Cardiac Wolves survives another close call to win SAC Championship

NEWBERRY — The Wolves sit at the top of the mountain again in the South Atlantic Conference. Newberry(9-1, 8-1 SAC) defeated Carson-Newman(6-3,5-3 SAC) by the score of 28-21 at home on Saturday, Nov. 8th to win the South Atlantic Conference Championship.

The sun was shining, the lots were filled with fans tailgating and the stands were filled at Setzler Field on Saturday in hopes to see the Wolves win the conference championship for the first time since 2022. As head coach Todd Knight have said continuously throughout the season, “we give you your money’s worth and play every second of the game.” Well, they did just that on Saturday afternoon.

Newberry drove right down the field on their opening drive and scored. Reed Charpia found the South Atlantic Conference leading receiver Keith Desaussure for a 13-yard touchdown pass to put the home team up 7-0 early in the opening quarter.

The Eagles of Carson-Newman quickly responded by matching Newberry’s touchdown drive with a long scoring drive on their end powered behind their strong rushing attack to tie the game at 7-7.

The score would remained tied going into the second quarter. Neither of the teams could get anything going on the offensive side of the ball in the second quarter and the two teams remained tied 7-7 going into the halftime.

The Eagles received the ball first after halftime and the Wolves’ defense forced a quick three and out, but unfortunately the Wolves’ offense still couldn’t get anything going.

Carson-Newman were finally able get a spark on the offensive side of the ball using their rushing attack and went on a long scoring drive to reclaim the lead. The drive took nearly six minutes off the game clock and went 76 yards down the field for a touchdown. The Eagles would take a 14-7 lead into the final quarter.

Both teams struggled offensively for three quarters, but the offensive fireworks happened in the fourth quarter. The Wolves struck first in the early parts of the of the final quarter as Charpia found Rico Dorsey Jr. for a short touchdown pass to tie the game at 14-14.

Newberry’s defense held the Eagles’ offense to a short drive and forced a punt. The offense kept things going and went on back-to-back scoring drives to reclaim the lead for the first time since the opening quarter. Jonah Norris punched it home for the Wolves with a three-yard rushing touchdown to put them ahead 21-14.

The Eagles felt the game slipping away and their offense finally woke up. Carson-Newman used their no huddle offense to drive down the field to tie the game at 21-21.

The back-and-forth fireworks continued as the Wolves would answer the Eagles quick score with a quick score of their own. Keshon Washington caught a short pass out the backfield and took 70-yards to give Newberry the lead back, 28-21, with a minute and 48 seconds left on the game clock.

Of course, the cardiac Wolves went down to the wire. The Eagles drove the ball down the field and found themselves in the redzone on Newberry’s 12-yard line with about 20 seconds left in the game and a chance to win it. The third down pass attempt was incomplete.

Knight and his defensive staff elected to use a timeout to draw up the perfect defensive scheme to defend the Eagles’ offense on the last play. Then, Eagles quarterback Tedros Gleaton rolled to the left and fired the pass into the end zone only to find a Wolves defender. Santory Jones intercepted the pass to give the Wolves the win and their third SAC title in the past five years.

“I say this to the guys a lot, this isn’t the most talented team we’ve had, the biggest, the strongest nor the fastest but the reason this team wins is because they believe in each other. They believe all the way to the end. It doesn’t matter and they are not going to quit, not going to stop and not going to turn on each other. They hadn’t done it all year and wasn’t going to do it today. Every kid out there believed that somewhere in the game, Reed was going to catch on fire to win it and he did,” said Knight.

Charpia finished the day 21-of-29 passing with 267 passing yards, three passing touchdowns and no interceptions. Dorsey Jr., Desaussure and DeAndre Coleman all had at least 50 receiving yards each in the game. Also, Desaussure and Dorsey Jr. each had a receiving touchdown.

“Coach Flynn[defensive coordinator] did a heck of a job on that last drive. I think he called everything in the playbook. Going into this game we knew they were an option team so defensively you have a very small call sheet because it just assignment football,” said Knight. “But when it comes down to it, like in this game, all bets are off. Whatever you got to call and do then you have to do it. We were juggling around putting this kid over and that kid over there just looking for matchups. The last 20 something seconds it was all about matchups and we found the right combination on the field to seal it up.”

Newberry received an automatic bid into the Division II Football Playoffs with this win. They will have a week off and will be tuned into the Division II Selection Show on Sunday, Nov. 16 at 5:00 p.m. to decide who their first round opponent will be.