring game of the season and their best offensive performance at home this season.

Things started off slow and the Wolves were scoreless in the first quarter. The Bulldogs went on an eleven minute scoring drive that ended with starting quarterback Nazir Garrett finding John Flood-Brown for a 19-yard touchdown pass.

Newberry trailed 7-0 heading into the second quarter, but quickly changed that. The Wolves scored 33 points in the second and third quarter, including 20 points in the second quarter.

Reed Charpia found Rico Dorsey Jr. for a 50-yard touchdown pass to tie the game at 7-7 in the opening seconds of the second quarter.

The Wolves’ defense forced a turnover on downs and the offense drove the ball right down the field to get a 46-yard field goal from Bryce Earley.

Newberry rinse and repeated the same formula for both sides of the ball, their defense got a turnover on downs and the offense put up points. The Wolves got the ball back on Barton’s 12-yard line and Dwayne Wright scored a rushing touchdown from six yards out. They led 17-7 and scored on four consecutive offensive possessions in the second period.

The Bulldogs’ offense attempted to convert another fourth down, but fumbled then recovered. They recovered the fumble, but weren’t close to the first down marker.

The Wolves drove down the field and got another field goal. This time, Earley knocked it down from 22 yards. Barton was able to get a field goal late in the first half to stop the bleeding, but the Wolves held a 20-10 lead at halftime.

Barton got the ball to start the third quarter and were forced to punt. Tyleke Mathis set his team up with great field position after a 77 yard punt return. Newberry’s offense started their drive on Barton’s 20-yard line.

Wright finished off the short drive with a four yard touchdown run to give the Wolves a 26-10 lead.

The Bulldogs’ offense finally got something going and were able to go on a long scoring drive after making a change at quarterback. Trevor Nored came off the bench to throw a touchdown pass to Flood-Brown for his second touchdown reception of the game. They converted the two-point conversion attempt and now only trailed 26-18 in the closing minutes of the third quarter.

Newberry quickly regained momentum after Quez Spells broke a 78 yard touchdown run on the first play of the drive.

Things got a little tighter in the fourth quarter as Barton made it a one score game again. The Bulldogs went on a long scoring drive that ended with Nored scoring on the ground from one yard away.

The Wolves put the Bulldogs away with their final scoring drive in the middle of the fourth quarter. Trakell Murray scored a 15-yard rushing touchdown to give his team some distance and their third conference win.

Charpia had 182 passing yards and a passing touchdown. Dorsey had 119 receiving yards and a touchdown reception. The Wolves ran for 209 rushing yards and four scores on the ground.

Spells had 89 rushing yards with a rushing touchdown. Wright had two rushing touchdowns and Murray ran for 36 rushing yards with a touchdown on the ground.

Barton possessed the ball 20 more minutes than Newberry and had ran double the amount of plays, but couldn’t put up points.

“Well you know sometimes the numbers lie to you. When you say they took twice as many snaps as you and had the ball twice as long as you did but you score twice as many points as they did, sometimes that doesn’t add up. At the end of the day, the only number matter is the scoreboard. I think we just had more explosive plays offensively than they did,” said Wolves head coach Todd Knight.

This win put the Wolves back in the thick of things in the South Atlantic Conference title race. They are currently in fourth place and a game behind Limestone in the Piedmont division with Limestone coming to visit them on this Saturday. Nov.1st.

“Well I am just happy we played hard at home. We haven’t played well at home this season, but we played well on the road and that was a point of emphasis this week at practice. Finish it at the house. Let’s play hard and play good in front of everybody we know and love,” said Knight. “Right now, I am focusing on homecoming and Limestone, who is a really good football team. I am not worried about our side, the Piedmont division, and those things. If you take care of next week and everything will take care of itself.”

Newberry College will host Limestone at 4:00 pm for homecoming this Saturday at Setzler Field.