Courtesy of Newberry College
NEWBERRY — The Wolves came out on top in the overtime thriller that gave head coach Todd Knight his 100th career victory. Newberry College(4-1, 3-1 SAC) defeated Wingate(3-2,1-2 SAC) by the score of 43-42 in overtime on Saturday night.
Setzler Field was packed on Saturday night for the conference showdown between Wingate and Newberry College. The Wolves were fresh off a game-winning field goal on the road against Lenoir-Rhyne and the Bulldogs were looking to bounce back from their first loss of the season.
Wingate got off to a hot start by scoring on their opening possession of the game to take a quick 7-0 lead. Then, they followed that up with back-to-back scoring drives in the second quarter to give themselves a 21-0 lead.
Newberry’s offense struggled to start the game and they had a hard time dealing with the Bulldogs’ big defensive lineman. The Wingate defensive front caused problems for the Wolves majority of the first half, but the home team were finally able to figure them out late in the half.
Reed Charpia led the Wolves’ offense down the field and found Gray Leaphart for a seven yard touchdown reception to finally put them on the scoreboard. They still trailed 21-7 at halftime.
Newberry received the ball after the half, and went on a scoring drive that lasted eight minutes. Charpia showed some of his magic with the ability to use his legs to buy himself more time to find open receivers down field. That became the them of the second half and helped the Wolves break down the Bulldogs pass rush.
Charpia’s first touchdown pass to Keith Desaussure was taken off the board after an illegal man down field penalty on Newberry and a targeting penalty on Wingate offset each other. He then found Quez Spells out the backfield for a 29-yard touchdown reception where Spells showed his speed and open field agility to find his way into the end zone.
The Wolves weren’t done and drove the ball down the field again for another score at the end of the third quarter. Charpia found Rico Dorsey Jr. from 17-yards out that tied the game at 21-21 going into the fourth quarter.
The real fun started in the fourth quarter and it was must see television. Charpia found Dorsey again for 10-yard touchdown pass in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter to give them a 28-21 lead after starting the game down 21-0.
Newberry’s defense came up with a big stop and gave the ball back to their hot offense who were looking to put the game away. Unfortunately, Charpia made his only mistake of night and it resulted into points. He threw a pick six that put the Bulldogs right back into the game and shifted the momentum back to the visiting sidelines. Wingate missed the extra point and Newberry still held a small 28-27 lead with about nine minutes left to play in regulation.
Wingate’s offense finally came back to life and they reclaimed the lead after Xavier Pugh broke a 29-yard touchdown run. They were successful on the two-point conversion attempt and now lead 35-28.
Both teams exchanged punts, but Newberry got the ball back with just under three minutes left to play in regulation and Charpia once again went into his bag of tricks to make some late game magic happen for his squad. He scrambled around and somehow found Kenmane Brunson wide open in the back of the end zone with 54 seconds left on the clock. They were able to make the extra point and force overtime.
In overtime, the Bulldogs got the ball first and scored in just six plays to reclaim the lead, 42-35. The Wolves had to answer or would lose and they did just that. They quickly scored in three plays as Charpia found his favorite target Desaussure from seven yards out for the score. Then, Knight and his offensive staff decided to risk it all and go for the win.
Charpia, like he had done all night, used his legs tot extend the play and found Desaussure again in the back of the end zone after scrambling, avoiding a defender and then fitting the ball in a tight window. The Wolves converted the two-point play and concluded a great Saturday in The Berry.
Charpia went 34-of-46 for 413 passing yards and six passing touchdowns. Five receivers had at least 40 receiving yards in the game. Desaussure had 11 receptions for 107 receiving yards and one touchdown. Deandre Coleman finished with seven receptions, 74 receiving yards and had several big impact plays in key moments during the game. Dorsey had six receptions for 67 yards and two receiving touchdowns.
Wolves’ starting quarterback earned himself South Atlantic Conference Player of the Week and helped get Knight his 100th win in his 17th season as the Newberry College head coach. Charpia also became just the eighth quarterback in program history to throw for 400 yards in a game. It was the most passing yards in a game since Newberry College Hall of Famer Raleigh Yeldell passed for 428 yards against Lenoir-Rhyne in 2016. Also, his six touchdown passes was just one shy of the school record and tied the second-best mark in program history that was set by Josh Stepp against Catawba in 2005.
Newberry is tied for second in the SAC standings and will look to improve that as they travel to Tusculum University on Saturday, Oct. 11th for a 2:00 p.m. kickoff.
Reach Greg Hollis @ 803-768-3117 or on X @TheNBOnews