NEWBERRY — The Wolves couldn’t get out their own way and suffered their first loss of the season. Newberry College(1-1,0-1 SAC) fell 21-14 at home to Lenoir-Rhyne(2-1, 1-0 SAC) on Saturday, Sept. 12th
Setzler Field drew another big crowd on Saturday night despite the rainy weather. The Wolves defense played well for the entire game, but the offense had issues with turnovers and it cost them a potential win. It was an offensive struggle for both teams in the first quarter and the first half.
The Wolves were able to move the ball well on their first offensive drive, but penalties and a key third down drop ended a promising drive and forced them to punt. It would be a scoreless game at the end of the first quarter.
Newberry couldn’t get anything going in the second quarter with Mason Kidd nor Coleman Gray at quarterback until the last few minutes of the half. Gray would lead a good offensive drive to march the Wolves right down the field to possibly get a field goal late in the half. Unfortunately, the Bears would block the 48-yard attempt from Jake Spadavecchia and Lenoir-Rhyne would recover the ball at their own 33-yard line with 23 seconds left in the half.
The visiting Bears would try to take advantage of the good field position and possibly get a score late in the first half to take the lead but the Wolves defense had other plans. Santory Jones would come up with the interception just two plays later after the blocked field goal to end the first half. Both teams would remain scoreless through the first 30 minutes of football.
Newberry received the ball right after the half and Kidd would lead the Wolves on a long scoring drive. He found DeAndre Coleman for a 22-yard reception to get them in their opponent’s territory. Then, Tyleke Mathis would continue his resurgence year as he found the end zone with a 22-yard rushing touchdown to give the home team a 7-0 lead.
The Bears still couldn’t get anything going on offense and had short drive that ended with a punt. Mathis would give the home team another electricity shock with an electric punt return to give the Wolves good field position. Unfortunately, that would not last long after Alex Meeks was strip by a Lenoir-Rhyne defender following a reception near the sideline. He tried to fight for extra yards and it cost him.
The Bears would find the end zone on a 51-yard throw and catch to tie the game at 7-7. The two teams would remain tied at the end of the third quarter.
Lenoir-Rhyne would take the lead early in the fourth quarter on a long touchdown drive that ended with a one-yard rushing touchdown by LJ Turner to give them a 14-7 lead.
Coleman Gray would come into the game for the Wolves and he would throw an interception to give the Bears the ball right back. The visiting squad would use that momentum to put together another scoring drive to extend their lead to 21-7 with about 10 minutes left to play in the final quarter.
Newberry would immediately answer back behind the play making ability of Kidd. He escaped the pocket on a critical second down play and scrambled for 47-yards to give the Wolves some life. Jonah Norris would finish the drive off with a five-yard rushing touchdown to bring the Wolves within one score, 21-14.
Lenoir-Rhyne would eat up some clock to preserve their lead but the Newberry defense made a huge stop to give their offense the ball back with two minutes left on the clock.
Newberry struggled to get anything going and their turnover issues would comeback late in the game. Kidd fumbled the snap and then tried to flip it out to his running back in an attempt to get rid of the ball but it looked like a backwards pass. The initial call on the field was a forward pass that fell incomplete and it was upheld after the review. The Wolves escaped a disaster momentarily, but it still wasn’t enough.
Kidd would throw two incompletions on third and fourth down to give the Bears the ball back and they would run out the clock.
“When you are in a conference game and a big game, and this was monster game in our league, the team that makes the most mistakes is going to lose. Tonight, I don’t think LR won the game but I think we gave the game away. Numbers don’t matter because we did this and we did that but we turned it over too many times and gave it away. WE messed it up and WE are going to fix it,” said Wolves head coach Todd Knight in a passionate post-game interview.
Newberry out gained Lenoir-Rhyne with 415 total yards of offense compared to their 225 total yards. They also possessed the ball 33:36 to the Bears 26:24 but still came up short.
The Wolves will hit the road on Saturday, Sept. 19th to face Wingate. Kickoff is set for 6:00 p.m.